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04-03-07, 12:10 PM
Well to be honest...I was dreading this ride. I seriously did not want to go but I had promised some friends I would not only go but drive :o so I was stuck. I was so glad I did it. It was an amazing experience. The ride there was so much fun. I haven't laughed that much in a long time. 4 women in a SUV together for hours on end was a blast. Thank Goodness no men were in that vehicle they would have probably killed themselves or just leaped from the car :eek: We checked into the Radisson Hotel and it was really nice and like I mentioned before OUTBACK was right there on the property. Anyway I will try not to get into the food portion of this trip too much.......but the Italian restaurant and Outback were the favorites.
The morning of the ride the hotel had a breakfast buffet for all the riders. I'm not sure if everyone knew about it or perhaps we were up earlier than most Cinderella riders but the room was only half full.
We didn't have a Cinderella costume like some of the ladies so we decided to represent our club and wear our club jerseys which turned out to be a big hit. Most people couldn't believe we drove all the way from Vegas for the ride. My friend Karen who will be on Herbs ride this weekend decided it was the day she was going to do her first century :D so we wouldn't be able to stick with our other friends who were doing the Metric Century. As soon as we left the fairgrounds we took off. I have to tell you this ride was as organized as it gets....There were some added bonuses to doing a ladies only ride:
1. Port a potties were clean and smelled good ( imagine that )
2. They had many port a sinks lined up by the port a potties with soap :eek: wow
3. Spatulas in the condiments :D not little plastic picnic knives
4. Men to serve us at every rest stop...good looking men too
5. Men to serve us at every rest stop....oh did I mention that already :D
I have to tell you guys these women were very creative with their costumes...some had on thongs over their cycling shorts, some had on lingerie, some were princesses, some were gladiators, and some were just regular ole boring cyclists like our group.........no imagination
The route was really beautiful all along the way. The volunteers were so accomadating.
My friend Karen was so psyched about riding her first century. Around mile 31 her dreams began to collapse. According to the online route and previous information from the coordinator we knew that around mile 31 we would split off from the metric riders but when they changed the starting location a few weeks ago they didn't change the route info.They told us someone would be on the course handing out the route slips for the century. So we found out at mile 42 that we had missed our turn off for the century. It was back at mile 24 :cry: I suggested to Karen that we just climb back up the hill and back track. However they had an early cut off and the SAG driver told us we probably wouldn't make it.....Not to fear I just told Karen we would complete the metric and keep going and find those hills until we reached 100 miles....and we did just that. I made sure we hit every rest stop, grabbed a quick bite and kept on going. Around mile 80 she began to think she wouldn't make those climbs and as she said that we turned the corner and whoa mount everest had moved to Pleasanton :eek: all I could do was apologize. So before we attempted it we stopped at the last store/gas station for a quick pick me up for her, another banana and to refill our gatorade and for me a COKE yippee :D and off we were........I made some jokes all the way up to distract her and before you knew it we were flying down......a few more rolling hills and we found our way back to the fairgrounds....as we turned into the gates her odometer clicked 100 and she still had many more miles left in her....we had a blast. I will definitely do this ride again. 5:25 on the bike and 7:30 total with about 4800 feet of climbing all in the last 35 miles....sorry about that Karen . Pictures to follow this one. http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s280/nygirl777/JoanF03.jpg
The morning of the ride the hotel had a breakfast buffet for all the riders. I'm not sure if everyone knew about it or perhaps we were up earlier than most Cinderella riders but the room was only half full.
We didn't have a Cinderella costume like some of the ladies so we decided to represent our club and wear our club jerseys which turned out to be a big hit. Most people couldn't believe we drove all the way from Vegas for the ride. My friend Karen who will be on Herbs ride this weekend decided it was the day she was going to do her first century :D so we wouldn't be able to stick with our other friends who were doing the Metric Century. As soon as we left the fairgrounds we took off. I have to tell you this ride was as organized as it gets....There were some added bonuses to doing a ladies only ride:
1. Port a potties were clean and smelled good ( imagine that )
2. They had many port a sinks lined up by the port a potties with soap :eek: wow
3. Spatulas in the condiments :D not little plastic picnic knives
4. Men to serve us at every rest stop...good looking men too
5. Men to serve us at every rest stop....oh did I mention that already :D
I have to tell you guys these women were very creative with their costumes...some had on thongs over their cycling shorts, some had on lingerie, some were princesses, some were gladiators, and some were just regular ole boring cyclists like our group.........no imagination
The route was really beautiful all along the way. The volunteers were so accomadating.
My friend Karen was so psyched about riding her first century. Around mile 31 her dreams began to collapse. According to the online route and previous information from the coordinator we knew that around mile 31 we would split off from the metric riders but when they changed the starting location a few weeks ago they didn't change the route info.They told us someone would be on the course handing out the route slips for the century. So we found out at mile 42 that we had missed our turn off for the century. It was back at mile 24 :cry: I suggested to Karen that we just climb back up the hill and back track. However they had an early cut off and the SAG driver told us we probably wouldn't make it.....Not to fear I just told Karen we would complete the metric and keep going and find those hills until we reached 100 miles....and we did just that. I made sure we hit every rest stop, grabbed a quick bite and kept on going. Around mile 80 she began to think she wouldn't make those climbs and as she said that we turned the corner and whoa mount everest had moved to Pleasanton :eek: all I could do was apologize. So before we attempted it we stopped at the last store/gas station for a quick pick me up for her, another banana and to refill our gatorade and for me a COKE yippee :D and off we were........I made some jokes all the way up to distract her and before you knew it we were flying down......a few more rolling hills and we found our way back to the fairgrounds....as we turned into the gates her odometer clicked 100 and she still had many more miles left in her....we had a blast. I will definitely do this ride again. 5:25 on the bike and 7:30 total with about 4800 feet of climbing all in the last 35 miles....sorry about that Karen . Pictures to follow this one. http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s280/nygirl777/JoanF03.jpg