Northern California - Spooktacular Ride Report

The Oldstrong Family (Mrs. Oldstrong, Lance Jr., and Fair Princess Oldstrong) are just back from our great road trip to the 22nd Annual Spooctacular Century (http://www.kernwheelmen.org/spooktacular-alone.php)sponsered by the Kern Wheelmen.

This was a superbly organized event and tons of fun. A nice touch was being able to check in at registration the night before the ride. They had a whole room set up off the lobby in our hotel where we could pick up wristbands, goodie bags, and the kid's cool jerseys. It was sweet being able to take all the goodies upstairs and spread them out on the bed to check out.

Goodie bags were top shelf by the way, full of serious rider stuff like: endurolyte capsules, hammer gel, cliff bars, sunscreen towelettes, powdered Heed packets etc.

We were all registered for the "Trembling Twenty" which turned out to be 25 miles not twenty. We gulped and hoped the kids were up to it. Their longest previous ride was 16 miles. Then I got lost and went around a lake we were supposed to just pass so the ride ended up 31 miles total. The kids were amazing and finished all 31 miles with a smile on their faces. They are great little cyclists!

The kids ready to go
http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q250/LanceOldstrong/Spooktacular%202008/PA250048.jpg?t=1225041087

We're off!
http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q250/LanceOldstrong/Spooktacular%202008/PA250057.jpg?t=1225041148

Lance Jr. battles rattlesnake gradehttp://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q250/LanceOldstrong/Spooktacular%202008/PA250064.jpg?t=1225041325

The scenery is pretty wild here, swinging from desert to oasis and back to desert.

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q250/LanceOldstrong/Spooktacular%202008/PA250065.jpg?t=1225041858http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q250/LanceOldstrong/Spooktacular%202008/PA250058.jpg?t=1225041895http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q250/LanceOldstrong/Spooktacular%202008/PA250068.jpg?t=1225041942

Great rest stops with fun staff and all you could eat Haagen-Daas bars too!
http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q250/LanceOldstrong/Spooktacular%202008/PA250097.jpg?t=1225042082http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q250/LanceOldstrong/Spooktacular%202008/PA250098.jpg?t=1225042212

Temps hovered right around 90 so cooling was important
http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q250/LanceOldstrong/Spooktacular%202008/PA250100.jpg?t=1225042431

The Happy Family after finishing our 31 miles ride
http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q250/LanceOldstrong/Spooktacular%202008/PA250104.jpg?t=1225042534

Those are pretty cool jerseys - wish I'd gone to this one!

Great job getting 31 miles out of the young'uns.

Awesome pics and report - very nice. Not much chance of getting Mrs Beaker on two wheels any time soon I fear. Little beakers - I'm workin' on it.

Was this the first organized ride for Lance Jr + Fairy Princess?

Glad you had a great time Daniel! The shirts are "Wicked Cool! Good looking family ya got there. I'd love to do that ride next year!
It's great you made the kids work for the candy! :)

Great pictures, looks like the kids were having fun and congratulations to the kids for making the 31 mile ride, great job kids. :thumb::thumb: Glad you and your family had a good time with the ride, I'll pass the feedback back to the club. Thanks for stopping by and saying hi, hope to see you next year.

beautiful family out on a fun ride. what a good way to spend a family day. thanks for sharing!

Nice navigating, Dad! :lol:

Nice navigating, Dad! :lol:

At least the lake trail I mis-navigated us around was flat.

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q250/LanceOldstrong/Spooktacular%202008/PA250061.jpg?t=1225123745