I did the Mennonite Central Committee Flatlander ride today. This year the project was a series of earthen dams in Tanzania to conserve water for rural agriculture and some local villages. Distances were offered at 65,45,35 & 8 miles for family rides.

The ride took place under lightly drizzling skies most of the way. About half the time you had to look over your glasses because you couldn't really see well through them. Temperatures were 55 to 61 with very little wind. There were 125 riders between the four distances.

We took off with a police escort all the way out of town and got to run a number of red lights in the process. For some reason the organizers decided we need sag stops about every eleven miles. I blew right through the first and the last as I didn't think I needed that much cookies, brownies and bananas. At about the 20 mile mark I hooked up with a very pleasant and talkative 20 something young lady who was a marathon runner and had just taken up cycling a couple of months ago. We spent the rest of the ride having a grand old time talking about a wide range of things including mountain climbing in Colorado and the exploits of Emergency Medical Technicians. The young lady is an EMT as well as being a student at a local university. We kept up a pretty good pace for me even though we spent most of our time riding side by side, so not much drafting or pacelines. Total distance we put in was 67.5 miles and we covered it in about 4-1/2 hours including stops and one short detour due to my color blindness and not being able to tell the red arrows from the green arrows on the direction signs.

At the end of the ride we were treated to a lite lunch of ham or turkey sandwiches, veggie and fruit platters and ice cream, so no pie to be had there. On the way home I stopped at a local bakery and picked up some peach pie that I will have this evening with supper. I am still plenty full from the lunch and all the snacks at the sag stations.