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Hope Ride 2010 - Hope it is better next year!

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Hope Ride 2010 - Hope it is better next year!

Old 09-20-10, 01:46 PM
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Exclamation Hope Ride 2010 - Hope it is better next year!

A friend of mine and I have been going to the Hope Ride in Hope, Indiana for about ten years. This is a charity ride that benefits the Hope food bank. We enjoy the ride, for the locale and the opportunity to camp out the night before. Being able to get up in the morning, take a shower, get some pancakes and OJ, and then hit the road at 7:30AM is preferable to waking up at 3:30AM and then driving a couple of hours just to get to Hope.

For the first few years, we camped in dome tents in the high school yard. The problem was that the overnight dew soaked our tents, so we both had to fold up wet tents in the morning, or leave the tents up, and break camp after the ride. Plus, I was worried all night about my bike being stolen, which made me wake up frequently, at any noises.

I saw people camping in the gymnasium, and that was excellent; your bike sleeps right next to you, no wet tent and no skunks! Yay! So we started doing that and it was great. There are about twelve people who always camp in the gym.

This year, however, not so much. We get to Hope the night before to find the gymnasium locked and disheveled (major re-construction underway at the school). We were not the only ones. There were several people that drove for hours, in from Illinois and elsewhere, only to find 'no room at the inn'.

Since we pre-registered, and thus pre-paid, I wasn’t interested in just turning around and driving a couple of hours back home. A lady walked up and said that the local Moravian Church down the road offered to let people sleep in their gymnasium. That's cool, we thought, and drove down to the church. Not true! It was locked up tight, so back up to the school.

Since we had no tents, I thought, well, I’ll just sleep in the hallway, here at the high school. There were some gymnastic tumbling mats piled in the hallway that seemed comfortable enough. So I made my bed there. My friend cannot sleep with noise and light in his eyes, so he decided to sleep in his mini pickup truck. When the Boy Scouts saw him sleeping in his truck, they loaned him a pup tent; they had an extra one.

The other out-of-town cyclists either slept outside on the ground or in the hallway near me; some slept in their minivan.

I slept great, but that is because I had a handheld Sound Soother, which plays white noise into headphones. I always bring that on trips; who knows what noise will be in a hotel, motel or campground? The noise that kept my fellow hallway dwellers awake was the arrival of the cooks; the kitchen doorway was centered in the hallway. Those perky cooks proceeded to blab on for hours, with the door hanging wide open, one of those guys said. Personally, I heard nothing but 'gentle rain'.

Awake at 6AM in the morning: I was well rested, but bedraggled, and decided to take a shower. What? Oh, these restrooms have no showers in them. Nice! So I was forced to take a hobo bath in the sink, like a common vagrant at the Shell Station. Hint: That’s why gas stations have locked restrooms. At least nobody was around.

After that, I felt a little better, so I cat-napped for a while in my jersey and bibs, until the registration folks arrived. My cycling buddy looked like spilt death; he said people were talking practically all night, there was a skunk somewhere, and some yahoo in a pickup truck was testing his glass-pack mufflers in the parking lot.

We made our way to the cafeteria, which was surprisingly empty. I noticed the people were not having the pancakes; they were eating cereal; and I wondered why. To my horror, there were no pancakes – only snou-sage-laden gravy biscuits. Being a vegetarian, I just opted for a couple of biscuits, with no gravy. Huh.

I guess they were just trying to go cheap this year, or perhaps a lot of cyclists requested something different for breakfast. I heard some guy near us say: "Bill's talking about going to McDonald's – did you all see one around here?" Once again, I am being honest here, when I say that people near us and even at our table were using the phrase: 'gruel'. I would recommend that Paul has the cooks make pancakes next year.

So we went on the ride and at the second SAG stop, my riding buddy, who was literally falling asleep on the part bench, just said for me to go on without him. He decided to just try to do the 32 mile ride, and that meant only riding another 10 miles, or taking the SAG truck if necessary. I went ahead and finished the 64 mile route, and met him at the town square lunch.

Lunch there is usually some kind of pasta and chicken dish, where I just have the pasta sans chicken. This year it was some kind of smoked snou-sage+bean+corn+onion relish with cornbread and solid, still-frozen fruit, from an unthawed bag. Seriously, we give better food to the homeless people at the mission.

Then I saw one of the ladies from Illinois that slept in their minivan and they were regretting that they would not be able to take a shower before driving three hours home.

After the ride, we headed back to the high school, where my friend always takes a shower after the ride; I rarely do. He did not enjoy having to drive the couple of hours home, stinking. He told me that he will never do this ride again. I'm not sure, yet.

Friday night, I sent an email to the promoter, Paul Ashbrook, about the lack of communication and he did not say he was sorry, or even feign that he was sorry. He said that he had nothing to do with the construction, and that we should have gotten an email about it, and not to bother him or his volunteers about it. I know that some people who were in tents said that they got an email from Paul, but we didn't.

Here is what I expected from Paul: "You know, I am sorry, I didn't have the resources to modify the website, to say that the gym and showers were off-line. Unfortunately, you didn't register on the HopeRide.org website, where your email address would have been made available to me, to email this information to you. I am sorry that you and your friend were inconvenienced." Even if Paul was making a rude gesture with his other hand, while he was typing the email reply, it would have seemed sincere.

Then I surmised why we didn't get any emails about it – the only people that got emails were registered on the HopeRide.org website. When you go there, and pay for the ride, you can pay for the ride without registering on HopeRide.org. My friend and I just went on there and paid for the ride, without registering. Note: Even though we entered email addresses on the SignMeUp.com webpage, those email addresses are not sent to Paul, I assume. What the webpage SHOULD have said is: "You must register on the HopeRide website, or you will not receive critical emails about this event." Further, he could have had someone modify the website, to say that the gym and showers were unusable; only tent camping would be available.

I know that lots of rides do not have accommodations or meals; you show up, you ride and then you leave. But this one does, or it did, and that is why people drive for hours to get to it. We had no way to know that such a critical component was out of the mix. The ride was fine, but hey, I can ride anywhere. I pay for the amenities, not the ride.

The facts are simple:
1. Construction did not start on Thursday evening
2. Had the webpage been updated, all campers would have better off
3. If I knew there were no gym/showers, we wouldn’t have come
4. When I mentioned it, I, (the customer), was curtly admonished
5. The food was poor – ask anybody that was there, really, anybody at all

Just so you know, we’re not looking for a refund or anything; I just wish this was done better. I have several tents sitting in my garage, and I could have brought baby-wipes from home. Heck, I commute 10 miles to work by bicycle, and we don't have a shower at work.

All I can say is that everything I have said here is true, and a typically fun weekend was tarnished. I am certain that Dave will never come back, and I don't have any other friends that can ride long distances, and my wife hates cycling. So if I come back, I will just ride solo.

One important thing I would like to know, though, and everybody needs to know is this – after they complete the construction on the Hope gym, will Hope High allow people to sleep there, and/or use the showers? I would guess that they WILL NOT.

When they have the shiny floor all prettied up, they might not want any "street shoes" or bicycles on that pristine gym floor. People need to know this. If you were one of those annoyed overnighters, you need to know this. Paul, if you see this, please find out, so that people can make accommodations.

"Ride Lots"

Michael Jones
michaelalanjone is offline  
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