My riding partner/neighbor/friend hasn't been able to ride this year due to an issue of severe sciatic pain. After all kinds of chiropractic treatments, he went to a different doctor who gave him some type of injection in his spine that coats/numbs the nerve. It's been a few days and he's feeling better, and got the okay to get back on the bike.

This weekend we're riding the "Bee Buzzin Tour" - part of the "Festival of Flowers" in Greenwood SC. We've done the ride in the past, but this year we opted for the short 20-mile route to see if he's okay. And yes, we've programmed the SAG number into our phones, just in case.

Had sciatica and got a shot with the longest needle I have ever seen, guided by ultrasound. The pain disappeared the next day, and has not (knock on wood) returned and that was 5 years ago. Believe the needle was guided near the hip joint.

Good to hear your buddy is able to get back to the sport. Bet he will feel like he has a new lease on life. Enjoy!!!

Ride day started off very cloudy with a good chance of rain. In fact, it began to drizzle a bit right before ride start, but thankfully stopped. My "weather knee" was acting up badly as it does when this weather pattern rolls in, but a lot of Aspercreme helped.

One thing to note: we had not pre-registered for the ride, opting instead to register on the day of the event. There was no registration table. Instead, there was a sign with a QR code you had to scan with your phone to get to an online registration page where you entered your personal info and credit card. None of this was mentioned on the ride announcements on social media.

Of course, we were prepared to pay cash and didn't have our cards.

The look of total disbelief from the volunteers working packet pick up was almost funny. There was a short huddle of 4 or 5 of them trying to determine how to process cash. My friend and I finally told them it was okay, we really didn't need the free sandwich/chips/soda at the end of the ride, and since we had the route already in our Garmins, we would just ride without paying. Suddenly someone came up with the brilliant idea to hold out their hand to take the cash.

We all lined up to start. I started my Garmin, and then we had to listen to about 8 minutes of unintelligible blather over a terrible PA system before we actually rolled out. Luckily, the Garmin calculates average moving speed as well as average ride speed!

When we finished the ride, the post-ride "meal" wasn't ready, so we didn't even get fed. We stopped at a fast-food place on the way home.



Moving average was 14mph.