Thursday, June 18, 2009

Yes, it Rained!


Ginger Gordon

We met the bikers at our designated spot. Brian Krause, navigator for the group, called just after we arrived at the meet point to say they were just leaving their "lunch" spot & would be along in a while (about 4 miles down the road I think). During the half hour or so we waited for them it started to sprinkle (& was a little chilly for my taste), so after getting the bikes off the rack & ready, we climbed back in the car to wait out of the wind. The first person we saw coming along with Michael Caine (area minister from the NY Metro area - the one who suggested I ride) and 2 others. He introduced us; we chatted for a few minutes, as it started to sprinkle & then we started off.

Our spot was most of the way up a hill on Rt 20, but there was still some up grade to go before the crest. I'd been a bit worried about starting out going uphill, but it really wasn't so bad. Michael's 2 friends got ahead of us, but Michael rode with us & we chatted. Some of the time we were in single file, sometimes 2 & 1 and sometimes all 3 abreast.
starting out
Going down the first big hill we hit 25 mph -- nice! It started to rain a bit more & shortly was raining quite steadily. The worst part of that (besides being just a bit chilly) was having glasses all spotted up. Gordon knew of a "short-cut" before a left turn from Rt 20 to Rt 98. It cut the corner quite a bit, got us off Rt 20 & away from the large trucks; in fact away from most traffic. We joined Rt 98 a bit South of where the "official" and full-of-traffic turn was. Then just before we got into Attica, Gordon told Michael about another short cut. This one avoided the main intersection in Attica & took us by back roads onto the road the church is on -- past some very nice looking houses & lawns. By the time we got to the church the rain had stopped & we had begun to dry off a bit.

We had to wait until Harvey & Vanessa arrived at the church with our car (& dry clothes, as well as our part of dinner) before getting out of our wet-but-drying clothes. I did take my shoes & socks off & that helped a lot. The one thing neither Gordon nor I brought was an extra pair of shoes, so we ended up putting on dry socks & then got back into our wet sneakers. It was still better.

The ride was not as hard as I'd feared it might be. There were 2 or 3 hills I puffed up, but not much slower than Gordon or Michael. The down hills were nice & the flat places & small rises were just fine too. The traffic, especially trucks, splashed us quite a bit, but since it was raining anyway much of the time, it was hardly noticeable!
synod bikers
dinner time
The church provided a dinner of spaghetti, vegetarian lasagne, chilie, 2 salads (1 mine) about 3 kinds of bread, apple sauce, several choices of things to drink, then cookies for dessert. After dinner Brian presented a PowerPoint on alternative transportation ( or why biking makes more sense -- my words, not his). It talked about Portland Oregon being the most bike friendly city and how some others are working on accommodating bicyclists. We have to bring awareness to people about it. After the program Vanessa said she thinks she'll start biking to church! (someone asked whose church has a bicycle rack -- one or 2 of those there). I said I was willing to do that too. Then she started thinking about perhaps getting the youth to bike to the Regional Youth Event next summer (2010) which is being held in the middle of PA.

Anyway, a good time was had by all. It was a positive experience. Hopefully I won't be too muscle sore. I did notice that when I went upstairs a few minutes ago, I definitely felt it in my legs. Good -- it means I've been doing something!

The group is asking for prayers for no rain for the next week as they continue on to Grand Rapids.

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