Woohoo and hallelujah!! We are at the halfway point in the 50@50 Project! This has been an amazing journey for us and I have enjoyed all of it, even when the wrap vids may lead you to believe otherwise. You see, loyal readers, the whole point of this epic crazy adventure in my 50th year is to:
Motivate, Accomplish, Challenge, Achieve, Believe, Re-energize and Enjoy
And that spells 'macabre', people. That's right!
Er, wait a sec... um... let's see... The dictionary defines 'macabre' as 'eerie, deathlike'. So - YEP - that works!
Even though we celebrated Event 25 and this important milestone, here is how the day really started:
"BLAT BLAT BLAT BLAT BLAT BLAT..."
David: (hitting snooze button) "Noooooooooooooooo! I don't wanna!! We already ran three friggin' 5k's! Do we hafta go ride?! Look outside, it's raining! Ugh!"
(Seven minutes later)
"BLAT BLAT BLAT BLAT BLAT BLAT..."
David: "Okay, okay, okay, OKAY!! Geez!"
(hits snooze again)
(Seven minutes later)
"BLAT BLAT BLAT BLAT BLAT BLAT..."
David: "Grrrrrrrrrrrrr..."
You get the picture. Camera Crew was a little more awake than I - nothing new there - but she was feeling much the same. The weather was iffy, at best, and we were pretty sore and tired. But as they say, the show must go on. And this is a show, folks - determination, resiliency, a dose of insanity. I got out of bed, dressed in my bike gear, stumbled to the kitchen, made coffee. I grabbed the bike rack and headed down to the SUV, noticing how incredibly sore my quads were as I descended the stairs. With the SUV racked, it was back upstairs to double check my bike, my bike stuff (tube, patch kit, bike tools, etc.) I grabbed some snacks, filled the travel mug and it was time to load up. Took a couple of trips. Stairs = pain.
We have a great system for loading the road bikes. It's pretty straight forward. The mountain bikes, on the other hand, are a hassle. Because of the full suspension frames, they don't easily fit on the rack without first having to disassemble part of the rack itself. I gotta look into that more - some day. But today was road bikes!
We were heading south to the wine country, which is never a bad day in my book. The ride was being put on by the Bike Gallery, a popular local bike shop in Portland. www.bikegallery.com The wine rides they organize are fundraisers for the Oregon chapter of the Children's Heart Foundation. You can read about the work they do here: oregon.childrensheartfoundation.org Our meet up point was Stoller Vineyards, in Dayton, OR. As is true for almost all wineries in the Willamette Valley, the views were spectacular. It seems it's a prerequisite for wineries and tasting rooms to be located on the top of a hill, overlooking the vineyards, valleys and rolling hills all around. Go for a visit and find out more: www.stollerfamilyestate.com
We had mapped our travel time at about an hour but arrived in 40 minutes! It rained off and on all the way out, at times coming down hard. This just made the feeling of dread toward the ride even more palpable. However, I tend to have a more upbeat attitude when the weather is crappy. For me, it's like 'we're here, we signed up, we're doing this thing - so Mother Nature, bring it on!' Don't get me wrong - I was still considering how I could turn the car around, drive home, pop some ibuprofen and climb back into bed. Camera Crew wasn't brimming with enthusiasm, either: "What am I going to wear? This is gonna suck if it's pouring." More in the spirit of the area: "Hey, look! A winery! And another one!" That sounds more like my wife! Dayton is farther south than we ever get on our wine tasting excursions, so all the wineries were new to us. We made a mental note to try to get down this way on our next trip. Hard to do when it means passing the likes of Erath, Argyle, Winter's Hill.
We unloaded the bikes and walked up to the check in table. They marked us off the list, handed us route maps and dealt us two playing cards each. Seems we were playing a little poker today - two cards at the start, three more at the rest stop. Best hand would win a bottle of Stoller vino. I started with a pair of twos; Camera Crew had an unsuited seven and nine. Haha! Oops, I mean "Don't worry, sweetie - you'll fill that inside straight at the rest stop." After everyone gathered (looked to be about 45-50 people, tops) we rolled out. The course was well marked, it was a 'ride at your own pace' deal and the roads were so quiet. Sunday morning in wine country is idyllic.
We are happy to say that the rain held off and that the course was only 30 miles! It sprinkled a couple of times, kinda 'chipi chipi' as the Mayans say. Except for a few short stretches of rough road, the course was smooth rolling. Cruising through wine country is fantastic, with only a few hills of any measure. When we hit the first challenging climb I was, of course, in the wrong gear. I gutted it out, not being able to shift without risking a mechanical issue. Lesson learned. We made good time, enjoying the scenery and all the little towns we passed through - Carlton, Lafayette, Dayton. At the rest stop, we both got crap cards so, for us, poker was over. Meh.
The roads after the the stop were gorgeous and smooth. It was a perfect ride. As the rest of the world started waking up, traffic increased but drivers were obviously used to bikers on 'their' roads, giving wide birth and being respectful. Toward the end of the ride, we went past the entrance to Our Lady of Guadalupe Trappist Abbey. As monks the world over are wont to do, they've incorporated the needs of the local economy into a little slice for themselves. They run a pretty large wine storage and shipping operation for the area wineries! I love it! Read up at www.trappistabbey.org
Besides worrying about the weather, which proved to be unnecessary, we were concerned how we'd hold up. After our triple 5k venture and knowing how sore we both were, it was nice to realize that biking uses just enough different muscles. Other than a little quad burn up the hills, we both felt great at the end. A very nice lunch was provided along with wine tasting (of course). We enjoyed food and drink, and the accomplishments of our crazy four event weekend. As usual, the lovely Camera Crew was all smiles!!
Good times, good times. We drove back into town, got home, showered and went downstairs for what should have been counted as an event: Julep Fest 2013 put on by the Pope House Bourbon Lounge. Mmmm mmmm!
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