The Ride

I guess by now you know I survived! Here's the day in photos.

It rained really hard the night before, and was still raining when I got up at 5 am. I was a little worried, but it stopped about 5:30 and turned out to be a gorgeous day. Here's my car clock as I left my house:

It's about a 45 minute drive to Krause Springs, so when we got there, the sky looked like this:

We parked got our bikes ready and walked over to the main pavilion to eat breakfast. After a breakfast taco, banana and yogurt/granola/fruit combo, we started to line up to head out:

It was absolutely gorgeous. It was sunny and clear and, thank god, not humid after such a torrential downpour the night before. I love how this ride includes all ages, shapes, sizes, athletic ability. My sister and I were marveling about how we can walk around in spandex shorts that include crotch padding and not feel the least bit uncomfortable.

Here's the first pit stop. We fill up on more gatorade and Clif bars. This is where we also met a man who was smuggling a panini in his backpack. It became a running joke and, well, you just had to be there:

Our trusty bikes taking a break:

Some good ole Texas scenery. Nothing like a Loose Livestock warning:

Here I am in all my spandex-y, helmet-y glory:

Brush fire at mile 22. That was nice on the lungs:

Riding out after the lunch pit. We had hummus sandwiches, pasta salad, cookies and more gatorade. And more cookies. And maybe even more cookies.

And here is a sign we saw as we were leaving the lunch pit:

Yeah, it says, "Active Underground Mines: Blasting Area". Great.

I don't have any more pictures from the actual ride, but my parents came out for the closing ceremonies and dinner. Here are some pictures of the memorial signs which were made from memory tags that we made for our jerseys and wore during the ride:

It was a very moving ceremony where they read out the names of loved ones that have died from AIDS. There was some visible emotion and very loud crying going on.

I just love this ride. It's so cool, the people are great and so far this year, it has raised almost $470,000 for local AIDS services. 75% of that money will go directly to the beneficiaries which is unheard of.

I cannot adequately thank everyone who sponsored me. You are so awesome. I would like to thank a certain someone named Lori who noticed that I was $5 away from meeting my goal, and donated a SECOND time so that I would meet my $1000 goal. Thank you, thank you, thank you.