Sunday, April 25, 2010

Day 115: The FlatFlower 30...

"I love the smell of Roundup in the morning", I told my peers as we rode past our first orchard.

I'm a part of four nurses (one pulling his special needs twenty year old son) who rode the FlatFlower 30 today. One step up from the ChildFlower (a ten mile ride). The FlatFlower was a flat (hence the name) bike ride through northern California's ode to industrial agriculture: the northern Sacramento River valley. Frankly, we had a blast!

I've never participated in a group ride like this before. You could start anytime between 6 and 9 am. Adults could choose from one of four rides: The FlatFlower 30; The FlatFlower 60; The MildFlower 65 (very hilly); and the WildFlower Century (quite hilly). We chose the easiest ride.



People go ga ga over these events. It is a whole sub-culture I've never experienced before. Most were dressed in their road racing finest. R. chose shorts (with padded bike pants under the shorts) and sandals. I chose shorts (without padding), a t-shirt and my worn out hiking boots I wore to Costa Rica. M. looked at my shoes and said: "Are you going to replace those soon?"


J. (a neo-natal ICU nurse) gets ready for the ride.


Breathe and Ride. Breathe and Ride....

They had cool signs to point the way. My coworker M. leads the way...


Taking a break to stretch....

Mt. Lassen is barely discernible in this photo...but she stood guard over us all morning...

R. at the end of the ride, after pulling his son for thirty miles...(in sandals no less!)....

M. and J. finish the ride...success!! I sprinted ahead (to show off) in order to get their photos...

Four nurses (and R's Son) at the finish. My butt was sore (maybe I will buy some of those funny looking padded pants)...

Afterwards: a really good California Cuisine type lunch and Beer!!!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Good pics Allan. Thanks for posting them, now I won't have to figure out how to post mine It was a fun day. ~Menna

Allan Stellar said...

It was a fun day! And you outrode all of us... :)