Am I a Biker Chick now??

This weekend Jose and I did the “Dam2Dam” bike tour which was a benefit for the Mike Utley Foundation. We took off on Friday night, got the the Holiday Inn Express which was offering fabulously low rates for event participants and started first thing on Saturday morning. Race entry fees included a Tyvek jacket which was printed with the race logo, sponsors etc. Somehow these colors and logos arrived at what was one of the most frightening displays of teal and black that I have ever seen, let alone worn (I’ll post photos soon…). But alas, they were light, wind resistant and made me feel like a official cyclists. And at 8AM in the hills of Wenatchee when you’re in shorts and wicking fabrics (AKA: Freezing your fingers off because its about 40 degrees in the shade), you take any layers that you can get. We set out on our new and nearly new bikes at a nice little pace. By the first rest stop, 12.5 miles in, it was starting to warm up a little, and I was no longer concerned that my fingers would fall off due to the frost-bite and subsequent gangrene that I was anticipating all morning. Lots of snacks and drinks at the first rest-stop, over all, a very nicely run and well-manned event. Met some nice folks while mingling over granola bars and apples.

Onward to the 25 mile mark. We stopped there, again more mingling over apples and local fare. The stop was at a little road-side gift shop/fruit stand that had lots of Columbia Valley wines for sale. We saw the 3rd installment of the Kestrel winery nod to redheads (well, to red wine, but I’m going to take it as a nod to redheads!): The sultry cousin to “Drop Dead Red” from last year, labeled, “Lady in Red.” Haven’t tried the Lady in Red yet, but the Drop Dead Red vol. 2 is a very drinkable wine on its own merits, but the label, (and collecting them all…) is the kicker for me. We wanted to buy it, but I most certainly did not want to carry in my Camel Bak on the 25 mile ride home. Enter Donita, the very nice woman who was the a friend of a friend of a friend of Mike Utley, who was up visiting/helping with the ride. She offered to take any wine we bought back to the post-ride BBQ in her car. Excellent. Add a few bottles to the Jose/Gina wine collection. What can I say, some redheads are in to I Love Lucy, I’m into reasonably priced table wines. A mini photo montage…

Volume 1: She kind of has that Jessica Rabbit thing going on…

Volume 2: Showing her carefree, tropical side. And nothing says “practical” quite like wearing a wispy bikini and a flower sash when you’re born and raised in Prosser, WA…

This year, Volume 3: She’s now a “Lady in Red,” has cropped her hair and donned an elegant hat. If I ever make it to the Kentucky Derby, I shall wear a similar hat.

After we secured safe transport for our wine, we hopped back on the bikes and headed back for the last 25 mile stretch. About ¼ mile down the road, I started wondering if there were weird cracks in the pavement because my ride felt… lumpy. I looked down to discover that I had TWO very flat tires. What the heck?!? “Ah yes, see those giant thorns lodged into your tires?” I said to myself. “Why yes self, I do see them. And they seem to have punctured both tires in about 4 different places. Hey self, good thing you have a patch kit, tire levers and a spare tube just in case!” …. Apparently I walked my bike through a patch of “goat horns” at the rest stop but didn’t know it… it happened to a few other people too. Goat Horns are nasty thorns that grow on a viney cactus-like plant. I’m trying to find a photo to post, but when I google “goat horn” I get an awful lot of weird satanic ritual stuff…

Four tube patches, one snapped Presta valve, then one new spare tube, followed by ANOTHER snapped Presta valve (on new tube), a totally worthless piece of crap hand-pump, a walk back to the rest stop, several minutes of pleading with fellow riders and race volunteers for another spare tube, the acquisition of a floor pump, and some bad-ass tire-changing/fixing/replacing skills I’d aquired by this point, and we were back on the road.

In case you don’t have a road bike, here is a picture of a Presta valve: That skinny little pin-like screw thing at the top is what snapped off twice after we had inflated the patched tires and were trying to take the pump off the valve. So the lesson learned is: Just like a really good horse- the better they are, the more fragile they are. You can knock around a cheap bike tire valve and have no problem at all. Similarly, you can run around on the trails all day on an old hearty quarter horse named, “Buck” and never have to worry about pulled tendons or abscesses. But if you want performance, you’ve got to baby your equipment. Now I know.

Okay, so we’re back on the road, but this time our contact points (which is a nice way of saying, “butts”) were starting to feel the miles. We made it back in decent time, but were a little humbled to be coming into the finish right next to a pace-line of about 6 serious-looking cyclists who were bantering back and forth things like, “Huh, weird, mine says 104…” “Oh, mine says 103.5, we might need to re-calibrate our odometers…” So yeah, we finished the 50 mile ride in the same time as the elite 100 mile riders. But heck- we had about an hour of road side bike maintenance… and we started about 20 minutes late… and we bought wine along the way! I’d venture to say that we had more fun, and had a steeper learning curve with regards to road-side bike repair…

So that was Saturday. Sunday was decidedly less fitness-oriented. Woke up late, and spent a lazy day in Leavenworth, a Bavarian-styled town that seems to have some sort of festival every weekend. Yeah, its kind of cheesy but still fun. The day was made up of eating lots of food, drinking lots of coffee, and poking around in the touristy shops. We both wondered: If there were an “Adult Store” in Leavenworth, would it too be required to adopt a Bavarian theme? And would its employees wear Lederhosen and Dirndls?? Perhaps the world will never know…

I do have a couple of pictures from the ride, but haven’t transferred them to the computer yet, so hold the line… more action shots to come!

When I got home, I was delighted to discover that some CD’s I ordered from amazon.com had finally arrived…. I got Bebel Gilberto Remixed, for those days and nights when I’m feeling like mellow, rhythmic Brazilian music, and Wynonna “What the World Needs Now,” as I seem to be on a Judds kick as of late. I discovered today that Wynonna is performing with the Seattle Symphony on October 11th, and I really want to go… The catch is: I don’t know of anyone in the area who enjoys Wynonna Judd as much as I do, to the extent that they would go to her show with me on a random Tuesday night…. Any takers???