After your first day of cycling, one dream is inevitable. A memory of motion lingers in the muscles of your legs, and round and round they seem to go. You ride through Dreamland on wonderful dream bicycles that change and grow. -- H.G. Wells, The Wheels of Chance
RECYCLERS WEEKLY BULLETIN:
September 28, 2006
Howdy partners, here's this week's blurb
GENERAL INFO: This last week was made a bit more enjoyable than most, due to the fact that Bob Groff (aka "Da Wagonmaster") came out to meet and greet us in the parking lot at the beginning of our ride. A lot of us newer Recyclers hadn't met Bob, so it was especially nice for us. I, for one, felt like I knew the man, just from some of the emails he and I have exchanged over the last few months. Thanks Bob for taking the time and making the effort. It was a pleasure meeting you. We're all looking forward to seeing more of you in the near future and hope you can start joining us on rides soon.
More new news: Bob Groff's has written a brief history of the "Recyclers" and Neil has posted it to our web site http://www.sdrecyclers.org/history/. It's really a neat read, so I encourage you all to visit the web site and click on the history link. BTW, speaking of the web site, we all owe Neil Schneider a big THANK YOU for all the work he's put into our web site. Thank You Neil!!! The page is really starting to shape up. Marty's hoping to be able to post our rides up to two or three weeks in advance on the page, so that we Recyclers can plan accordingly.
More new news: Don't forget, this next weekend will be Greta's last ride with us for a while, as she'll be going down under to participate in the "Around the Bay in a Day" ride, October 15th. As reported in last week's bulletin, it's a 210 km around Port Phillip Bay which is just south of Melbourne. So, if you show for this week's ride, you'll be able to wish her good luck in person. It would be great to get a large turnout for this week's ride.
LAST WEEK: This last week we returned to our familiar format of one ride on the weekend (Sunday). The day started out a bit brisk but quickly warmed up to excellent biking weather. It was gorgeous. Very clear, with a bit of a wind, but not too much. It really was a great (fun) ride (one of my favorite Recycler routes, the "Tour de Campus"). It probably would have been even better for everyone had yours truly shown up on time with my tires properly inflated. Let me tell you though, if there was any doubt that I was in the right place, it was short lived, because as I was pumping up my tires, Dave Nunez came up behind me to kindly remind me that I could spend more time on bike maintenance if I spent less time writing long winded discourses for the bulletin (he should be so lucky!), making me feel right at home from the get go. Heck, for a minute I thought Dennis Webb was with us. Ah, the camaraderie of the Recyclers warms the heart. Any way, the ride was relatively well attended (11 riders), and, actually, we didn't get started too late (right folks!!!). We started out at the parking lot just north of the Mission Bay Hilton and rode the bike path from Mission Bay to the bike path that parallels the I-5 north, to Gillman Dr, where we headed up the hill into and through the UCSD campus to the Top of the Torrey Pines grade where we turned around and headed down into La Jolla, vis a vie La Jolla Shores Dr, to Ardath, to Propect (I think). The La Jolla Cove was a bit crowded, as there was an American Diabetes organized swim taking place, but the day was absolutely beautiful (see pictures below). We stopped for a rest room break and a photo op (again, see photos below) and had a great time, joking around as we always seem to do. From the cove, we headed south past some of the more notable surf spots (Wind and Sea, Bird Rock, etc.) into PB, to Mission Bay, past the Catamaran and the Bahia, over to the OB bike path and into OB and its infamous Newport Ave., where we, imagine this, found ourselves at an outdoor coffee establishment. We made the obligatory, and desired, stop, supporting our local vendors (as we so often do) by purchasing their wares (in this case, coffee, shakes, and muffins...soul food). It was really a fun time. After the short respite, we hopped back on our bikes, because we couldn't find a bus, and rode back to our cars. A fun time was had by all. No flats, run, hits, or errors. Enjoy the pictures folks (again, courtesy of Greta). BTW, Phil Erdelsky took some nice pictures also which have been forwarded to Neil to post in the photo gallery on our web page.
De Ride: Sun. 10/1. Mission Trails Visitor's Center to El Monte Park and return. Meet at the Mission Trails Regional Park at 8:00 for the usual 8:15 roll out. To get to the start, take Mission Gorge Rd. to Fr. Junipero Serra Trail Rd, which is 2/10 of a mile north of Jackson Dr. You can park on the street or there is a parking lot up to the left. The ride is 34 miles, mostly level, and we'll take a break at the 3/4 mark at the Bob Groff Donut, Coffee & Bike Restoration Shop in Santee. It may be a little warm, but we'll just have to suck it up. This ride should really be a blast, especially because we will end up at Groff's place, letting him know that there's no escaping us. If he won't come to us, we'll go to him.
Other Upcoming Rides: We've decided that we will try to post rides two to three weeks in advance, so that we all can plan our schedules accordingly. Also, we plan to have a few more Saturday rides offered, and, we might throw in a couple of organized rides with larger groups as well. Marty Weiss has come up with some great routes, so I think we're all in for some very fun and interesting rides this Fall. Please note, in addition to posting the rides in the bulletin and on our web page http://www.sdrecyclers.org/Buletin/, we will continue to send the weekly ride blurb out by email (we know some of you prefer that method of notification) no later than every Thursday, for the following weekend. So, here is the schedule of upcoming "Recycler" rides (Thanks entirely to Marty Weiss). BTW folks, check this out (Neil Schneider's idea) http://www.routeslip.com. Very neat idea.
Sat. 10/7 Yes, Saturday! The San Diego Bay ride from the County Administration Building to Coronado, take the ferry across the Bay then return. Anyone that read Monday's UT article about the Starlite Donut Shop in Imperial Beach, will understand why I'm calling this ride (the bakery is not open Sunday). We'll detour a little bit to reach the bakery for their legendary donuts and then continue west to Imperial Beach, south along the coast for a while then return and pick up the Strand in to Coronado. 8:00/8:15.
Sun. 10/8. Solana Beach train station to Oceanside Marina and return. Usual rules apply.
Sun. 10/15 Spring Valley to Alpine and this ride is BLAST! Actual starting point to be determined but we'll pick up Jamacha Rd. to Willow Creek Rd. to Dehesa Rd to Tavern Rd into Alpine. Did I mention there is a climb of several miles into Alpine? Take a coffee break at the famous Bread Basket restaurant and then head to Arnold Way which begins the best part of the ride - 9.8 miles of downhill. Take Arnold Way to Harbison Canyon Rd to Dehesa Rd to Willow Creek Rd the way we came. Total ride will be about 37 miles depending on the starting point. More details to follow. Suggest sunscreen and lots of water.
Final Tid Bit: No final tid bit this week, or, as Bugs used to say, "That's all Folks!"
Stay well friends. Hope to see you all this week and above all RIDE SAFE!!!!