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:
October 19, 2006

GENERAL INFO and Grins: Dateline Melbourne, Australia: Well folks, as you might guess, this week's new news comes from down under, where our very own, Greta Larson has successfully completed her, "Around the Bay in a Day" ride. As reported in previous weeks' bulletins, it was a 210 km around Port Phillip Bay which is just south of Melbourne. Congratulations Greta. Below is a copy of the email Marty received from her recently along with a picture. We're looking forward to you riding with us again soon Greta!

Hi Marty!
Finished my "Around The Bay In A Day" ride. Made pretty good time overall and am happy with myself. It's about 6:30 am here in Melbourne and I'm sore all over! It was cold and windy but I survived! My friend Dino and I stopped on the bridge at the start of the ride and took some pictures. One of the cyclists passing, mummbled loudy, "tourists". We'd like to think that we beat him to the finish line! Everyday is a new adventure here. This week should be much the same. I'm heading off to the Grampians National park for 4 days. Hope you only heard a small amount of grumbling from the troops for today's ride in Alpine. See you in a few weeks. I won't be back until next Monday. I've attach a picture. I have another one I took on another day with the Recyclers jersey but I didn't wear it for the ATB ride. I'll have to get it to you another time.
Greta





LAST COUPLE OF WEEKS: Wow folks, three relatively well attended rides these last four weekend days (thanks to Marty Weiss). A week ago Saturday (10/7), Marty led folks on The San Diego Bay Ride from the County Administration Building in San Diego to Coronado, with a detour and stop at the Star Dust Doughnut Shop in Imperial beach before catching the Strand into Coronado for the familiar, to most of us, ferry ride back across the Bay.

Marty writes about the ride, "Seven showed up for this Saturday's ride, including Carol Sawaya, who woke up at 7:30 in Santee and managed to catch up with us about 5 minutes into the ride. She admitted to breaking several traffic laws in order to make the ride. Way to go Carol. Weather was cool at the start but warmed up nicely as we progressed. Star Dust is at the corner of 7th and Palm Ave. and we were able to ride a few blocks up 7th to get directly on to the bike trail into Coronado. With no headwind, we were able to keep a 15 - 18 mph pace and arrived at the ferry landing shortly after 11:00.

I was pleasantly surprised to see Bob Calhoun waiting for us in his Recycler's jersey, sitting there having a cup of coffee. It was his first ride in a few months as he's been battling a health problem this summer and was just given the go ahead to ride again. Hope he'll be able to join us for other rides the next few weeks.

Who could have known there would be a 25 minute wait to buy donuts at the famous Star Dust Donut Shop in Imperial Beach? When we arrived about 9:45 there was a line of at least 20 people ahead of us and only 2 or 3 trays of buttermilk twists and the signature cinnamon rolls remained. While waiting in line, I'm was calculating the number of twists & rolls remaining on the trays and the number of people buying them by the dozens. Star Dust is known to close the shop when they run out and I was sure we'd have to mug one of the customers ahead of us in order to get something to eat. Well, as it turned out, a full tray of cinnamon rolls was brought out just as I got to the window so disaster was avoided. I give the rolls two thumbs up. Very fresh, good texture and not too sweet." Do you all agree?

Sunday's ride (10/8), The Solana Beach to Oceanside Ride was not so well attended, but enjoyable none-the-less. The participants on this ride were Phillip Erdelsky, Dennis Webb, Jeff Gleen-Levin, Frank Fernandez, and yours truly, Paul Shragg.

Not too much sun, but very comfortable. Jeff joined us for only part of the ride, as he had commitments for later that morning. The four of us who continued on into Oceanside made our obligatory stop at the Coffee Bean for a refueling.

On the ride back, we mixed it up a bit and rode up La Costa Avenue from the coast past the freeway to Saxony Dr. (or Ave.) where we took a bit of an ascent (Marty's terminology) over to Leucadia Blvd.and ultimately to Encinitas Ave. This part of Encinitas is fairly rural and quiet, so it was a change of pace, especially compared to the PCH between La Costa and Encinitas Avenues.

Shragg left the group at Encinitas Ave for home (a good decision...I was tired) and the remaining three Recyclers rode back to the coast for the final few miles to the train station. All in all, it was a very nice ride.

This last Saturday (10/14) was a down day, but Sunday's ride (10/15) was anything but down. In fact, rumor has it, quite a bit of it was up. As in uphill, that is.

This ride was a relatively new ride to most of us. It's new to me, in any case. I am simply calling it, "The Spring Valley to Alpine Ride". Dave Buergey actually mentioned that he should be given credit for this route. We'll have to argue the point this next week Dave.

So show!!! (easy for me to say). Since I rode that ride in absentia, I can't say anything first hand, but hell, this is reporting, there doesn't have to be any truth to it. Actually, Marty told me this morning that 11 folks made the ride, and that it was probably about as difficult a ride as Recyclers generally do. So congratulations to the 11 who participated. I also learned that the riders took a coffee break at the famous Bread Basket restaurant before heading to Arnold Way which, according to Marty, begins the best part of the ride, 9.8 miles of downhill.

In any case, the final grade on the ride was two thumbs up (I think!!!), weather changes not withstanding. A photo follows (provided courtesy of Phillip Erdelsky).





BTW- The man on the left in this picture is my friend and BOSS, Michael Ziegler, so let me just say how fit and great he looks (I need a raise). The man on the right is doing Ok as well. Carol is third in line (and doing great), and the others are only rumors. Again, way to go folks!!!!

THIS WEEKS RIDE, other wise known as "De Ride" (Sunday, October 22, 2006): This week's ride is brought to us by Jeff Glenn-Levin and should be a blast. Below is the description as provided by the man himself. This ride will from now on, and forever, be known as the Tour de Rancho Santa Fe (unless we decide to change the name, of course). We will meet at our customary time of 8:00 AM for an 8:15 roll out from the Solana Beach Train Station (however, don't be fooled, we're not going North, we'll be heading South). Check it out!

Description

The Tour de Rancho Santa Fe will take us down the coast from the Solana Beach train station to Carmel Valley Road. We'll head inland and pick up the Route 56 bike path out to Camino del Sur, then head north. We'll turn on San Dieguito Road and head into Fairbanks Ranch, then take a gradual climb into RSF, where we'll stop for coffee and goodies in the Village. We'll leave the Village and do a 6-mile loop through some orange groves and around the reservoir, and then take a dive down some fun-filled descents (La Gracia) and wind up on Via de la Valle, which we'll take back to the coast and the train station.

Total distance is about 35 miles, with a bunch of short ups and downs. Route slips will be provided

Sun. 10/29: This is Marty's infamously famous 5 city ride. This is a must. You'll be able to tell your friends you rode through 5 cities all in one morning. Here's the description, as submitted by the man himself, known, of course, as Marty's 5 City Ride (to include the cities of San Diego, La Mesa, El Cajon, Lakeside & Santee).

Starting at Windmill Farms on Del Cerro Blvd between College and Madra Ave. in San Diego, right on College Ave, right on Navajo until it merges with Fletcher in La Mesa. Take Fletcher left and down into El Cajon, left turn on Marshall than right on Vernon, which becomes Greenfield Dr and will take us out to E. Main/Olde Hwy 80 where we head east until Lake Jennings Park Rd. Go left up over the hill and down into Lakeside at which time the road has become Mapleview. Through Lakeside (route TBD), west on Woodside into Santee, left on Magnolia then right on Prospect to a let turn on Fanita. What does down, comes up and Fanita is a challenging ascent which will take us up to Grossmont College. Pick up the bike path along Hwy 125 for about a mile then right on Navajo and backtrack to the starting point. The route is about 35 ­ 40 + miles and will include down hills, ascents and some good straights to put the pedal to the metal. Don't know about the refreshment stop, but perhaps some of you East County people can suggest a place. Also when we're at Woodside & Magnolia, we're around the corner from Groff's Coffee, Donut & Bike shop. Just a suggestion, though.

To get to the starting point, take I-8 into San Diego, north on College Ave then a prompt right on Del Cerro Blvd (Chevron Station on the corner) and Windmill Farms is a half a block on the left.

Sun 11/5: Neil Schneider and Dennis Webb have chosen the Old Julian Hiway route. You can preview the ride and print a route slip at routeslip.com. The ride will be about 32 miles round trip, with about 1643.3 foot of climb. See you there!

Final Tid Bit: Please start thinking about how many Recycler Jerseys you might want (they make beautiful XMAS gifts). We're going to place an order in the next couple of weeks. I believe they run about $35.00 a pop (but I'm not sure here...talk with Marty). There's been some discussion about arm warmers as well

Stay well friends. Hope you can make one, or both, of our rides this weekend, and remember to RIDE SAFE and have FUN!!!!