What a Lovely Day For a Bike Ride: The Monster Cookie



All the photos were taken by Martin or his Daughter. Thanks Martin! They are awesome!


It was a glorious day, with glorious people.

This last Sunday was the Monster Cookie put on by the Salem Bicycle Club. It's a local "event ride" here in the Salem area and most everyone (Cyclist's) comes out to do it.

All pending on the weather of course. It's kind of the inside joke. That they have a ton of people take the wait and see approach with this ride just because of the time of year. It could be awesome. Or it could be miserable. Although I must say that within the last few years anyway it been pretty darn nice. But yesterday I don't think you could have cherry picked a nicer day. Hardly any wind. The sun was out.



The pace was great. We kept it in the 17-20 mph for most of the ride. A few guy's started to get frisky towards the end but I think everyone was just so thrilled that we managed to hold the group together for that long they didn't seem to mind. On top of the fact that we had a little bit of a tailwind on the way back that made it all the better. People drilling the group into the ground on previous editions of this ride has been a problem. A few instigators (Myself included.) use to take these rides as an opportunity to kill it. But then it occurred to me "why?".



These event rides are done (generally) in areas that we don't ride regularly. And if the weather is good. Why try and get it over with as quickly as possible? If I wanted to do that there's a whole bunch of races on the OBRA calender that can scratch that itch. Why not just enjoy the new scenery and the great company and make it last a while?  There are lots of people out there that use these rides as a mileage goal or a timed goal and I totally respect that. It's just that I've done a "metric" century (62 miles) and I've done a regular century (100 miles). I've even done a double century (Yup. You math wizards guest it. 200 miles.) a few times . I know I can do it. So why not enjoy the ride for what it is? A good time.



This year started out a little on the cool side (37 degrees Fahrenheit). But ended up being quite warm (65 degrees) for this time of year anyway (Naughty tan line pictures will be out sometime mid season....). So trying to figure out how to dress was a little tricky. Because you still have to carry whatever you bring. And I don't rock a fanny pack (The subject for tomorrow's post.). So it all needed to be able to be stuffed in my pockets. So I went with long fingered gloves, wool socks, knee/arm warmers, hat, short sleeve base layer, bibs, jersey and a wind vest. That set up seemed to work pretty well. I got rid of the vest at the half way mark and rolled down the arm warmers towards the end. This kept from freezing to death at the beginning. But not over heating to much at the end.

Our group was of descent size. With all the usual suspects in attendance.

These guys~


Not these guys~



Which makes it all the sweeter. Because then you don't have that uppity Kevin Spacey always trying to over act everyone else. Or a Baldwin. Need I say more...

Tomorrow I want to talk about a few observations I made during the ride. A warning: I'm going to get all elitist and stuff again.

God, I wish I had remembered my camera!

P.S.~ This is my 2nd Wedding Anniversary. I love you Hollie!

Rubber side down,

Big E