Thursday, December 31, 2009

Dec. 31st--Last ride of the year--"Virtually"

Okay, so it's raining and I don't want to take Stella out in the rain needlessly, but I DO want to get in one last ride for '09. Solution? Ride my trainer in the garage. Ho hum, ANOTHER trainer ride. Wow, THAT'S SPECIAL! Actually, I decided to do a "Virtual Recap Ride" of my major tours from this past summer. Now, I'm not going to go into too much detail about what I was thinking about on this 3 hour and 10 minute ride because if you really want to see details, just read the previous posts. But, I do have great memories from the 17 day ride with Kyle, the STP in one day, the 13 day ride with Julie (such great scenery memories) and the Courage Classic. I was very lucky to have had all these experiances in one summer. Not to mention France, which was a whole 'nother experiance itself! Anyway, it was a great way to cap off the year (still, I would have preferred to take Stella out...).

One of the things this "virtual ride" did was remind me how much I like touring. I would like to do the whole coast route to the CA/Mexico border. Right now I am reading a fellow tourer, Karen Cook's, journal on Crazyguyonabike.com of her trip from Seattle to San Diego. She followed the route that Julie and I took through Oregon (I recognized many of her pictures)then continued on to San Diego. It sounds like a great trip and I can't wait to do it. But, my first priority is to try to get on with Bicycle Adventures, a local bike touring company. I think it would be great to get paid to do what I love! So, we'll see what this summer holds. Suffice to say, it will, one way or the other, involve bike touring!

So, until the next tour comes along, or I have a reason to post another blog, have a great beginning to 2010. I'll keep riding (Stella when it's nice, the trainer when not).