CycloFemme and new adventures

Last Sunday was Mother's Day and Sacramento's 4th annual CycloFemme ride that we've helped put together. The first year was just a little loop around Discovery Park with one other family, not quite the grand ride I had been hoping. The following years were longer rides along the American River Trail, all beautiful days and wonderful people to ride with. They've all been such great experiences to enjoy the ride and meet some new folks.

This year, we decided to have an afternoon ride with a tea party picnic at the end. I wanted to focus on the leisurely quality of rising casually and with (some new) friends. It was in direct contras with the AMGEN ride that started off at the Capitol that same morning.

We had had a long weekend already and were dragging even before the ride. Little Brother didn't quite make it to the park and luckily stayed upright on the trip over. While we were waiting, for other riders to meet up, Little Brother wandered off toward the playground and I had a moment of panic running around looking for him.

Right on time, about 10 other riders showed up to join our 8-mile ride along the trail.

I was riding the HaulaDay with about 5 gallons of iced tea and 90 pounds of kids. We made great time and it was helpful to have a smallish group of easy-going riders. We took advantage of a couple of the still-closed streets around the Capitol then found a shady spot near the International Peace Rose Garden.

The HaulaDay made a great iced tea counter and there were many other goodies added to our little picnic. The boys ran around after having been properly filled with sugary treats.

So after starting the ride full of exhaustion and stress, it ended with me feeling refreshed and enthused by the beautiful ride and great company.

I'm still not sure how to build the ride and market it to a larger crowd but I'd rather have a smaller, more personal group than an overwhelmingly large and uncontainable ride. This was just perfect!

May Is Bike Month is almost halfway done and things are going smoothly. The bike rodeos and clinics have been going really well. Little Brother won a gift certificate out of the first week's drawing and we've each reached about half our pledged mileage.

School is just about over with just finals ween next week. Amazingly, both my teachers decided to finish finals early so the last class will just be a wrap-up and reflection. I'm all caught up with schoolwork with is lucky because I'm currently sitting in the airport heading out to PDX for an Adventure Cycling tour guide training! New adventures on the horizon and I'm really excited about this potential opportunity. I know I will learn some great new skills and will hopefully be able to implement them with everything else I'm doing these days.