Longest Ride before we go to the Show.

In the movie Bull Durham (a baseball movie about the minor leagues), they called the major league "the Show." Like, "yeah, he moved up to the Show, but he busted his elbow, so they sent him back." Or, actual lines from the movie, "What? You been to the Show?" "Yeah, I been to the Show." That clears it right up, doesn't it?
Anyway -- we've been training for the Princess Promenade and it's only TWO weeks away. Today we had our longest ride and we'll start to back off a bit until then. We'll ride 74 miles along the gorgeous American River Bike Trail.

Our ride started this morning in Davis with some tire-pumping. This is little-teeny Jen trying to get all of her weight to push down the tire pump.


She would have had to have more than 120 pounds on her to push it down. I think the pump won.
With very few words, we headed out. Why? Because I told everyone to show up at 7 so we could hit the road. When did I get there? 7:20. Mmmhmm. Brilliant, Heather.
Fall is definitely in the air.

I didn't get a great shot -- but what a fun way to start the day (for them and for us):
Were you hoping for a cycling-tangent? Here are some better views, from Labor Day '07.
The Cyonic Balloon as seen from the ground:
The Cyonic Balloon as seen from the basket:

A view from the basket, looking the other way:

Awwww:
Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Vanessa got two flats today, on top of the several she's gotten in previous rides. The 'showing off how well she can change a flat' bit is getting old.

There are a lot of funny things to say about these photos, but I'll leave that to your imagination.





And then it was fixed, and we headed for our big hill. Everyone kicked some Big Hill butt. I was so impressed. And even after I said there weren't any more hills, and then it was clear that there were actually lots more hills (little ones though), no one complained (much) and we zoomed through our last 25 miles or so.

Oh, look at me. I'm a hairy cow. Take my picture.

Heading home.


How lucky are we that we get to ride here?