A cool day and cooler evening drew club members to Baskin Robins. Nikki and Mike, Debbie, Lance, Corrie,Melissa,Cliff, Sherry, and Sheila met for the 6:30 ride. After several tries fixing Melissa's tire, Mike pronounced it rideable and we were off only slightly disappointed that Helen did show up as she apparently promised several of us.

It was good to see Sheila out again. She has been riding with the crazy ladies and did Winchester this weekend. She planned to turn back short this evening and when the group decided to go West toward Steptoe canyon into a headwind, she had plenty of incentive to turn around.

Despite the wind, it was a cool, comfortable evening. The ride to Steptoe canyon is quite pleasant. Today we got a chance to examine the fire damage. The winds had blown the fire through so quickly that it many places the grass was untouched while in pockets in still smoldered.

I rode my Giant Innova cross bike with the 38C knobby tires. I figured I had to since Linda had it fixed. For $200 bucks, I had better ride it at least once. 'Course now that I have, I probably won't ever again. Amazing to think that was the bike I used for my first century. I used to ride it around, with slicks, like a road bike--it is definitely not a road bike.

When Lance decided we should catch the lead group after Sheila dropped off, I tried mightily but just couldn't match the pace. I had to hustle back with a tail wind just to stay ahead of Lance and Melissa who were cruising at 18 mph. Mike made up for missing trime trials by hitting 28-29 mph on the eway back.

Cliff pointed out that this had not been an easy night what with riding into the wind and pushing it pretty hard coming back.

Still no one complained about the ice cream at the end of the ride. Though, I'm beginning to suspect some people of riding for the ride and not the ice cream. Melissa and Sherri both had something else to do so they couldn't hang out.

Remember why I ride?