the ride

We did it!  And it was hard.  The ride ended up being 90 miles and 5700-6000 feet of climbing, depending on whose Garmin we use!  The last downhill was pretty sweet and my top speed was 40 mph.  The other grandma in the group had a top speed of 48 mph.  She is more daring than I.

This morning we got up early and I took this picture of Mt. Bachelor from our hotel balcony.

 The group met at our hotel and we started off shortly after 8:00 am following a photo:

Since we were riding around Mt. Bachelor, we saw it from many angles:

After 20 miles of a steady uphill we stopped to regroup and take pictures.  These are the boys that had BYU jerseys. (Notice Mt. Bachelor in the background.)

It was a really beautiful area for a ride. Yup, there's that Mt. Bachelor again.

That last picture I took while I was riding uphill.  We returned to the hotel and had a post ride feast as a group.  It's been a fun weekend.  We've been out to dinner twice, seen two movies, shopped and rode 90 miles.  I think we've accomplished a lot.  I just wish I had had more time to go back to that quilt shop I liked....

road trip

We are in Bend, Oregon.  Why Bend, you may ask.  Perhaps you remember last August when Mark and I rode around Lake Tahoe with Mark's "imaginary friends."  Well, they are at it again.

The sports message board that Mark posts on has many avid cyclists.  About 10 of them are joining us in Bend for a ride around Mt. Bachelor.  It should be interesting.  Eighty-eight miles and about 5,000 ft of climbing.  But the last 18 miles are all downhill.  More on that after we ride tomorrow.

Yesterday we drove up here and on the way stopped at Crater Lake.  It was a beautiful day and scenery was wonderful. I took two pictures and used PSE8's Panoramic stitch function for this photo (click on it to see it full size!):

Last evening we settled into our hotel which is right next to the Deschutes River where it *bends* (thus the name of the town) and right next to what is called the Old Mill District.  There are stores, restaurants, a cute bridge and parks in the Old Mill District.  Oh and a movie theater complex.  With a Ben & Jerry's next door.  We couldn't be more ideally situated.

Above, our hotel is the tall building in the background.  We have a room with a view!
We keep seeing these signs which we think are pretty funny:

After dinner, we walked around the area which felt good after being in the car all day.  We brought flat Ainsleigh on this trip with us.  If you don't know about the Flat Ainsleigh Project, go to Sarah's blog for all of her exciting adventures. 

 

We took Flat Ainsleigh to France with us as well and soon those pictures will be on Sarah's blog, but we'll just post our pictures of Oregon here.