Death Valley 2009

Bob, Gary and Kevin looking for Borax









Danny at the pre ride meeting

Gary gives and autograph
Ya Ta!! Jubilee!!

I got an email today forwarded with Danny's intial impressions so here is my report! :)

My Dad always told me, "Keep your expectations low and you will never be disappointed."

I have modified that to, "Keep your goals high and your expectations reasonable." It just works for me.

When I met Gary earlier this year, he asked me what time I was shooting for on the DV ride. I told him 5 hours. He kind of stopped for a minute and then said, "That’s a 20 mph average."(With the look that said I must not be playing with a full deck – grin)

Well over the summer we rode with the Nebo Ridge crew on 30 mile rides, sometimes in sweltering heat and I think the best I did on that ride was just over a 21 mph average (& I know you believe me when I say the Nebo Ridge ride is no Death Valley) and most of the time, I was in the 19 mph range after getting dropped. So I adjusted my goal back a bit to 5 ½ hours with full expectation of doing it in 6 with the reality being 7 hrs 34 minutes As I did not factor in 6 stops that averaged 10 min each or leg cramps.

I know that these rides are not a race, but as many of you know…..it probably always feels like a race when riding with me (grin) Just the way I roll wid it. Having time goals keeps me motivated on a lot of levels.

All that said, achieving goals are really byproducts of enjoying the process. I’m not talking about the pain and suffering involved in completing a DV ride (although I do enjoy that in some twisted way)

The most enjoyable part is working with a great group of people, raising money for a great cause. Some high points of the camaraderie that stick in my mind are

Gary and Kevin acting like there was some diabolical competition between me and Gary.
They are poisoning my food and I’m messing with Gary’s bike, like we were really doing that…….. Or were we?

Bob’s corny jokes, “3 mean walk into a bar and 1 ducks.” Classic then his singing, “Lord it’s hard to be humble” awesum!

Danny blowing his drink out his nose when for some reason I remarked , “I pee through my skin.”

But the one that had me in tears was when we were at dinner and Rick kind of snapped his head to attention and said,” Look at all that liquor over there.” And literally ran from our table. I was laughing so hard I cried. Especially when he came back with carrot cake and no liquor ;)

I am really looking forward to doing this again in 2010 and hopefully we can take a lot more peeps with us this time!!