What Have We Here?

Recent History:

Sunday, 2/7: With the tail end of another storm drenching Ventura County on Saturday, we (fairly astutely) postponed this weekend's group ride to Superbowl Sunday. Not too surprisingly, only about 10 riders showed up, all but one of us on tadpole trikes. Newby Gerald drove over from Simi to join the rest of us VCRR 'regulars' in the cool morning air. We started from Thille Park, rode over to Chumash Park for an early pit stop, cruised down the neighborhood Class I bike path to the Riverview Linear Park by Petit Avenue, and then on to the Johnson Barranca bike path. We crossed the Santa Clara River on the debris-riddled bridge by the Ventura Freeway (US-101), and headed over toward the ocean on Gonzales Road. To avoid the mud-encrusted lower end of the Arundell Barranca bikepath, we returned by crossing the river on Victoria and then up new territory on the Rancho Ventura Linear Park to the Gateway Plaza food court for brunch. Pix are from Stephen and the two Waynes; for some reason, no one is taking credit for the captions and dialog boxes this time.

2/20: It never sometimes rains in Southern California. But in spite of The Weather Channel's wishy-washy prognostications, this ride was NOT one of those drippy occasions. All you wimps who stayed in the TV room instead of joining the braver (or maybe just less busy) members of our group missed a really nice outing on one of the most perfect late Winter days ever along the Port Hueneme coast. Jim McM brought some of his homemade soda bread to meet us at The Palms, but he's still recuperating from recent plumbing repairs and wasn't up to the ride. Only six of us, all on Australian-built tadpole trikes, took off for one of the rare chances to climb up into the lighthouse at the entrance to the Port Hueneme harbor. The weather really was almost perfect – fast-moving, sharply defined, big puffy clouds against a sky that has never been better described than by Garrison Keillor's Midwestern enunciation of the single word 'cerulean'. The Coast Guard Auxiliary team at the lighthouse were great hosts, friendly, hospitable and knowledgeable; one of them even took a spin on one of our trikes, and we shared links to our websites. You can find out more about this key element of SoCal's coastal navigation system and its 111-year-old lamp, still with the original hand-made Fresnel lens and polished, soldered brass frame at this link.

After our tour, we cruised back up the newly paved bikelanes of J and H streets rather than retracing our outbound route of Rice Avenue and Bard Road. We popped in to Pho's for soup, sweet basil and hot green tea, before continuing on up to Gonzales and back to The Palms. Somewhat unusually, pix this time were shot by everyone in the group.

Sunday, 2/28: While it wasn't exactly one of our publicized VCVRR group rides, a few of us decided to get together for a quick cruise, just in case our First Saturday ride in March was going to be rained out. Six of us met at Thille Park and rode down to Pirate's near the Oxnard Airport, following our usual route at first but then deviating to ride out Los Olivos to Victoria. It was great to see Rich again on his first ride of the Winter. Not much unusual happened, except for one of Kay's front tires exploding (a very strange rim strip failure) as we were getting ready to ride, and Stephen getting a tad too creative while following from the front. Pix are from my old Sony.

Sunday, 3/7: It seems to be the pattern for this Winter's VCRR Group Rides that rainy weather plays a key role in scheduling. In keeping with that trend, this weekend's ride was postponed from Saturday and moved from Carpinteria to Oxnard to avoid complications from the downpour the weather folks planned for us that day. They delivered, even if it was a little late to have prevented us getting in a few miles before it all started. Sunday's ride worked out pretty nicely anyway, as 13 of us met in the small parking lot at Seabridge. Jim McM drove away after saying 'Hi' to everyone – maybe to avoid the jinx for our ride? The ten tadpoles and two bikes remaining cruised around the 'islands' of Seabridge, and then around the older section of Channel Islands Marina. By then we had a brisk west wind, as you can see from our billowing spinnies and safety flags. We rode up the beach to 5th Street and then (nicely downwind!) over to Pirates for lunch; at that point everyone had endured enough of the gusting chilly seabreeze, and we returned to the cars. Pix are from the two Waynes.

Ride Schedule:

This is a brief listing of some of the upcoming cycling events that may be of interest to our group. Links are provided for more info where applicable.

• Saturday, March 13th: St. Patrick's Day Parade, Downtown Ventura – RSVP!
• Saturday, March 20th: Third Saturday VCRR Group Ride – Museum of Ventura County parking lot, downtown Ventura, to Lake Casitas

Other News:

This Saturday, at least a few exhibitionists in the group are planning to vie for our FOURTH consecutive trophy with an entry in the St. Patrick's Day Parade through downtown Ventura. Bikes (recumbent or conventional) or any other human-powered vehicles are welcome, but historically at least, trikes seem to be the preferred mechanical conveyances for this event. If you've never ridden in a parade with our group, you should be aware that we tend to be the most active entry, hands down, riding big loops and figure eights, interweaving and swooping in a series of (mostly) near misses, and thoroughly amusing the spectators. My speedo usually reads closer to ten miles traveled than the official one to two miles for the parade route. There's no cost to you for the parade, except for trivial costumes and gewgaws; we're suggesting Kelly Green jerseys this time around, sort of like those available from Target for about $10. We have silly hats and theme placards for safety poles or frame mounts for everyone who shows up.

We'll meet at our shop on Main Street to prep (pre-stage) for the parade; it's a good idea to plan to be there by about 8AM, or a little earlier if you'll need to fit a borrowed trike or need some other special attention. We will need to be in the final staging area at Santa Clara and Figueroa by a little after 9AM. After the parade, most of us will take a short ride to a local restaurant, maybe Joannafina's for lunch. This parade is one of the most FUN rides our group does each year.

If you newbies or folks who haven't ridden with the group for a while need help or more information for getting to any of our rides, please email or phone me. Our business (cell) phone number is 805-794-0718 (Hours roughly 11AM-3PM Tuesday thru Saturday). If it's more convenient you can also call our home phone: 805-981-0339. If you have any other suggestions for rides, new topics or other contributions, please ping me. For convenience my email link is: