SUMMER 2025: Our Summer ride schedule started off, at least, as not only more interesting and fun, but with more people showing up to ride than for the rides of the last few weeks. For the first weekend of July we bumped the ride (or added another one, maybe) to participate again in the July 4th Parade at the Channel Islands Marina in Oxnard. This small neighborhood parade may be the most fun of the several parades we usually ride during the year. Nine of us pre-staged wearing coordinated patriotic RWB outfits, thrilling kids with bubble guns and whirling and looping around in the chaos as two-wheeled cyclists who started behind us mingled with the hordes of golf carts stalled as the parade came to an end. The lineup of entries for this parade may be twice as long as the parade route, but everyone, including us, had a great time. We also managed to log almost 20 miles before or after the parade, finishing with lunch at the local IHOP. The next day six of us rode again through Riverpark and northwestern Oxnard to acknowledge Q's REDACTED! birthday.
SPRING 2025: We bumped the regularly scheduled VCRR Group Rides in April to the second and fourth Saturdays, beginning with a return to the newly revamped and (finally!) reopened Ventura River Trail. That was a bit of nostalgic fun, but mostly a huge plus to see what I think is the longest Class I trail in VC, not only back in operation but radically improved. Our fourth Saturday ride was cancelled because of rain. In May we began with a short easy cruise along the MUPs around the lakes in Oxnard's Riverpark area. For the Third Saturday VCRR Group Ride, we returned to the Pollinator Palooza in our Team Bee Flat costumes, riding to the event from Thille Park with Derek, Ventura City's cycling coordinator who showed us some of the improvements they're making to bike lanes and filling us in on other current and planned upgrades. Our 'official' VCRR Group Rides in June were, to be bluntly direct, actually not quite as well attended or as interesting as several of the 'impromptu' rides we took mid-week or on the alternate Saturdays.
WINTER 2024/5: This was an unusual season for us 'more active' VCRRians. We've continued to have low turnouts for our 'standard' scheduled group rides, but we've compensated by meeting for other rides on off weekends and weekdays, coordinating with other riders (mostly trikeys for the last year or so) by text and telephone. Weather has sometimes been cool, windy and/or rainy, but mostly pretty wonderful for being out on wheels. We finished off this season by repeating last year's participation in Ventura's very popular St. Patrick's Day Parade, and it was even more fun this year. "BUBBLES!" will be what most of us will probably remember as the key word of the day, as the spectators responded with enthusiasm to our on-street antics, high fives and an arsenal of hand-held bubble guns.
AUTUMN 2024: Just before Summer ended this year a group of VCRRians repeated our Team Bee Flat performance in Santa Paula's Labor Day Parade. We had a couple of rides essentially cancelled, but for others we had a small turnout, with some folks we hadn't seen for months showing up again. About 5 to 8 of us have been meeting for mid-week rides in venues varying from CSUCI to Rincon Beach. In mid-November we rode from Pleasant Valley Fields up the Calleguas Creek MUP and then to lunch at CSUCI's Islands Kitchen. We closed out the month of November with a Bad Weather Brunch at Lazy Dog in The Collection shopping center of Oxnard, followed by a last Saturday ride around Oxnard's marinas, with lunch at Pizza Man Dan's. We returned to the marina area for our First Saturday ride of December, ending with a group brunch at IHOP, and finished the season with a tour of the lakes in Oxnard's Riverpark area.
SUMMER 2024: Our VCRR Group Ride schedule for the Summer kicked off with a repeat performance by the Bee Team at the July 4th Parade in Channel Islands. Simply summarized, this was the most FUN we have had at a parade in a long time, for both us and the spectators. Instead of riding on the third Saturday this month, we had a group ride and picnic on the fourth Saturday to acknowledge the birthdays of VCRRians born in July (including Q, Kay and Wayne). We rode from Crescent Park in Oxnard, beginning with a loop around the newly formed lakes there and cruising by the Dallas Cowboys Training Camp and a few other nearby parks, before returning to the start for a classic picnic lunch of salads, chips, sandwiches, fruit and soft drinks. It was FUN!
SPRING 2024: Our First Saturday VCRR Group Ride in April was a cruise up the coast from Ventura to Rincon Beach Park. We used a sorta staggered start, with some folks riding a bit farther than others by starting from Mission Park in Ventura, while Pokey Patrol people began about 2 miles up the old coast highway. Slightly atypically we didn't regroup for lunch this weekend. Our Third Saturday VCRR Group Ride in April was a cruise from Thille Park to a turnaround in Saticoy, with a few side trips for hillier terrain, ending with a lunch at Stonefire Grill in the Gateway Shopping Center.
In May we took advantage of a last chance to ride from Pleasant Valley Fields to one of our favorite buffet brunch spots at CSUCI's Islands Cafe, with an up-and-down cruise of Calleguas Creek for added mileage. On the Third Saturday we disguised ourselves as giant bees, complete with matching yellow and black striped shirts, yellow helmets with antennae, oversized insect eye glasses and colorful hummingbird themed windsocks to participate in the Polliator Palooza at Barranca Vista Park. Our quartet of unusual trikes was a big hit at the event. We also had so much FUN that we did a repeat performance at the Insect Festival in June, and the Bee Team will almost surely be part of our ride schedule in the future.
For our final VCRR Group Ride of the Spring, we hosted a visiting group of trikeys: BACK, the Bent Afficionado Club of Kern, from Bakersfield, who made a special trip to join with us for a ride from Marina Park in Ventura up the coast. This ride had the highest turnout of the year so far, with 21 cyclists in all. Everyone had a great time before we splintered on the return to Ventura, with about half the group opting for lunch at Topper's Pizza.
Other News:
We are semi-desperately looking for suggestions for new, different or retro/classic VCRR Group Rides for this year, either in person, by phone or email. We're also very eager to expand the number of cyclists to participate in any of the rides we're planning over the next 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 home phone number – usually the best way to talk to us – is 805-981-0339. If we're not home you can also try my cell phone: 805-612-7662. Text messages will not work on our home phone, and are slightly discouraged for the cell phone. Don't even think about Facebook or X! For convenience my email link is: