What Have We Here?

Recent History:

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.

St. Patrick's Day Parade, 3/13: This was the first parade the group has done in – well, a long time, maybe a year. About 15 of us met at our shop, about a mile and a half east of downtown Ventura to prep our cycles: two bikes, a Hase Trets tagalong and a dozen tadpoles. After the hectic hubbub of decoration and costuming, we zoomed down the hill to the staging area near the mission. The scuffed, balding area on Kay's left front tire chose that venue to finally blossom into a very noticeable bulge, thumping as she started the fast descent on Santa Clara. We swapped trikes and I rode hers back to the shop to mount a new Marathon Racer. Even after I arrived at the line up, we had almost another hour and a half before our number came up. Off we went – finally! – climbing through the mission parking lot and out onto the main parade venue on Main Street. As always, our recumbent cycles are the most active parade participants, as we all zoom around wildly in big loops and figure eights, narrowly missing each other and the braver photographers who risk their toes and kneecaps for action closeups.

A quick routine for the reviewing stand, which we actually managed as planned and practiced on foot this year, and then it was all over. We zinged back down to Santa Clara Street and then grunted up the long climb back to the shop to shed funky hats, bubble machines and gewgaws, and then rode down to Joannafina's for lunch. 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 20th: Third Saturday VCRR Group Ride – Museum of Ventura County parking lot, downtown Ventura, to Lake Casitas
• Saturday, April 3rd: First Saturday VCRR Group Road Trip and Ride – Santa Clarita
• Sunday, April 4th: Special Group Ride – Thiile Park, Ventura to First Sunday at the Santa Paula Airport

Other News:

This Saturday (3/20) will be our last ride of this rainier than usual Winter season. The group will meet in the parking lot for the Museum of Ventura County, located at the corner of Santa Clara and Junipero downtown. Please join us for our classic ride up to Lake Casitas, arriving about 9 AM, expecting to be underway around 9:30 or so. Kay and I will be there with coffee and morning munchies as usual. This route is about 27 miles, uphill going out, and mostly on the Class I RTC Ventura River Trail. If you need help finding the start area, check out this map or driving directions.

For our First Saturday Group Ride in April (4/3), we'll take a road trip to Santa Clarita to ride the extensive bike path network by San Francisquito Canyon and the Santa Clara River. We'll meet at Valencia Heritage Park, located at the corner of Newhall Ranch Road and McBean Parkway, for a ride of about 24 miles with lunch at the Stonefire Grill. The following day, Sunday April 4th, is Santa Paula Airport's First Sunday, with its vintage airplanes on display, and some of the group is planning to meet at either Thille Park or Chumash Park in east Ventura for a ride over to check them out, followed by lunch at El Pescador restaurant.

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: