26.2 Grandma: Little Red Riding Hood 2011

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What an awesome two days! I have the best husband. What other husband do you know who would be willing to get up on his anniversary at 4:45am volunteer as a parking attendant at 6am and take his wife to an all girl bike ride for their 14th anniversary! Then wait in the heat of the day for her to get back. I love you Jan.

Marsha & Jan - 14 years happy.

Jan and I left our doggies in Jack's great care and headed out about 3:00pm on Friday for Lewiston, Utah to the Little Red Riding Hood volunteer dinner, live entertainment and pre-ride expo. We checked in at the volunteer booth to get our cute Rock & Roll swag bag with a shirt, bottle and dinner ticket. Then since it was dinner time and there were no lines yet we decided to eat before shopping and checking out all the booths. Dinner was yummy. The homemade buns - ummm we both had the chicken instead of hamburger and there was salad, potato salad, chips and a huge piece of chocolate or white cake. Drinks too!

Yes, it was this guys idea to go pink.

Inside the trailer.

Inside car.

When we finished we went shopping. Lots of cute things, lots of good deals. I got another pair of bike shorts at a great price and a shirt. There were some long checkout lines but Jan suggested I finish shopping and he get in line. Ok, yes I know I am spoiled. After the shopping we spent some time listening to the band.
About 8pm we headed out to Preston, Idaho to stay at the Cub River Guest Ranch for the night. This place was up the beautiful Cub River Canyon, what a nice evening drive I was so glad it was still light. The accommodations were a little different than what I expected. It is like a house and is set up for families to stay together and have family reunions. Jan and I had the basement all to ourselves, lots of other Little Redders upstairs. Warm springs under the building keep the basement temperature perfect. Comfortable bed. And it was 16 miles from the start line in Lewiston - no signals - no huge lines of cars driving in because we were coming from the opposite direction. Well ya, and we left at 5:20am to get to our parking volunteer job by 6am.
The parking job was fun. I've never done it before and it's not as easy as it looks. Sometimes drivers don't see you or they don't want to follow directions. But for the most part all went well and drivers would wave and smile and go the right direction. I developed some cute arm signals that worked out great. And as Attendant 4 I was able to save a great park for my friends when they arrived! After 3 1/2 hours tho my arms did get a little tired from all my waving. Jan and I had volunteered when I didn't get into Little Red and so it still worked out - someone relieved me a little early and I was able to get ready and go on the ride.

Liz, Marsha, Cyndie, and Shalauna.

Because of me having to get ready at the last minute, we missed the last 50 mile police escort out of the starting line by one minute. My riding buddies? Cyndie, Liz and Shalauna. We quickly caught up with our group and we were on our way to a day of riding fun.

Liz doing some between ride exercises.

Shalauna taking a cute break.

Shalauna & Liz.

Me & Cyndie - Biker Chicks

Marsha, Cyndie & Liz rock Little Red!

Marsha, Shalauna, Cyndie & Liz.

You can tell by all the smiles that the day was good. Lots of fun pedaling, some good uphill performances and some great coasting and outstanding downhill speeds... Cyndie at 43.3 mph! We took our time at the rest stops and enjoyed the snacks and the break off our bikes. There was girl talk, joking, and also some serious moments as we passed some ladies who had a bike accident and had to be taken to the hospital.

Cyndie's cute Little Red 2007 jersey.

BCC ride friend and Cyndie.

Lunch stop.

My bike taking a rest break.

The lunch stop was yummy with Subway sandwiches we put together ourselves with our favorite toppings. There were chips and cold drinks and cookies. Plus all the normal riding snacks too like pretzels and licorice and p & j sandwiches and Oreos with peanut butter and all girl favorite - chocolate. There was a lot of Almond "Joy" going on for our ride.
As an added note I was reminded that I forgot to mention the free ice cream after the ride. There was also a choice of several yummy toppings. Plus the other thing I forgot to mention was the cute bike chain bracelet we all received at the finish line. Thanks BCC for a great ride.