24 hours, not 24 hour's and 12 minutes.....

So much going on here it is hard to write about it all, but I will try.

First off, the return of Dear Dabby. My buddies last year started an advice column, and told me I was answering questions that people sent in. I just kinda answer in a rambling , stream of conciousness sort of way, and do no editing. I leave that up to them. Let me know what you think, or better yet, send me a question. http://portlandmessenger.org/main.php?e=DearDabby&t=questions

Rickreall. Oh, the green, or brown, fields of Rickreall. the grass was cut, the orchards were free of nuts, but the house was full of them, as the 2007 Rickreall open went off without a hitch. Which is good, because we didn't have a trailer anyway.

Many groups rode down. Dee and Claire were there on thursday night, on the way to Yachat's to hang with Ann's parents.
I rode down with Mange and Beefa, at least to Newberg, were we had a little break down.
No, not mechanical, mental, as I guess mange's pace was too slow for Beefa, and he took it out on me. there was also some control issues, as Steve wanted us to blindly follow him across Oregon. When I confronted him about our route, he flipped out, and refused to tell me, leading me to believe he had no idea where he was going. And this turned out to be entirely true, as after he left us in Newberg, he became very lost.

Mange and I had a nice ride though, took the hilly way, through the gravel. We bitched and moaned, and arrived, after only one flat tire, an hour after Beefa.

People started rolling in from the countryside, and the revelry began. Friday night is generally a nicer, mellower evening, and this was the case again.
Ryan has a much more detailed account on his blog if your are interested.


I survived the 24 hour alleycat, with Gary as my partner, fairly intact. We were legitimately beaten by Hazel and Grizzlie Mike, who were illegitimately beaten by Drew and Lucky. They were 12 minutes late for the 24hour cutoff, and were disqualified. It was also well known that they had a team of people doing things for them, as well as research. I know I spent at least two hours, if not more, researching and answering questions for myself, taking away from precious riding time. I slept one mere hour by the way.

Not only is this a huge violation of the race rules, but also a violation of trust between racer's. A 2 man team is just that, 2 men. I recall a moment, a week later, sitting at the Alberta Street pub, when Drew stupidly announced that "this is Kate, and without her, we never would have won the 24 hour race!"

Strangely, I don't recall ever seeing her there........ Go figure!

They ended up getting the $666 dollars, but Karma will get them in the end. We can only hope.

What did I get for my efforts? A lackluster Pabst , which cost the loser's, I mean winner's, less than a dollar.

For now, I leave you with a few of the required pics from the 24 hours......