Bicycles East Veteran’s Day Ride Recap

Today of course was the Bicycles East Veterans Day Ride. Just over 60 miles through Mecklenburg, Cabarrus and Union Counties. The weather forecast was for rain in the morning tapering off to a nice sunny day by mid-afternoon. For this ride we have the entire family involved. First off Annette was working at the registration table, she was a cyclist and would love to again but some inevitable knee surgery prevents her from riding until it is over, hopefully in 2009.

Nicole and Richard rode the 34 mile option and I attempted to ride the 64. If they are so inclined I will let each of them tell you how the ride went for themselves. I will just tell you about my ride.

Well it started out fast, I mean real fast. It was wonderful to see that Matthews Police were involved in this event also. The sight of traffic in all directions stopped on Highway 74 while a bunch of crazy cyclists ride by is impressive. I managed to hang onto the lead group just past this point. They were probably going about one mile per hour faster than I really should have or could have gone. When I dropped off the pace I managed to regroup with three other riders, we were still booking, mostly 25-26 mph down Mill Grove. I managed to hang on that group to just before the first rest stop.

I decided to stop at the rest stop and when I did, Ann noticed that I had a big knot on what she thought was my knee. She called Jeff over and he says he saw it from over 10 feet away. I had a feeling my ride was over. For those that don’t know the rest of the story. I had a huge (I would say the size of an orange) hematoma just under my left knee and it was swelling. Ann and Angela made me sit down and elevate my leg while Jeff called the paramedics. As I waited Some had a good laugh and others were repulsed by the sight of the hematoma. Let’s just say that when you ask to see someone’s injury then respond with ‘gross’ that is not very helpful.

Anyway, since I take a blood thinner it was a good idea to go with the paramedics to the hospital emergency room just to be on the safe side. Turns out the blood thinner was the cause of the extreme swelling and after examining the x-rays they said there was no other damage. So they sent me on my way with a bunch of instructions on how to treat a knee injury (totally useless), crutches (again another useless prop) and a knee immobilizer (This is just embarrassing).  What was worse was when the hospital volunteer, A very cute young girl was putting on the immobilizer she had asked me how it happened and I told her I fell. She asked if I crashed and I said ‘no, I fell over.’ At that point she started laughing, hysterically, and through the laughter said I needed to embellish that story a bit.

Nicole took some pictures and if you must see them ask nicely and maybe she will write a post about her day.

Now for some serious news. A very petty, small minded person. Who I believe is one of my readers, moved some of the marks on the road this morning. It happened between the time the first riders went through and the bigger second group passed. Several people made a wrong turn as the result of that. It was corrected right away but its too bad that that small minded person did not think what could have resulted.

First off, the ride was for charity. Why would anyone want to sabotage an event that supports local charities. I think it was certainly an evil thing to do. Secondly, although my incident was minor, what if it was me that took that wrong turn and it took more time for the paramedics to get to me. I hope you understand that internal injuries for people on blood thinners could result in serious injury and even death. I certainly hope you enjoyed doing that because if I ever get proof I will expose the person(s) involved. Better yet, step up to the human race, take responsibilities for your actions and confess.

I am also asking that if anyone saw anything suspicious surrounding the road markings that please send me an email (if you use the contact page here you may use the name ‘Lucy’ to remain anonymous). I will pass the information on to those who can do something about it.

To be honest, I just rode for the chili. I am a big chili fan and have some definite opinions on what makes a good chili, what ingredients and how spicy it should be. I love especially hot chili, but spicy and hot are not the same thing. Some just keep adding spice or hot peppers until all flavor is drowned out and the only good thing left is that it is hot. Unfortunately those types of chili do not rate well in my book. Others have a lot of flavor but to appeal to a wider audience they tend to be on the mild side. Some use far too many pinto beans. I prefer to have a mixture of pinto and kidney beans, but if it must only be one type of bean then I would want it to be kidney rather than 100% pinto.

Some prefer a meatless chili, I say what’s the point in meatless chili, might as well eat lentil soup! Give me some good old ground beef, not chunks of meat, ground up meat! Yeah, now you are talking. Some cumin and a few choice peppers, cayenne and some other spices, slow cooked in a crock pot. The first day the chili would be good, by the second and third days that chili would be awesome!

So who had the best chili there? I don’t know, or should I say I can’t answer that for you. What I can say was that my favorite one was… Well I really can’t answer that one either. The trip to the hospital took too long and I ended up only able to sample about three or four dishes, not really enough to be fair. Oh well, there is always next year!