Six MAC members recently rode the event September 24th & 25th (~ 120 riders total). Denise Nichols, Elaine Jones, Barb Blount, Bruce Simpson, Greg Snyder and myself met at the East Valley Intermediate School. After the pre-ride meeting, we shed layers before departing since the weather was beautiful. Barb gave us a good laugh when she found a bendable figure from The Incredibles movie in Elaine's car and wrapped it around her handlebars. We couldn't think of her name, but a guy at the first break stop said it was "Mrs. Stretch."

We talked a lot with other riders from Seattle and Spokane as we headed out over Konnowac Pass, Nightingale Rd and on to Lombard Loop. As the name implied, we were in wine country so we stopped at our first winery (Sheridan?) shortly after 10am for some tasting. There were many more opportunities along the way, even with a couple of breaks/lunch at wineries. Riders could buy wine and then call the "wine wagon" to pick up their purchases.

Elaine got the first goathead flat. As we were stopped along the roadside watching her change the tube, a gal whizzed through the nearby stop sign and narrowly missed getting hit by a hop truck. Pretty scary; she must have been watching Elaine at work instead of the road signs. We continued on with Barb keeping Mrs. Stretch adhered to her handlebars. Bruce and Greg would sometimes ride ahead and then wait. Lunch stop was at another winery (Teft? - funny I can't remember the names). As we got closer to Prosser, Bruce and Greg decided to go ahead since the gals planned to visit Chukar Cherries in Prosser before checking in at the Middle School. As we approached Chukar Cherries we found Bruce and Greg across the street, changing Bruce's flat. A little interrogation revealed that the men had taken a wrong turn, but they emphasized they only made one wrong turn. They apparently still found their way in to Prosser.

We set up tents at the Middle School; Greg's wife joined him for the afternoon. Dinner was fabulous: prime rib, chicken, salmon, saffron rice, wine..... We then walked over to the High School to watch the hot air balloon "glow." Six balloons which were part of the balloon festival, were fired up and then lit/fired intermittently to music in the darkness. Quite a neat sight. The gals turned in early. Bruce must have been sitting in his lawn chair (yes, he packed a lawn chair!) because I heard him say to someone, "My friends all went to bed."

Upon awakening, Greg discovered he had a flat. We packed up all the gear and left it in the pile for the trucks to transport back to Yakima. Denise then noticed that she had a flat as well. Good thing Marcus from Valley Cycle was still there; he changed the tire quickly and we headed out to breakfast. Didn't realize when they said, "Breakfast is in the park," that we were eating outside. Bruce's computer said it was 44 degrees; we ate fast. As we headed out of Prosser on SR 22 and looked back over our shoulder, we could see many of the hot air balloons just heading up. What a gorgeous sight on this sunny, but cold morning. The guys went ahead, and as we started a paceline I heard someone mumble, "I think Elaine talks less when she's cold." We give her such a hard time (I think she's still excited about being selected Science Teacher of the Year). Again, we had good breaks/stops along the way.

At the Schell Produce stop, one of the Kiwanis guys told Barb that a rider was spotted heading over Konnowac Pass. This rider was not wearing a helmut and fit her husband's description. Sure enough Brian met us outside Toppenish, but he had his helmut on now - "Busted," Barb said to him. Shortly thereafter, Denise's husband Russ also met us at the Parker exit off I-82. He was pretty mum when asked if he had his doctor's O.K. to be out on the bike riding. We had one last stop at Donald before heading in to East Valley Int. School. "Mrs. Stretch" (AKA Elasta-girl per my 12 yr old) finally tumbled off Barb's handlebars a 1/4 mi. from the school; we had to stop and retrieve her.

There was a post-ride BBQ also - boy these Kiwanis guys were good. This ride was put together by Kiwanis of Yakima and Prosser as a fundraiser. It was very well organized and it was fun just to sit back, enjoy the sights, and let someone else carry the gear. A few stats: ~85% of the riders were from Seattle/Spokane (and therefore needed 1-2 nights lodging) ; the wine wagon picked up over 22 cases of wine for riders, Marcus fixed 40 flats over the two days (with donated tubes from Valley Cycle). I did a dance in the parking lot since I was the only rider in our group not to flat during the weekend. When I got home my nine year old said, "Mom I've got a flat-can you fix it for me?" Sure enough, a goathead. Carla Andringa