Monday, December 01, 2008

Thanksgiving Ride 2008 - The Spirit of Giving in Action!

This ride called the Appetite Seminar, Turkey or Thanksgiving Ride is a tradition that started in 1975 (click here for some history and click here for last year's ride story/pictures).
There are several popular social gatherings spots along the route of this ride, and I decided to document what happens on three of them:

1) At the start, by the Java Hut parking lot in Fairfax, Marin County. And the spirit of giving starts right here with Java Hut offering free coffee, bagels and cream cheese to the riders.
2) The second popular gathering spot is Horse Shoe Junction, where the spirit of giving is also in action!At Horse Shoe Junction, Josh (a great mechanic from Fairfax Cyclery) and Dave, offer pancakes, hot chocolate, and hot coffee to any rider wanting to taste their goodies. They start carrying their cooking equipment and ingredients days before using their bike trailer.
and the pancakes are quite yummy!!!! Kristy really liked them!
3) And this the third popular stop spot I would like to talk about, at the top of the hardest climb of this loop, by Green Hill where Danny, Jim, Shrek and others were giving out GUs and Tamarancho applications. Based on Danny's estimate, about 900 riders went by this year.

Here is Danny giving out GUs
Jim giving out GUs Shrek giving out GUs
And here are more celebrities I found along the route...
Tom who decided to bail due to the climbing and went home without partying.
Mike, who probably should have bailed too since he was sick like a dog... but he did the whole loop!

Julia was also out on her single speed
Marty sticking his tongue at the camera and missing Nancy
Mary Lynn visiting from Tahoe, I miss her!
Nick probably done with the worst climb



Randy and Barbara looking good after the climb


even my neighbor Nick was there with a friend!
Gravy all happy after eating pancakes at Horse Shoe Junction
Jeff also quite happy since the climb is over!
Kristy and John who I decided to join to start heading back to Fairfax
Charlie with a friend said hello to the camera
And this is me all covered up in many winter layers, the only way I can survive for more than 5 minutes in the cold.

And when I though I was done with pictures I found Ricardo at the Java Hut parking lot putting his' and his girlfriend's bikes on his motorcycle rack! A home made bike rack with old Wilderness Trail Bikes Ti hardtail frames.
The End! Until Next Year!

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