Winter Riding with Red and RFL 2010!

This past saturday I had the opprtunitiy to ride with one of my best riding buddies, Red Wood. You all should give Red alot of credit since he is in his mid sixties and in pretty darn good shape! I convinced him this past June to ride in the SCride4life with me and he did a fantastic job seeing that it was his first one.
We set out saturday morning and headed up toward Eastatoee valley. The weather was a nice 45-50 degrees with a really wintery feel to it with cloud-covered skies. Red decided that he wanted to tackle the Dug Mtn. climb, otherwise known as the GranyGear hill, so off we went. I decided to get out my phone and shoot some silly little interveiws with the video function as we chugged our way up the climb. I think Red saw less comedy in it than I did but we had a good time with it anyway. We saw the usual stuff along the way with the added bonus of tons of squirrel-hunters and hog-hunters filling the woods along the sides of the roads throughout the valley but none gave us any trouble and were cautious about us on the roads, which was nice. You never know what kind of response you'll get in the mountains with hunters and grown men in tights! We wound around through the valley and headed up into the exit climb past the famous Bob's Place tavern (aka..scatterbrains) I catch alot of jokes about how the folks at Bob's would probably give us a hard time, but to their credit they've always been freindly and waved rather than made any off-color comments. I think most of them write us off as crazy for riding bicycles through the mountains anyway, I get the comment all the time that the only way they'd ride up there is with a motor! I just tell them that I am the motor and have a good laugh and ride on. We finished out the ride that day unscathed and had a great time just riding throughout the countryside talking about the upcoming spring rides and of course RFL 2010!
I encourage anyone and everyone who has a bike and will ride to check out this years SCride4life. It is the annual cross-state ride that benefits the Upstate Pregnancy Care Center in Seneca, SC. It's a great time of riding and fellowship for a great cause! Check it out at www.scride4life.com and join in the fun! We need support drivers and helpers as well as more riders this year. We raise almost half of the yearly budget for the center and they really need our help to continue the mission. You get three days of riding plus two nights stay and food, plus continuous SAG support throuout each days stage. Where else can you enjoy a multi-day cycling event that includes a custom jersey and all the mentioned support for a donation of $300? Plus you will be helping out a great cause in addition to having a great time! I look forward to seeing you there! To God be the glory and be safe out there. Until next time....