Dear Friends,
Just a note to let you all know that Chuck and I are "vacating" between July 3 and July 18. Accordingly:
1. We won't be scheduling any weekend rides for the next three weekends.
2. If you want to ride one of my permanents between now and June 18 you'll need to advise me RIGHT AWAY and get your registration and waiver into my hot little hands by no later than Thursday, July 1.
3. If you rode one of my permanents this past weekend, please send me your control card right away. If I don't receive it by Thursday, I won't be able to submit the results to RUSA until I get back on July 18.
4. The Deep Creek Lake weekend is scheduled for July 24-25 and we're really excited about it. We spent 4 days there over Memorial Day weekend and it was total bicycle heaven. And note that daytime temperatures there are usually at least 10 degrees cooler there. It's 77 degrees in McHenry today! If you haven't already advised me that you're planning to join us but would like to do so, please let me know as soon as possible and make your own reservations at the Oak-Mar Motel for Friday and Saturday night, July 23 and 24. If for any reason they've filled up, there are other lodging accommodations available in the area.
Oak-Mar Motel
208 North 3rd Street
Oakland, MD 21550-1326
(301) 334-3965
On Saturday, July 24, we'll be riding the Diabolical Double Metric, and on Sunday we'll do a 42-mile "recovery ride." Both rides will start at the Deep Creek Lake Discovery Center. I'll send detailed logistical info to the participants after we get back from vacation.
5. I'd like to make up a special ride in memory of Stan Miller, but won't have time to even start on it until August 1. In the meantime, if any of you have any suggestions/brainstorms for what to include on such a ride, please drop me a line off list.
6. I have one Stan story that showcases his special sense of humor and I'd like to share it. A few blue moons ago, Stan happened to be doing one of my permanents the same day that we were doing a ride where our morning rest stop just happened to also be a control on that permanent. When we got to the store I was dismayed to find the store closed. (The store is now under new ownership and I promise that won't happen again if you want to ride "Paul's Paradise" .) We decided to "rest" there in any case and eat the snacks we had with us, hoping that Stan would come by soon. He did, with 5 minutes to spare before his control closed. I quickly signed his control card for him, offered him some of our snacks, and suggested that he get moving right away so that he wouldn't miss the window for the next control. He said he wasn't in a hurry and had plenty of food with him. He then pulled his camp stove out of his pannier, sat down on the curb, and proceeded to heat up his can of (Dinty Moore Beef Stew???--Help me out here, those of you who were there). We all commented jokingly about the fact that he carried a stove and rations with him on a permanent, and he laughed and said "Oh, I always do this. Once I was with my daughter (downtown??) and I got hungry and stopped to cook some food on the street. She said 'Daddy, please don't do that, people will think we're homeless,' and I looked at her and said, Hey, we're just one paycheck away, babe."
There will never be another Stan-the-Man.
Crista
