Jimmy Jamboree

Saturday, August 24, 2013 was a special ride, the Jimmy Jamboree. Last
year in April, we had a fellow rider that passed away in the night
following the last day of Cycle to the Sea. It is still a little hard
to understand how someone who had just completed a 180 mile bike ride,
could just be gone so suddenly. Saturday though, we celebrated the
life of Jimmy Melton. There was a 5K road race, bicycle ride, and
softball tournament. I was glad to be able to participate in the
bicycle ride. My family also helped out at the rest stop along the
route. It was ver nice to get to see several of the ASAP riders out
Saturday. There were at least 16 ASAP riders as well as 4 of the
support crew. I rode with Greg Taylor, Brian Muscarella, and Karen and
Julio Rodriguez. The first part of the ride was very nice and easy,
rolling hills through quaint towns and beautiful country. The second
half of the ride was a little more challenging. There were some very
nice descents where you'd could easily hit speeds over 35 mph. As
always with that, there is the upholds to pay for it. There were a
couple of the hills that really sneaked up on us as caught us in gears
that were way too high for the climb. Probably the hardest was a short
steep uphill right after we had to stop at an intersection. This was a
great ride honoring a fellow rider who had obviously made a great
impact on his community.

At one point, Greg was cruising down a hill, and I was pedaling as
hard as I could just to keep up with him. I looked up to see a deer
crossing the road in front of us. I yelled for Greg to watch out as I
was afraid that it was not by itself. Just as I yelled, the second one
came out of the woods across the road. Greg was probably less than 20
feet from the deer when it crossed in front of him. I am glad there
were only two of them or we both may have been in trouble.

It was very nice to be able to see some of the ASAP family more than
once a year. Hopefully we can all ride together more through the year
in the future.