We start our first mountain ride.

Left to right: Bill McConnochie, Dick Haymaker, Wolfgang Kamm (McKercher's German friend), David McKercher, Don Davidson, Charlie Olson, Holley Haymaker, and Mary Davidson.

There a have been a lot of great minis - this one ranks among the best. Can you imagine  bunch of 67 (+/-) year olds out riding bicycles all over the mountains in Moab, Utah? Well, we did, and we had fun doing it.

Dick Haymaker and Charlie Olson get credit for putting it all together.  We had all been on the Bike Florida Ride in March 2006 and had such a great time we needed an encore.  While having that famous dinner at Fliegel's house in St. Augustine the Moab plan was hatched. 

Needless to say the training build up for Moab was very competitive. Emails were flying all over claiming how many miles and how many feet of elevation had been ridden.  Jay Sargent trained so hard that he had a bad accident during a training ride and banged himself up to the point he could not join us. We missed him as one of the Power Riders.

Dick had rented a house which served as our hangout, collecting point and dining/beer hall.  It worked perfectly and provided a great sense of camaraderie.

The first mountain bike day we took the Gemini ride which is about 10 miles out of town and mostly downhill. It was billed as a beginner ride and indeed it was not too bad - although Charlie led us up Bull Creek which  was a tough ride with lots of big rocks. The mountain bikes are designed for this but some inexperience on our part made it quite an adventure.  Holley had packed a lunch for us so we picnicked about half way through in the shade.  We had some real sights on this ride.

The second day we checked out the site of Don's PhD thesis and received a lecture covering  300 million years of geology in the process. Don was quite excited to share with us.

Third day was rainy so we visited nearby Arches National Park to view some really wonderful works of nature. Also Wolfgang and McKercher took an unbelievable tour in a Hummer.

Day four was the skinny tire ride  -- unfortunately Holley and the Davidson's had to miss this one due to other commitments back home.

The following 5 pages contain a brief summary of our photos. Page 1 Pictures

For even more pictures  - checkout he following two off-site albums.

Mini in Moab McKercher's photos

http://picasaweb.google.com/chasbo.charles  -- Olson and Davidson photos

For all classmates -- Biking is fun, healthy and an excellent way to reconnect. We encourage all to join us for the next Biking adventure  www.bikeflorida.org

Good health everyone