Death Ride 2008-Leading up to the big event!

Here is DJ, with our bikes in the truck. We drove up on the Wednesday night/Thursday morning, just in time to pick up our race packs for the Death Ride and start to get really excited!


We then had a really nice relaxing afternoon in lake Tahoe, while DJ had a massage, followed by a delicious italian dinner with lots of wine/beer.








I was very relieved when Coach Phil announced our tune-up ride would be starting at around 9.30 am as we were pretty tired!





We got up and drove over to a lake, and enjoyed a spectacular ride up to 'Blue Lake'. We were captivated by the beautiful wildflowers, and the stunning scenery.







I was really happy to capture the beauty of the lovely lupins by the side of the road, but there were many more spectacular flowers everywhere!





We were quite worried by the smoky air, but only now do I realize how hazy it was with all the wildfires that were going on.





The ride continued up and down some rolling hills, ending up at the beautiful Blue Lake.

There were some interesting sights, including this joke bathroom which some of us fell for!



I saw Phil resting on a rock, and I thought we'd be enjoying a nice leasurely break by the lake, but the mosquitos were everywhere and we were getting bitten to pieces, so we made our escape pretty quickly!! Notice the forced smiles and the 'take the photo-quickly' expressions!!


We then made our way back to Minden and had lunch and a leisurely afternoon. We were happy to see a pizza place right next to the hotel so we had our carb loading dinner then tried to rest up before our super early morning the next day!