A few months ago, my friend Brendan saw a few pics I posted from one of my training rides through Red Rock Canyon. He'd heard about the canyon as it's kind of well known in the cycling community but he's never ridden it. We started talking about how cool it would be if he came out for a visit and we planned a ride through Red Rock. As the discussion continued, we thought we'd see if anyone else from the SoCal AIDS/LifeCycle community might be interested.
Brendan started to send out some feelers to see if there was any interest and we realized that, yeah, inviting the community to join us would make it a much more memorable experience. So I started looking for group discounts at some of the local hotels & resorts. We figured the gang would want to ride the canyon in the mornings then hit the Vegas nightlife in the evenings. But I ran into a little problem...
The weekend we had scheduled for the event fell in the middle of March Madness. Rooms were sold out everywhere and what was left was incredibly spendy. Some could probably afford it but many of us gotta watch our pennies... and put what little extra we have toward gear and flights and bike shipping for the event. We wanted to try to keep the cost down to open it to as many as possible and that's when I came across...
Bonnie Springs Ranch Motel.
What the hell? There's a motel out there?!?!?
But it's there. And their room rates were about half what we could get anywhere else in Vegas that weekend. So I asked about group rates and Mary, the motel manager, gave us a great discount on a block of ten rooms. With tax, it came out to something like $44 per person per night. Then, when I emailed her to confirm I wanted to reserve the rooms, I included a link to my ALC page to let her know a little more about the group that was coming. She immediately wrote back and offered another 12.5% discount on the rooms saying it was a great cause - and that discount equaled the total cost of the local room tax rate! So now our rooms were only $39 per person!
When I told Brendan and sent him to the website, everything changed. Our little ride through Red Rock Canyon... which started as nothing more than two friends riding a legendary cycling route... turned into Wild West Weekend!
Yes, we had a theme! And if there's anything ALCers love as much as cycling, it's a theme! We figured the group would still want to venture out into the neon world of Sin City so as we began putting ideas to paper we included a bunch of events on Saturday night out in the Vegas everyone knows. Buffets and shows and Bellagio fountains and showgirls. I mean heck, participants were driving all the way out from Los Angeles, Palm Springs and San Diego... they might as well enjoy everything Vegas has to offer.
Let's fast forward or this blog will be as long as the three months of planning that went into this event.
The rooms booked quickly. Even had a few staying off the ranch. Like I said, this route is well known in the cycling community (and, lucky me gets to ride it as often as I want!). But hey, it's Vegas so people wanted to make the trip. And the timing worked because most of our training rides are over 50 miles at this point. So Brendan and I chose to offer a 40 and a 60 mile option. We recruited ALC Training Ride Leaders to ensure we upheld AIDS/LifeCycle's promise to safety and we had a Sweep Team confirmed to make sure no rider was left behind. I worked with the accommodations. Brendan worked with the amenities. I mapped the routes. Brendan invited the community and coordinated those details. We worked together on entertainment, meals, and all the nitty-gritty that comes with organizing a group like this.Then, on Wednesday, folks started to arrive. My cyclist rep got here a little early because her wife had a work commitment here. And let me tell you... it seems they fell in love with the Vegas that few ever get to see.
Although Mel had to work, they did their best to enjoy the ranch to its fullest. And Kerry rode some of the route to check it out... I mean, we had to check on those cattle guards because that's not something cyclists often deal with! Safety is a big thing with ALC and cattle guards, well, they can pose some challenges. The ladies really lived the ranch... visited the petting zoo, listened to the wind whistling in the middle of the night or the burros doing their thing early in the morning. On Friday, the rest of the guests began to arrive and we all met up at the Restaurant & Saloon.
I don't know what people thought when they arrived. Or how they felt about the kitschy rooms when they checked in. But at the meeting place that night, we had a blast. We introduced ourselves to those we hadn't yet met. We broke bread together and ate BBQ ribs or raised our pints of beer to the adventure to come. Then we sang (yeah, they have karaoke out there too). It was a true ALC event.... community, friendship, stories, life, love. It really was beautiful.
Yes, we laughed and sang and danced and ate and got to know each other. Without any of the bright lights and big city of Las Vegas. And we LOVED it!
The next morning, the folks who ran the restaurant offered to open an hour early so we could have a hearty breakfast before our ride. And hearty is an understatement. I think the biggest seller was Grandma's Country Breakfast. Eggs any style, country fried potatoes, ham, sausage or bacon and fresh baked BISCUITS! Nom nom nom! Of course, it was a little odd using the restroom that early in the morning and realizing you had to pee in a....
... clawfoot bathtub.When I walked in and saw the sign, I started looking around the restroom for the urinals... until I realized this thing had urinal cakes in it... this was the urinal! I mean, that's usually reserved for Sunday Afternoon Beer Busts at the Eagle in San Francisco!
So after we all peed in the tub, we rode out. 40 miles. 60 miles. Joined by some Vegas peeps too (yay, I met some locals to ride with in the coming months!). And it was... well, it was breath-spec-taking-tacular!
Soooo many pics. Soooo much fun. I can't even begin to share it all with you. But we did it. We completed our miles. And they were challenging. And at the top of the highest climb - the biggest hill (actually it was a mountain) the infamous Ginger Brewlay met us with a bunch of hugs & love & encouragement!
Okay, I'm realizing that so much happened this weekend I could write and write and write about it. But I'm running out of time. Running out of space. To say the least, this event brought a lot of smiles. Brought together the ALC community. We shared something that's indescribable. New friends and old came together to continue our journey toward an AIDS free world. We pedaled up hills you can't imagine. We had rode down hills that took us to unimaginable speeds. We rode side-by-side... shared the stories of why we ride... we bonded in this effort that you've heard so much about. Some of us have lost many to this disease. Others haven't. Some work for AIDS service organizations. And some have 9-to-5 gigs like me. We ride for different reasons. We each walked down a different path that somehow brought us together in this cause. But during this weekend - and during the event - it all becomes one reason. Our reason.
There were only twenty of us and I learned so much in just two days. I can't even comprehend what the actual event will be like when I'm surrounded by more than 2,500 cyclists and nearly a thousand volunteers and spend a week traveling through California with them.
After we hopped off our saddles, w met again in the Saloon on Saturday night. Even saw Miss Bonnie herself sitting there sipping her hot water with lemon and listening to the country crooner. Sunday we ate together again. Rode together again. Shared together again. And avoided that bitch of a hill. Nearly ninety miles for the weekend. And probably about 90 homemade biscuits too. In the end, we never made it to the bright lights of the Las Vegas Strip. Somewhere along the way we realized that wasn't what we were here for. We were here for a cause. We were here for community. And we had one goal. To ride. Together. To the end of HIV & AIDS.
So we pedaled as hard as we could to get us closer to that goal.
And you, my sponsors... my supporters... were right there with us. One was really right there with us... my friend Lisa and her family joined the entire crew for dinner Saturday night. Met the amazing people behind this event. And shared a moment with them like I'm sharing this whole experience with them.
As for me, well, I crossed 1,000 miles in training that weekend surrounded by them... surrounded by you... and visited by a drag queen on top of a mountain. And, maybe I got a little something extra in my life. Something I'll never be able to put into words. But let's just say, driving home I had the biggest smile I've ever known across my face.
Thanks to ALC. Thanks to all the Wild West Weekend riders and volunteers. Thanks to all that believe in this cause. You see, we don't ride our bikes to save a horse, even if I do donate to the Wild Horse Protection Fund. We do this to save other lives... those of our friends, of our family, of our brothers & sisters in the community. People who are helped so much by every turn of our pedals... and by every dollar donated to our ride.
Finally, since there's no way I can blog about this weekend to do it justice, here's a little slideshow to share the experience with those who couldn't join us....
Word on the trail is this will happen again next year.... so I'll see ya then pardners!
J-
Just beautiful!
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