Tag Archives: Great Western Rally

Bike Rides

A Trip Down Memory lane: Charity bike rides in california

When we lived in California, we were so fortunate to ride in a number of charity rides. Most of the time, it was just Mike and I but on a couple of trips, Mac (our Lakeland Terrier) came along in his special trailer. We rode every weekend on regular rides but we also went on some special charity rides. This blog will take you on a tour by tee shirt.

The charity ride we consistently found a way to attend was the Tour de Palm Springs. It is held every second Saturday in February. It supports all of the charities in the Coachella Valley. More than 10,000 riders participate and it is quite an event! It was the first charity ride for me and became a favorite. Typically, we would make a weekend of it and stay in some wonderfully funky hotel and eat in their wonderful restaurants. Palm Springs is a wonderful place to visit for the weekend.

As it was the first time I participated in a charity ride, it became my favorite. The first time we went, it was thrilling and terrifying all at one time. I was riding a regular 2 wheel bike at the time. When we stopped at a couple of the lights with hundreds of riders, I fell because I couldn’t stop fast enough due to foot surgery. After that, Mike bought me my ICE Recumbent Trike and it and I have been partners ever since. The trike freed me to ride as much as I wanted and to go on these wonderful charity rides.

Anyway, here are are few of the tee shirts we received for participating.

My first Tour de Palm Springs. It wa so thrilling to be in a ride with 10,000 other people.
This was the last time we were in California for the ride. We left the following week for our new home near Sarasota, Florida. Oh well, it is still the west coast.
Here is a map of the Tour de Palm Springs. They had 3 rest stations available. Some with music.

We went on other charity rides, all of them were favorites. We wanted to be a part of a ride that took us over the Coronado Bridge in San Diego. The bridge only closes one time a year for bikes so we made sure we participated at least once. All ages participate at different levels but the thrill is going across the bridge. It is a beautiful sight.

Mike is in the foreground as we are just getting ready to go over the Coronado Bridge.

The Cool Breeze Ride was another of our favorites and I am sure I have at least 2 or more tee shirts from that ride but I could only find one. It was always fun to go to Ventura. The beaches are beautiful and up the hill is one of our favorite places in California (among many) Ojai. The ride is beautiful except for the part where you have to ride on the 101 towards Santa Barbara. It is pretty creepy to have trucks and buses going by you at 70mph. We always stayed at the Ventura Marriott. It was close to the bike route and right at the beach. The views of the Channel Islands is spectacular and it is just fun. We don’t ride the century for numbers of reasons but also there is significant climbing on this ride.

Here is a map of the Cool Breeze Century. For us, we went as far as Carpinteria.

We finally drove to Paso Robles for the Great Western Bike Rally that is held there each year. We visited Paso many times and it is another favorite place for us. So much wine, so little time. We went at least once or twice a year when we lived in California. The routes took us all over the area. We found wineries in a different part of the area that we didn’t know about.

Yup, that is Mac with a bad haircut! We had to stop at a winery along the ride.

Hope you enjoy this blog about our charity rides. They were always fun. The weather was always beautiful. It was always a treat to see how many people came out to support the various charities and enjoy the amazing rides. Now, what do I do with all of those tee shirts???

Websites: p://www.greatwesternbicyclerally.com/ https://tourdepalmsprings.com/ http://www.bikethebay.net/ https://coolbreezecentury.com/