Mother Hen or Hotte at the Hottern' Hell Hundred

I'm stealing a page from Jesse's blog by telling this story in photos rather than with words - well, maybe a few words. The 2010 Hotter'n Hell Hundred was a blast. It was cooler with temps in the lower 90's. We had good friends with us, and we made more friends. Here is Jesse, Toby and Asher at the trade show Friday night. Asher belongs to good friends and is a wonderful young man of 15. He has great expectations of being a bike racer. His enthusiasm was amazing.
Here is Toby and me - one of our better shots. Here we are in the wee morning hours unloading for the race. Here are the young men who rode with us: Joseph, Adam, and Andrew. I felt like a mother hen taking care of her chicks this weekend - boys are so needy. I thought everyone was riding the 100K, but it turns out that Adam rode with me in the 25 mile ride. He was great fun - I love someone to pick on and Adam was easy pickin's. Adam and I joined up with another young man from Duncan named Steve, whom I had never met before, but he was friendly and easy to ride with. Here we are lined up for the start of the race - a behind me shot and in front of me shot (Steve in the corner leaning to get out of the shot). Keep in mind that we were several blocks behind the starters of the race. In other words there were 13,000 bikers in front of us.

Once again riding through Sheppard Air Force Base was the coolest part of the ride. I tried to take a video of the young airmen lined up cheering us on. With my camera pointed at them, they went wild cheering - but having a blond moment (senior moment) I managed to turn off the video as soon as I started to film. It is a very short, funny video. Here is a shot of the Sheppard rest stop and the young men who held our bikes and served us drinks and cookies.

I made a joke about the bike number pinned on my jersey - notice that it says 2010 Hotte. That's me! I felt quite the hotte with those pilots.

Here I am with Adam and Steve with the hot pilots taking the photos. Such nice young men:)

Steve and Adam and I finished the race about 10 AM. We hit the trade show one more time. Steve had to head home, but Adam and I sat under a big tent in front of a huge fan and drank cold beer and visited with other bikers. I do love watching people and meeting them too. I managed to catch Toby and Jesse as they crossed the finish line around 1:30. They had made good time, but had been held up for a half-hour after a bad accident and a biker had been air lifted out. There was also a strong south wind that made things a bit rough. Still, Toby said it was much easier than the Dehydrator. After the finish line was the water - a fire hydrant shoots water in the air while bikers cool off. I think this shot says it all.