progressive bicycle dinner

The day after the James Taylor concert we had a date with the bicycle club. We have never done a ride with the club before but were invited to join them for their semi-annual progressive dinner.

The idea is this, you ride from house to house eating your way through the courses of the meal beginning with appetizers and ending with dessert. Everyone brings something to contribute so it's also a potluck. We got tagged for dessert, hence the pumpkin pie mentioned in an earlier post. (My red pouring bowl was perfect for the task of mixing the filling. Not a drop was spilled in the transfer! Thanks, Mom!)

We began with layered dip and chips as our appetizer at the first house, then we pedaled the long way to the next course: soup. One of the goals of this ride appears to be, never go the direct way if there's a more fun and invigorating option. Enroute to the soup course we had a pause so a member could announce that she had reached her 1000th mile for the year. Oh, by the way, this member is in her late 70's. She's pretty amazing in my book.

After soup, we headed to the University district for salad. There was a pile of luscious greens and a salad with chunks of chicken and pea pods. Both were delicious. The next course was the main dish. We were getting a bit nervous about arriving at this next stop. It was up the Rattlesnake which could mean a good bit of climbing. Luckily, they weren't located where it initially sounded like they were, though it was still a bit of a climb.

Main dishes included a quiche, two versions of a Mexican casserole and meatloaf. I'm not ordinarily a fan of meatloaf but decided to try this one. I'm glad I did, it was moist and delicious. We're supposed to be getting the recipe.

And now it was time to head back down the hill, returning to almost the starting point, for the dessert course. Besides our pumpkin pie there was chocolate cake and cheesecake served with a yummy punch. There was a small fire out in the front yard in one of those pit things and lots of lounging around as folks relaxed. We had ridden about 33 miles and taken six hours to cover it. Eating every 8-10 miles really slows things down!

As this was my first ride of the year, my butt was very sore for the next few days. I think Rob's was a bit sore, too. He hadn't ridden since the fires crept in this summer. We were pooped and satisfied when we got home.