ADV Woman Clinic - Day 1 - July 22, 2016

OMG!  Yeah, OMG a thousand times!!!!  Okay, let me back up a bit.  I arrived in Granby, CO and later that evening Lydia showed up.  We're sharing a room.  So, before Lydia got here, I was notified that I needed to go to PowerWorld and complete my registration and then go to the Rodeo grounds for a meet & greet and attend an orientation meeting.

Fine, except is was raining!  Heck darn, gee whiz.  Okay, I got into my riding gear (again) and rode off into the wet, raining late afternoon.  Found PowerWorld, completed my registration and liability waivers and then headed to the Rodeo grounds.  Did I say it was raining?  Did I say I was already tucked into my lovely motel room?  Did I say I had already changed into comfy clothes?  No?  Well, that's how it went.

I made it to the Rodeo Grounds and parked right next to the port a potty, just in case!  Our meeting was to be held in that white tent.

 A few other peeps showed up.  Not seeing any beastie bikes here, yet....

 Plenty of folks were camping.  I considered it for a nano-second.  On one hand, it's nice to be close to the event, but on the other hand, a bed, a shower, electricity, space, etc.  Yeah, I like the motel better :-)

 From Washington State, Delia and Scott.  Hey, look, Delia has a beastie bike too!  Yippee!  Oh, and she is even shorter than I am and she rocked that bike!

 Another Washingtonian, Ruth.  Ruth, Ruth, Ruth, you will never meet anyone as fun as Ruth.  Full of energy (good energy) and positive power.  Plus, I love the color of her bike :-)

 Ruth minus the helmet and ....?????

 More and more peeps were arriving.

 Now, it was time to gather in the tent for some munchies, mingling, socializing and finally, the orientation meeting.

At orientation, we were told what time to be there the next day and how events would unfold.  Good, except brekkie was at 7 am!  However, we really only had to be there by 8:30 for a tech check and the clinics would start at 9 am.  Okay, I can do that!

I motored back to the motel after the meeting, met up with Lydia and chatted a bit before hitting the bed.  I knew I had to be up early the next morning so no partying tonight!

Again to the Rodeo Grounds.  I quickly realized I probably needed to strip down the Beastie Bike so I got busy taking stuff off.  First to go were the hard bags, then the hydration system, spot tracker, Zumo and power plug.  I decided to keep the mirrors and windscreen on.

Here it is, NAKED!!!!!!  Side view....

 Rear view.....

 She still has humongous breasts but her hips are pretty small without the side cases, lol!

 A shot of lovely Lydia getting psyched for our clinic today.

 Ladies (and a few men) began to gather for the clinic.

 Oh, you could also post your mail here if you needed too :-)  Hahahaha

 I thought we would be riding in the arena.  Nice, soft, raked, no rock, dirt.  Nope....not there.

 Here is Louise, one of our instructors.  She had the bestest tool roll and helped me get stuff off the bike.  Thank you Louise!

 Hahaha, Ruth pumping everyone up before we start!

 Okay, now it gets serious.  One group over here and another group over there.  The woman in the distance, pointing is Pat Jaques who is the master mind and organizer of this event.  She is incredibly awesome!

There were two groups, one all ladies and another mixed, men and women.  I was in the mixed group.  No problem.  One of the BEST things about this event was there were no egos going on.  We were all here to learn, even those who were very experienced.  So, the playing field was even.  We started out with simple drills, learning to stand on the pegs, how to balance your weight, etc.  Then we moved on to stopping and skidding the back tire.

Funny, this bike is so new to me and has so many features, it took me a while to figure out how to turn off the ABS and put it into Enduro Pro mode.  Finally got that figured out!  So, we would ride down the field and perform the exercise and return to the line.  Well, that meant making sharp turns in the dirt to get back in line.  Hahahahaha, oh my, more laughing.  Sometimes I did quite well and other times, no so much.  Here is what happens when you are making a sharp left turn and you accidentally hit the throttle.  Yup, the front end washes right out and down you go!

 I LOVE this series of pics.  Hey, we all know it didn't happen unless there are pictures!  Fortunately, for me, I simply stepped off the bike as she went down.  I didn't fall but Beastie Bike flopped right down!

Yay!  I'm a conquerer....not really :-)

 My favorite picture, giving you all the ADV salute!

 Nice sticker on the windscreen!  I'll be keeping this one.  By the way, this event is the inaugural ADV Woman Rally.  And, it's been fantastic.  I know this rally will grow and improve.  I'm so tickled to be one of the first!

 We had a wonderful lunch of burgers, hotdogs, fruit, salads and chips sponsored by PowerWorld, just down the street from the Rodeo Grounds.  Very nice, and thank you so much!

 After our clinic, it was time for seminars and of course I attended the Pick Your Bike Up seminar.  We learned lots of good tips.  Just so you know, my first drop, I picked up the bike with one helper stepping on the back wheel.  My second drop was downhill and I hit the ground.  Fortunately, not hard but I was headed downhill and needed a bit of help getting my old, tired bones up off the ground.  For that drop, four of us made it look like a cake walk to pick up the Beastie Bike.  Hey, at least I'm even, drops on both sides now :-)

 Here they were showing us how to use a hoist to pick up the bike which included a ratchet strap.  Pretty cool!

 And, then, just so you know I didn't spend all my time laying on the ground :-)  Here is a shot of me actually riding dirt.  Look where my head is pointed.  Yeah, I learned some stuff.

I wasn't going to post this until I found more photos, but decided to anyway.  I'll probably post an epilogue with photos from other peeps.  For now, this is it.

Man, I'm tired.  No, I'm exhausted.  Heck, I didn't even stay for dinner.  I rode back to the hotel, took a nice cool shower, put on comfy clothes and now I'm ready for bed at 7:30 pm.  Hahahaha.  Yup, I'm wiped out, in a good way.  What a great day of learning.  I so appreciated there were no egos going on.  Just everyone looking to learn something.  These ladies (and the few guys) are awesome!!!!

Tomorrow I don't have a scheduled clinic in the morning but do have seminars in the afternoon.  However, I'm going back to the Rodeo Grounds and practice what I learned today rather than take a ride a bout in the mountains.  Yes, riding the Rockies would be awesome, but I've done that many times.  I think I'm going to take full advantage of this Rally and go get some more skills training!

Hey folks, thanks so very much for following along.  I can feel your positive energy (and believe me, I need it right now).

Hugs to all, I'm a happy girl.  Oh I forgot to tell you......hahahahahah, I think I'm the OLDEST woman on the BIGGEST bike with STREET tires!  Yeah, I'm having fun, baby :-)

Cheers,
Cletha