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Re: [RC] Ride amenities (was "Patriot Day Ride") - Sharon LevasseurI'm a brand new ride manager, and let me tell you, it was hard enough to provide even food/drinks for volunteers and a burgers/dogs BBQ on ride day. In fact, I ended up several (many) hundreds of dollars short of breaking even. Yet I found that lots of riders who I would have called experienced had NO IDEA what kinds of costs are incurred in putting on a ride. (I won't go into detail on what their comments were, as much as I'd like to.) My costs for a 30/50 ran over $3000 even though most of the awards were donated, and I only had 23 riders. Sure, next year will be better because I'll have already purchased a few of the things I'll need, but it won't help THAT much. Just a dose of reality for those who may not know... -Sharon L. in Maine (Hot Toddy Hustle manager) Quoting Barbara McCrary <bigcreekranch@xxxxxxxxxxxx>: It sounds like it was a great event! While I am not disparaging this event in particular, I also realize that some ride managers are unable, for one reason or the other, to provide such luxuries. Nowadays, it almost seems like the rides that provide more goodies draw the riders more than the ones with spare amenities. I can't say I blame the riders, but it seems that the focus is not on the trail and the adventure, but on the luxuries that are provided. I hope I'm wrong, because there are a lot of good rides offered that do not have all the frosting. Could this trend also be the reason that 100-mile rides are diminishing? The original idea was to endure a tough ride, discomfort, and challenges. Are we now gravitating to rides that are shorter, and ones that offer refreshments at every corner? Please do not interpret this as criticism of the Patriot Day ride, but as a philosophical discussion. I'd like to hear other opinions on this. Barbara ----- Original Message ----- From: amber applegate To: PNER ; ridecamp Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 8:14 AM Subject: [RC] Patriot Day Ride The local people from Greenville are wonderful! The local Grocer set up a lemonade stand at one junction where there was a water stop. He had the best ice cold lemonade, iced tea, organic bananas, apples for the riders, they had alfalfa for the horses at this stop. Amazing! Off to VC where so many people that were not even horsey people were from the town and volunteered to help. This was incredible to me to see coffee, buckets of iced drinks for the riders, food out in abundance for the riders, luscious alfalfa hay everywhere for the horses, candy, cookies, I felt I was at a party. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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