Tour De Cure for Diabetes

I had a wonderful weekend for the American Diabetes Association's Tour De Cure! My mom is diabetic, and Dave's Mom was diabetic before her death (which played a definate roll in ending her life early 22 years ago) and one of his brothers is also diabetic. This cause is near and dear to our hearts. I want to let Patty at Morning Ramble know that Dave's team was riding for her daughter Melanie too!

Dave and his team had rented one of those huge econoline 15 passenger vans. There were 8 people including me plus all the bikes and gear, etc. The 400+ cyclists left from the USC stadium to ride their choice of either 85 miles if you were doing the regular ride, or if you wanted to ride the "century ride" you took an extra loop that put you at 100 miles for the first day. Dave and his buddies are die hards and decided to do the century ride!

So while they were setting off on their cycling, I loaded the van with
my massage canopy and table and all the other stuff I needed, and drove
down to St George SC to meet everyone at the finish line at Woodlands
Highschool out in the middle of "nowhere'sville SC". It is SO fun to be
in the lowlands area of the state. The rural roads are scenic, and the
spanish moss drips off the old oak trees and just waves in the
breeze...love it!

I set up my massage booth outside in on the grass, The canopy/tent thing
gave me lots of shade, and there was a nice breeze blowing. Saturday was
mostly overcast, so it took most of the brutal heat and made it
bearable. I was fully booked with massages from about 12:30pm when the
first riders came in, until close to 5pm when we had to tear down and
head to our hotel...they had set up huge tents at the hotel outside and
we were catered a dinner by "Sticky Fingers" BBQ...mmm! It was also a
"luau night" And everyone was in hawaiian shirts and leis. Actually
since it wasn't quite hawaiian fare, it was more like Margaritaville
night! Fun.

Everyone was so exhausted from riding the 100 miles (and me feeling like
I gave 100 massages) that we were in bed by 9pm. We had to be up at 6am
to get breakfast and transport the team guys back to the highschool so
they could start their second half of the ride at 8am.

After dropping the guys back off (this ride had about 400 riders total,
plus all the spouses and families and support/volunteer people. It is a
very well run and well attended ride!) I went back to the hotel to
gather up the rest of my stuff, take a shower, and head out to James Island County Park, which is just off Charleston. This is where the ride was ending,and it was a beautiful setting for the party at the end of the two day ride.

I got to the park just about the same time as the other vendors and
support vehicles...the lunch after the ride was being catered by Moe's
Southwest Grill! What is funny too, is that as I was setting up my
canopy/tent in my chosen spot...the beer wagon set up next to me. I knew
this was a good location because it was going to give me great walk-by
traffic....and cyclists didn't mind sipping on a beer while they waited
their turn for their massage! *LOL*

Again I was fully booked, and also cozily tucked inside my canopy/tent
when an afternoon shower came through. It just added to the ambiance.
the shower didn't last long, but it sure cooled everything off nicely
and smelled great. I was so busy that I never had time to get some of
the Moe's grub myself...so on the way home I made the van stop at Mc D's
instead of a rest area, just so I could have something to eat.

I enjoyed meeting the cyclists from all over. Quite a few of them are
from my area, so I passed out a lot of biz cards, and hopefully will get
some calls from that in the future.

I hope you all had a great weekend!
Bonnie