Solana Beach Senior Center Event
Wednesday, April 2, was our first event with just about the whole team here. Most of us had arrived the day before, so the morning was quite overwhelming learning about the ride, meeting each other and then cycling over as a group to the Solana Beach Senior Center for our first lecture. Some people had literally arrived at our home base 30 minutes before we left for the event! Despite the general air of confusion, we all managed to don our new bright orange jerseys and headed off down the Pacific Coast Highway on our recently reassembled bikes.
Having trained in Boston through the winter, this first ride was such an amazing treat. I actually got to ride outside in shorts and didn’t have to wear multiple layers, winter gloves, hats and shoe covers. We arrived at the center after a beautiful ride along the coast through several lovely little beach towns. My only concern was the monster hill descent in Torrey Pines State Park that we would surely have to cycle back up on the way back.
I should preface my description of the event by letting you know that the center hosts a lunch every week on different educational topics ranging from health talks to travel events to cultural opportunities. The center also hosts a variety of trips for seniors to various places in the area that they might not be able to see otherwise.
Joe, Katie and Anuj gave a short presentation on what Ride for World Health is about. Then, we all got on stage and gave a little info about where we’re from and why we’re doing the ride. It was a great moment for me learning about the wildly different experiences and motivators of all the people in our group.
After our talk we split up into groups of 2-3 at each table of seniors. I happened to pick quite an extraordinary table of ladies. The youngest was 78, and two were months away from celebrating their 90th birthdays, but all were very interested in our ride and full of wonderful stories to tell us. Between all of them they had been around the globe several times, worked as nurses and civil servants and raised and moved families across the U.S. While they had many questions for us, their main concern was that we couldn’t possibly manage to eat enough food if we were cycling 80 miles a day. Because of this they made sure that we had extra helpings of dessert, which is always ok with me 
Unfortunately, lunch came too quickly to an end, and it was time to get back on our bikes with our bellies way too full of delicious food. Thank you so much for a lovely afternoon and such warm hospitality Solana Beach Senior Center! We hope we encounter such wonderful hospitality everywhere we ride!
