Had another fine time at the RANS Rally, with Dave Rothgeb, Lynn Morrow, and Justine Viera (GDB) along... We discovered that the Ramada had $30/night rates, so we jumped on it!!!
We drove up on Thursday, detouring to Greensburg KS to tour that town that had been destroyed by a 2007 F5 tornado -- they're slowly rebuilding in "green" mode, with efficient building and design concepts. Also toured the "Big Well" museum.
On the way in to Hays, Dave encountered an unsympathetic Highway Patrol officer...
Friday morning dawned rather chilly, so we suited up to do the 35-mile Cathedral loop
Justine found that a Rocket works quite nicely for her short stature... and rode it both on the Ice Cream ride and on the Saturday 50-miler! I also rode a Rocket on the Ice Cream ride - it's a very nice handling bike, very nimble...
Friday dinner was at Gella's... famous for lemon ale...
Saturday, we did a ~47 mile loop south and west -- I rode the factory Seavo, with Kim Dopita (who is back at RANS) on the back, since Terrie wasn't along...
These kids pedalled their legs off this weekend!!
Here is us on Saturday at lunch in Ellis
Saturday afternoon was more test riding, then a dinner/party at the factory
The RANS Mini raffle was won by a guy in Oregon
...but, I won an F5 frame...
...but, with skillful negotiating, upgraded it to a Rocket frameset, to be delivered in a few weeks -- in custom white with metal flake!!!!
The Amish couple made the Hays paper on Sunday, so we 'feted' them at the IHOP...
Overall, the weather was PERFECT, the company excellent, and the riding very enjoyable again. They will probably do it again in September next year, so pencil it in -- it's 550 miles, about 9 hours plus driving.
My pic album with all 150 pics is at
http://s977.photobucket.com/user/pbrown8js/library/RANS%20Rally%202013%20Trip