On August 20th,2017 over two dozen club members toured the Castle Rock area for the annual Signature Ride. As with past Signature Ride events, this one wasn’t about the ride, but more about the adventure. Four teams of riders departed Phillip Miller Park on a 2-hour conquest to find and document (by photo) a wide array of somewhat meaningless and arbitrary items. While the general theme was oriented around visiting many of Castle Rock’s public art fixtures, numerous other elements were to be identified as a means to generate team points.
Each team had a route map that led them to numerous pieces of public art throughout the downtown and nearby areas. At each art location, the team was required to match a name with the art piece. All teams performed respectably in this endeavor, particularly with the challenge of the City having moved and/or changed at least a couple art pieces and locations. Many riders were surprised at the art’s existence, and several reported they had never noticed pieces that they had driven by on numerous occasions.
While out searching for public art displays, teams were also encouraged to pick up bonus points with pictures and props. Bonus points were awarded for a picture of each team on a slide (think schools and parks), a menu from a local restaurant, a unique yard decoration, a punch card from a local coffee shop, and a picture of a wild animal (extra points if it was a snake).
While all teams performed similarly in the art and pictures/props categories, the overall winning team was decided by the much wider breadth of the “body parts” competition. Teams were given a point for each picture they provided of something that had the same name as a human body part. Examples were a cigarette “butt”, a sprinkler “head”, the “crotch” of a tree, or the “arm” at a railroad crossing. As would be expected from a band of idiots on bikes, the results of this portion of the competition were extremely amusing, sometimes “R” rated, and very creative. One team visited a hardware store for nails, elbows, eyes (think needle), etc., while the winning team took maximum advantage of a visit to a grocery store. In their almost 2 dozen store pictures they had an ear of corn, head of lettuce, elbow macaroni, kidney beans, hotdog buns and more.
Upon completion of our adventure, the club compared stories at a post-ride BBQ at Phillip Miller Park. Our body part stories and ideas provided many laughs for everyone, and a special thanks to Mike Finger for his creativity in developing a ride theme. A big thank-you also goes to Audrey Will for putting together the post-ride BBQ. Our condolences to the group that has to come up with a 2018 theme, as this one will be hard to match.