Archery - Lord of the Rings Style

On Saturday morning Dave and I woke up bright and early and went to a free archery class in Pasadena. We wrote our name on the list and hoped to get in the class. We were the last two people let in. About 10 people were turned away.

We were separated into a group of 6 people and an instructor. We were given a bow, 4 arrows, an arm guard and finger guard. The instructor showed us the basics and let us go to it. We shot from 10 yards away from the target.

Dave had some archery experience before and was pretty good from the get go. He was getting a lot of bullseyes. There was another boy in our group who was really good too. I started out ok. Not as bad as the girl beside me who shot arrows into the grass past the target.

Towards the end I was getting a lot better. Here was my first bullseye. It's considered a bullseye if you hit any of the center black circle.

On our last round of shooting in our small group, Dave and I made a bet. Who could get the most bullseyes. I won! I got three bullseyes.

After our small groups we went back to the main archery field. They always have a contest for the first timers. They put a balloon in the middle of the target and whoever pops it, gets the dollar inside.

So all the first times lined up. I bet there were about 50 or so of us. We were counted off, 1 or 2. Dave was 1. I was 2. The twos had to step back and the ones lined up 10 ft away from the targets. There were 6 different targets with maybe 3 or 4 people shooting at a target. You only got two arrows to try and hit the balloon. Dave was super close but didn't pop one.

My turn. It was me and three other people shooting at one target. Two boys and two girls. I saw one arrow fly and miss. Another arrow was shot and missed. I brought my first arrow up, took aim, and POP! I hit it right in the center! I won the $1. I felt pretty good since I was one of very few girls to win.

I had only done archery once way back in grade school. I had heard about this place and thought we should check it out. We had such a fun time and did well for our first time. I'm hoping to go back again this next Saturday. It'll cost $5 but I'll be worth it!

Midnight Ridazz

On Friday night I went on the Midnight Ridazz Critical Mass ride with Dave and our friend Jonathan. Every last Friday of the month they hold a massive bike ride somehwere around LA. For this ride we started at Wilshire and Western in downtown.
We had to take the metro from Pasadena to downtown with our bikes. We arrived right in the middle of it. There were maybe 100 riders there and tons of cops. Cops on bikes. Cops on motorcycles. Cops in cars. I guess they feel the need to escort the riders since we take up so much of the road. Our ride started at 7:30. It was crazy! I've never seen so many bike riders in one place!

Here's a bunch of the police escorts.

When we rode we would take over the whole road. The cops would ride/drive ahead and get the traffic to move over for us and block intersections so we could go through red lights. If you were a car at one of the lights, you had to wait a long time.

We probably took up a good 6 blocks or so when we ride around. I bet there about 500 people or more that night.

We rode for I'd say a good 15 miles and then took our first stop. We had pretty much gone to Venice Beach. We continued on and started heading back to downtown, but the cops kept weaving us through random side streets and going on annoying detours than bringing us back to our starting spot. Which by the way, was the nearest Metro stop, so we had to get back there eventually to get home.

When they pulled over for a second break, the three of us decided to split for the main group and head straight back. The last 10 miles were horrible. I was riding my classic Schwinn one speed bike which made hills incredibly miserable. But we finially made it back. I went home with a sore back, sore legs and sore butt. It may be a long time until I do another one of those rides.