If I would rate my group riding experience, I would say that I have little to no experience. It was the second time for me to ride with this group. I learned a lot from these guys and I had a lot of fun because all the members were comfortable within the group.

The day started off with everyone gathering at Total Gas Station in Valenzuela. We waited for everybody and made sure that no one will be left behind. We took off at around 630AM. The weather was perfect, the roads for the most part were in good condition.Around 70km away from our meeting place, we met up with the tres amigos and grumpy at McDonalds. After a few minutes, we took off and that was when the fun and excitement began. We passed by long straight roads and twists going up and down the mountains. What I liked about this was that everyone stayed organized and kept their pace.

We had some scheduled stops to get some gas and short breaks from San Fernando to Olongapo. We had brunch in “coffee shop” Olongapo at around 11 am and took off at 1230pm. We had approximately 140km left for our destination. This was the time when we got separated from the group. I was riding with Pongkie, Shawie, Onin and Alex. Everyone kept their pace and we did have some unscheduled stops. J When Pongkie gave the signal, we slowed down and parked our bikes under a tree and relaxed for a few minutes. Meanwhile, Ron and his group also had some unscheduled stops because they had to wait for us, and made sure that we were not left too far behind.

We arrived at our destination around 2pm. We went to our designated rooms and had a short rest. Some of the guys took a short dip at the resort’s pool and treat ourselves with Halo-Halo. around 4pm, we went to Potipot Island, a 5-minute boat ride from the resort. Everybody had a great time. It’s a very relaxing place, you could tell it from the pictures. Unfortunately we had to leave the island at around 5pm because the boat driver said that they don’t stay up late on that island, I wonder why…

We went back to the resort and prepared ourselves for dinner. We had cream of mushroom soup, sizzling sisig, sizzling spicy squid, pork adobo, fried chicken, beef strips and also had a couple of beers (special thanks to Onin for the dinner). Day 1 was almost over, and I was happy that everyone arrived safely, and was having a great time.

The next day, I woke up at around 8:30AM. I had my breakfast together with Pongkie, Shawie and Don Robert. After breakfast, we went to the pool and everyone was having fun. According to our ride director, take off time was 11am, so we went out of the pool at 10:30am. We packed our things and geared up. We collected the money from each person then paid the bills. We took a couple of group pictures then took off at around 11:20am.

On our way home, we had a couple of pictures taken while riding our bikes (special thanks to Allan and Robert for the pictures). These guys needed to run in front of the pack, made a stop and took pictures then rode as fast as they could to catch up again.

As usual, we had some unscheduled stops. Pongkie gave the signal and that was it, “Pongkie’s break”.

We arrived in Subic at around 1PM. We had our lunch at MeatPlus, Subic and bought some stuffs across the street. We took off at around 2:30PM and this was when I started to get tired; the heat from the sunlight and traffic jam on the highway. After a few kilometers from Subic, our next stop was Razon’s place. We ate halo-halo to cool off. We had to chill and relax for a couple of minutes because we were preparing ourselves for the heavy traffic along the way. We took off from razons Razon’s place at around 4:30PM and it started to get dark. As expected, we got stuck in traffic and this was where the men got separated from the boys. Onin and I got disengaged from the pack and we got lost. We stopped near the NLEX toll gate exit and talked about the last route that we took. We went back to the last place where we got detached from the group, and we were back on the right track. We saw the rest of the pack waiting for us. Traffic jam kept us apart but we knew that the guys would always make a stop and wait for us.

We arrived at Total gas station at around 7pm. I’ve had the ride of my life! Everyone arrived home safe and happy.

Ride report by noelabc.
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