After a day of family and food, it was nice to keep the post-Thanksgiving Day NCC Zwift ride going. This marked our third consecutive year of this tradition.
We had seven riders (Ari, Jonathan, John, Melissa, Tim, Zinj, and me) for today’s adventure. We tackled the Temple and Towers route on the Makuri Islands, which covers both the new Neokyo roads and the preexisting rural sections of the Makuri Islands. This route covers all three KOMs (Rooftop, Castle, and Temple) on the island.
As we continue to test Zwift Club features, Jonathan joined the ride directly from the login screen. This will only work if you are already a member of the NCC Zwift Club. Please note that you may need to scroll through the events on the right hand side of the screen since there are so many Zwift events.
Not surprisingly, our Discord chat covered Thanksgiving. Jonathan drove to and from the Cape yesterday. Melissa cooked a 25-pound turkey and has a ton of leftovers. My family heated up a Big Y catered Thanksgiving meal, which was very easy and tasty.
We talked about solar power and electric cars. Tim shared that Telsa’s proprietary charging stations are very simple compared to the numerous competitors’ charging processes. In Europe, there is a single charging standard. That led us to discussing iPhones/Lighting/USB C cables and variety of different cables used for bike paraphernalia.
Going down the technology path, Tim shared that the Ti calculators from our youth are still in play for high schoolers today. Apparently the only thing that has changed is that the calculators are now powered through USB and not triple A batteries.
Ari had a slight bike mechanical at the beginning of the ride. He cleaned his cassette the other day and may have missed reinstalling a spacer. He found an decent cog and powered on.
We learned of Melissa’s and John’s separate cross country adventures. Melissa attributed her twelve straight hours of driving from Michigan to Massachusetts to her youth. After more jokes about our age, we decided to start advanced planning Zinj’s 40th birthday party. The idea of a singing telegram was a popular idea. Zinj commented that his birthday is not during the Zwift season, but nothing says we actually have to wait until his true birthday!
Melissa is close to completing the luxurious chicken coop in her backyard. She explained the solar panel automatic door, which was a new concept for the rest of us.
Ari completed level 8 and earned his avatar, the Camo Kit. Tim made it to level 34 and can now wear the Zwift Monochrome Kit. Jonathan, Melissa, Tim, Zinj, and I earned the Temples and Tower route achievement, which doubled our XP points for the first lap.
Here is the NCC Zwift schedule:
- Tuesday 6:00 PM – Time Trial / Hill Climb (invite required)
- Wednesday 8:00 PM – Social Ride (invite required)
- Thursday Evenings – Road Race (times will vary between 5 PM and 7 PM EST)
- Sat 9:00 AM – Social Ride (invite required)
Join the NCC Club on Zwift or select the link in the discussion board/calendar for invite-only rides.
Check the NCC calendar for full details on all events. To learn more about the NCC and Zwift rides, please visit our Zwift page.
