Day Two, Santa Cruz to King City

Day 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Today's ride was the longest of the week: 106 miles. It's also full of "stuff": the Cookie Lady, the swimming hole, and now the Otter Pop stop, courtesy of my friend Kyle (with whom I rode much of the ride last year). Add to that a flat amongst the group I'm riding with, and generally taking it easy because it's my first century of the year. Not to mention Charlie my tent mate (aka domestic partner for the week) feeling lousy and wanting to take it easy... put all that together and you get a ride that started at 7:15 am and ended at 7:15 pm. I averaged 14.6 mph, so a good 4.5 hours or so was spent with the bike standing still. The good news is that I made it, and for the second year in a row, I sprinted the last 8 miles or so, having a great time on these rolling hills that overlook a valley of farms on the way into King City. Life is good!

In other news, I got my two minutes of fame when Lorri Jean told my cab story amongst her anecdotes during announcements tonight. Her embellished version of the story had my GPS gear turned on in the trunk of the taxi, so I ended up with a detailed record of all the adventures my luggage had without me.