Day Two, Santa Cruz to King City

Day 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Salinas Valley Sightseeing

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Recipe for a 107-mile ride: get on your bike, ride 10 or 20 miles, take a break and refill/stretch/etc. Repeat.

Long day today- I didn't get into camp until 6 so I'm keeping it short for now and will elaborate later.

Settling in

Day 2 is always interesting because it's the first day you wake up in camp and go through the routine to get on the road. Get up, dress in the tent, head to breakfast, go back to the tent and pack up, drop off the luggage at the gear truck and head to the bikes.

Even though we were up at 4:45 we didn't hit the road until 7. The route opens at 6:30 and the half hour makes a world of difference when leaving Santa Cruz, in terms of beating the Monday morning rush hour traffic. But, hey, it's the journey not the destination, right?

I rode most of the day with my tentmate Shawn- I spent the morning chasing his back tire and much of the afternoon catching up with him. Challenging but a great pace, averaging 16.1 for the day. Thanks for pulling me, Shawn!

Today's route takes us through a lot of agricultural land, and this year was notable because of the strong aromas emanating from the strawberry fields and cilantro fields. Shawn also noted that the strawberries and artichokes looked huge. Everything is ripe right now. I'm not sure if it's because the ride falls a little later this year or what, but it's very nice to smell!

Today I got to see two pillars of the ALC community I missed on day one- Ginger Brewlay (aka Ric), an ethereal beauty greeting us at the top of the hills in taffeta and sequins, and the Chicken Lady (aka Kenny), who is doing the ride for the 14th time. When I last did the ride Kenny did not participate because he had had a stroke, but he's made an amazing recovery and is back out on the road this year. For the last several years, on the last night of the ride, Chicken Lady has been laying little plastic eggs on each rider's seat, with inspirational messages in them. It's a really sweet thing to do for a couple thousand people. I saw Kenny at orientation but didn't know for sure he was riding until I saw him in his Chicken Lady gear out on the road today, and I knew all is right with the world.

Shawn and I did a pretty decent job of time management today, only cutting it close at the end- as opposed to 2 years ago when we hung out at the artichoke stand too long and saw the rest stop closure crew show up- which meant we were escaping them for the rest of the day. Among the afternoon highlights- the Otter Pop Stop at the mission, a new tradition started 4 years ago by my friend Kyle Tonazzi, who rode the first year I rode and decided he would rather contribute this to the event rather than ride it. Kyle's a burner and he brings a bit of the playa to the ride by getting a bunch of bears to put on tutus and hand out Otter Pops in the dusty parking lot, with a loud techno soundtrack.

107 miles from where we started, we arrived in King City at 6 pm, with just enough time to set up camp, shower, eat and sleep.