Day Five, Santa Maria to Lompoc

Day 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Recovery Day?

Today's ride from Santa Maria to Lompoc used to head down past Vandenburg Air Force Base after winding through a hilly switchback. Someone figured that if everyone wore red, it'd be like a red ribbon, the symbol for AIDS awareness, and dress-in-red day was born. Before too long it was Red Dress Day, which is now a ride of sublime absurdism. Not everyone participates; most people wear red, and many wear actual red dresses, or some facsimile thereof. It's hard to take oneself too seriously riding down the highway in a red dress, surrounded by hundreds of others doing the same thing.

Last year they had trouble with a permit and had to change the route, so instead of being a direct 42 miles it's a circuitous 67 miles. There were hills before, but somehow it still felt like a recovery day because it was so short. Today, not so much.

The scenery was amazing, though- leaving Santa Maria we rode through more strawberry fields and then up into the wine country, with some beautiful vistas across the vineyards. There was a challenging hill before rest stop 2, and I saw more people walking their bikes up the hill than the Evil Twins- these other hills have names and they psyche people up for them, but day 5's hills have always been without names (at least since I've been riding), and I think some people were caught off guard. Overall there were some great descents in the morning, heading through the wine country and then into the tiny town of Los Olivos. After that, we pulled into the picturesque town of Solvang (how have I never explored this before?) Before lunch my average was a zippy 16.4 mph.

The ride is a drug- and alcohol-free event. Did I mention that all the rest stops today were at wineries? Ha! John and I are going to have to come back here and check these out when we are free to taste.

After lunch we headed west towards the coast. That's when the ridiculous headwinds began, and stuck around for the next 20 miles. There were a couple of hills that would have been fairly straightforward, but with the wind it was a whole different story. And the downhills- I can't remember ever having to work that hard to get down a hill! We still had some wonderful views through this stretch, and it did feel like something of an accomplishment to survive it.

We were back in camp by 4 pm which is still the earliest all week- even though we got a leisurely start at 8:15. Yes, it took us 3 hours to get going this morning. It was too much fun watching everyone putting on their outfits to focus on getting out on the road.