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Day Two, Santa Cruz to King City

Salinas Valley Sightseeing

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.

Day One, San Francisco to Santa Cruz

And we're off: San Francisco to Santa Cruz

Today's ride was great and everything went off without a hitch. For those of you who are curious, there were no taxis involved today. The day began at 3:45 when I got up, made breakfast, pulled it all together and got to the Cow Palace at 5:15 in time for opening ceremonies and then ride out at 6:40.

At opening ceremonies I met two Dolly's- in glamorous red lame, faux black jeans, gold lame 'boots' and gigantic wigs, all designed to fit on top of bike clothes and helmets. I can't post pictures while I'm out on the road but I bet there are many out there. I later discovered there were five of them in matching outfits, I spent about the first 20 miles passing and getting passed by the Dolly's. It really got me thinking that I may need to step up my fashon game. Beadazzling my helmet just doesn't seem like enough when you've got the Dolly's around.

San Francisco summer's trademark fog was in full effect this morning. It wasn't raining, but nonetheless I had to take off my sunglasses because they don't have windshield wipers. Water was dripping from the front of my helmet. The sun broke through as we made it to San Bruno and up and over hwy 35. At the crest of that hill, we descended into Half Moon Bay and back into the fog. We headed out to the coast and spent a long, foggy time on hwy 1 including lunch at San Gregorio. The fog meant the coastline was more "implied" than "visible". At least this meant that the temperatures were moderate than normal.

Also along the way to Half Moon Bay I got a little quality time with Downtown Julie Brown- actually just as we passed the "Charlie poles", the white plastic dividers affectionately named for Charlie Bergstrom after his unfortunate collision with them during our first year on the ride in 2005 - thankfully, Charlie was only slightly worse for the wear after the incident. Charlie, we miss you and hope you and your family are well!

After lunch we emerged out of the fog and into the sun, in time for rest stops 3 and 4, where I was able to shed some layers and enjoy the sun. I made it into camp in Santa Cruz around 2:30. Certainly not the first (who arrived at 11:15) but ahead of most. My tentmate Shawn got in 30 mins before I did, so the tent was set up when I got there. Score! Also, great to have enough afternoon left to shower, and wander around and catch up with people I only see on the ride.