Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Day 4: Paso Robles to Santa Maria

There’s a concept on the AIDS ride known as the “me day.” This usually means a day you take it easy, stop at all the rest areas, enjoy the scenery, and generally let your body recover.

Well for me, the concept worked a little differently. I took off early, hit the big hills hard, found some other fast riders and hung with them all the way to camp. The upshot is very few photos and very little extra energy to write creatively. Also, please forgive the typos and funky formatting in all these posts. I’m working as quickly as possible to save batteries; the cell modem sucks juice like no other.

I really enjoyed the ride, though, which is what it’s all about. Today also took us past the halfway point on the ride.

Our route was another long one, 95 miles, including the “Evil Twin” hills of Highway 46. The day started early in Paso Robles, went past my favorite small winery, Zin Alley, and over the aforementioned twins. Then it was down to Highway 1, which we followed through Cayucos and Morro Bay to Ceusta College for lunch. We skirted around the edge of San Luis Obispo, buzzed through the fog in Pismo Beach and the other Five Cities before hanging a left at Guadalupe to finish with a strong tailwind pushing us into Santa Maria.

Here are the few shots I got.


Alright, so most of these are actually pictures of me, taken by others. Call it another twist on the “me-day” concept.


Left to right, this is Justin, Carol, Lynne, me, and Sean. Lynne and Carol both earn a living as personal trainers, so hanging with them for the rest of the day took a lot of effort.


Me at the PG&E Community Center in Avila Beach. This was the site of Rest Stop 3 (the theme was “wild west”), but we only stopped long enough for the photo.


Rest Stop 4, always a fan favorite, was staffed by a dozen Mrs. See lookalikes. Only one free sample per rider!


In this plugged-in world, power scavenging is a major endeavor at the different camps.

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