Day 6: Lompoc to Ventura, 88 miles

I tell you what. Get past those first dozen painful pedal strokes, and the world turns into a progressively more wonderful place.

Here’s what didn’t happen today: No rain during the overnight and morning hours. No horrific car crash closing the route to vehicle and bicycle traffic. No emergency survival blankets at Rest Stop 1 (seriously, go look at last years’ blog. Over there. On the right side. See where it says “2009?” Click that down arrow. Keep doing that until you get a link to click about Day 6). No riding back to Lompoc to wait for every available bus in central Santa Barbara County to come pick us up.

Instead, Day 6 was in fine form. We got light clouds, mild temperatures, and fairly calm winds. And people everywhere enjoying a gorgeous Friday cheering us on.

Rest Stop 1, the way we always wanted it to be.

After tracing Highway 1 out of Lompoc and down to 101, we rode on the freeway through Gaviota Pass and along the Santa Barbara coastline. Wonderful views. Oil platforms and the outlines of a Channel Island or two.

Here’s Roadie Jan Wexnar showing us where to park bikes at lunchtime.

This isn’t an easy job. Look at all those bikes!

Riding through the nicest parts of Santa Barbara isn’t easy, but since they need 1900 people to do it, I guess we’ll take on the challenge.

Paradise Pit is an unofficial rest stop hosted by several community organizations. Free ice cream (which has Jessica VERY excited. She went for chocolate chip in a bowl). Free strawberries. Free brownies. Free cookies. Free massages.

Oh, and it’s on this soft grass with a beneath some beautiful palms.

Rest Stop 4 was themed as MTV Beach House. I was getting a little bonky at this point, so not a lot of pictures of the festivities. You train for 6 months, and then a quick bout of gastroenteritis hits and all of a sudden riding 90 miles is hard again. You raise your money (thank you donors!) and you take your chances.

The battery low light is on. GO GO GO!

Day 5: Santa Maria to Lompoc (via Solvang), 68 miles

I have returned from the land of the constantly-puking! It’s a 24-hour bug, which may not be of much comfort to those in its grasp. Visit the medical tent and fear not the IV fluids!

While I awoke feeling radically better, which itself was partially due to sleeping most of the previous afternoon, I elected not to ride. Instead I spent the day refueling and rehydrating.

Jessica took the camera on the road, and returned with some shots of the famed Red Dress Day. Red is, of course, the color of HIV/AIDS awareness. And while I’m sure Day 5 started out as “Dress in Red Day,” it was long ago contracted and reversed into plain old “Red Dress Day.”

David Haya, looking fetching in his red plaid Utilikilt and matching jacket. Nice work, Dave. A very masculine choice for Red Dress Day.

Red shoe covers are somewhat pedestrian, but the judges give significant extra credit for the tutu.

Alright! Now we’re talking!

Those are all 100% natural, too. Dude can bench press a house.

For those of you wondering, my leg is fine. It looks gnarly, but I’m healing as the bruise slowly moves south.

Tomorrow I'll be back in the saddle for the long roll to Ventura. Hooray!!

Day 4: Paso Robles to Santa Maria, 97 miles

No pictures from me today. Reason 1, I left the memory card in my laptop, which went into the gear truck this morning. Reason 2, I took the day off due to illness and general exhaustion.

As it turns out, a saucer-sized open wound on the upper thigh is a really great entry point for a GI virus. The “G” part hit me early this morning (goodbye salmon dinner!) and the “I” part has been on-going but improving throughout the day (hello gallon of diluted Gatorade!).

The medical staff of ALC has been fantastic. Caring, supportive, understanding. This has been a terrific place to get injured and sick.

Here are two pictures from Jackie. Today went past the halfway mark. The traditional photo op is with bike raised overhead at a scenic viewpoint atop Highway 46. The sweeping view south to Morro Rock is majestic (and a good place to get engaged, in my experience). Jackie, as I mentioned previously, likes to celebrate her own way, so here’s the halfway celebration on a flat piece well after the nasty climb.

The route returned to Highway 1 this morning, and passed through the sprawling metropolis of Harmony.

Here's Jessica at the official halfway point. There were free brownies on offer, too.

Day 3: King City to Paso Robles, 67 miles

Hey everybody. I’m feeling really run down tonight, so just a quick set of photos.

First off, today is Jessica’s birthday. So we start with a photo of the Birthday Girl, first thing in the morning:

And here’s me at breakfast. Got to get some food in me before taking that Ibuforen. 600 mg!!!

These kind women got up early to brew coffee and serve doughnuts to us on the side of the road. They were so nice, but when I mentioned that there were 1900 riders, they seemed a little overwhelmed.

Bike tech at Rest Stop 2.

My pal, David, dressed up for Alice in Wonderland.

Bill, Chavon, and Jess at lunch in Bradley. The town has 120 people. They fund their school’s science and athletic programs with a barbeque for the cyclists.

The theme for Rest Stop 4, at Mission San Miguel, was The Price is Right. Classic style with Bob Barker.

Once in Paso Robles, Jess and I took the bus to the closet laundromat. Clean leg warmers tomorrow!

Day 2: Santa Cruz to King City, 107 miles

All things considered (crashing hard yesterday, riding 70 miles, and sleeping on the ground), I felt fantastic this morning. At 4:30 AM.

There are two breakfast lines at ALC. The full-service line is really long. But if you need pancakes and breakfast burritos before you ride, than that’s what you do. I typically take the Express route and have the bowl of oatmeal, granola, and fruit on offer. And there’s no waiting, either.

I visited the medical tent first thing for a new dressing on the big road rash (there are several smaller ones not pictured in yesterday’s post). Then Jess and I got on the road. Even with the extra stuff, the general confusion of the first morning in camp, and overcoming lingering fatigue of yesterday’s effort, we got through Santa Cruz before the Monday morning commute was in full swing.

The first highlight is on the far edge of town: The Ugly Mug coffee shop, featuring disco music (at 7 AM), and free drinks for all riders. I also ordered up a ham and cheese croissant. Perhaps I’ll get two bowls of oatmeal in camp tomorrow morning.

Also, free smoothies.

Jackie celebrates every single mile she rides. Some celebrations are more dramatic than others. Here she is at Rest Stop 1.

These kids live at the top of one of the days few hills. High fives and waves for everybody. Kids get so excited for passing cyclists. I must have given out 25 high-fives, and accepted 2 red vines. I tried for a third using my teeth. Didn’t work. I’ll have to come back next year to try again.

Chavon rode with Jess and me for most of the day. She was a regular on the training rides I did Sundays in the East Bay.

The sea otters at the mouth of Elkhorn Slough in Moss Landing. They smell and sound like a bunch of un-showered cyclists waking up. Note: there are hot showers available every night in camp. And they’re super-awesome, unless you have massive road rash. It really says something about how lucky I was with that crash, that the thing I'm most unhappy about is showering now being the worst part of my day, instead of the best.

The highlight of Moss Landing is artichokes. There are a couple places to stop. I go for the first one. It’s delicious, it’s first, why keep riding?

Jess and Chavon emerge with deep friend artichoke hearts. Holy cow. I’m going to start bringing these with to work for my morning snack.

Jane Wong poses with the signage at Rest Stop 2. The theme was Girl Scouts. Merit badges for chamois lube (aka butt butter), among other things, were available for cyclists to earn.

These guys posed behind us for a photo at lunchtime. Jessica likes this angle better anyway.

Jess and me in our matching $5K incentive jerseys. ALC offers all kinds of prizes to spur on the fundraising. Raise $1000 in the first 45 days and win something. For every $1000 raised in a week in May they entered your name in a drawing an iPad. At $5000 you earn a special jersey.

Yoga at lunch. Very relaxing.

Riding through the long valley, somewhere south of Salinas.

Jess enjoys an Otter Pop at the Mission Soledad rest stop. Hey! That rhymed! The metre is off. What are you? Some kind of English teacher?

There’s a saying in cycling that tailwinds do not exist. There are only headwinds and good days. Today was an extraordinarily good day, with steady 15 mph breezes pushing us south towards King City. The 50 miles after lunch took about as long as the first 20 through Santa Cruz and Aptos.

After dinner I visited the Sports Med tent to get some advice on my hip. Not surprisingly, it’s been sore since the crash. I also favored it a lot today, and strained a muscle dismounting my bike. The guy on the left, Silverton, spent a solid 30 minutes massaging and stretching me. He also added a stretch to my routine so the joint will stay mobile. No charge, no tips allowed. All part of the package. Awesome.

Part of the community of ALC is helping total strangers. Jan and Dave are helping a rider get her tent erected as the sunsets over San Lorezno Park in King City.

And with that, it’s already time for bed again. Until tomorrow, good readers, farewell!

Day 1: San Francisco to Santa Cruz, 79 miles

Today started very, very early. And it almost ended very early for me, after crashing only 20 miles in.

The weather went from wet fog to bright sun, then light crosswinds to strong tailwinds. We finished under a hot sun rolling through side streets in Santa Cruz. Tonight we sleep with bellies full of chicken parmesan, Caesar salad, and cheesecake. And it will be so nice.

Like I said. It was a very early morning.

Jess and me only 15 minutes later. Dressed, packed, and ready to meet our ride to San Francisco.

Unfortunately, we arrived with the first wave of volunteers around 4 AM, but the doors weren’t open for cyclists until 5. So we grabbed a little sleep.

Opening ceremonies are a must for your first AIDS/Lifecycle. It’s a tremendous reminder of the human suffering caused by the virus, and how vital the ride is.

This is Jess fixing her first flat tire of the day. Nice form with that frame pump, babe.

Rest Stop 1 was crowded. The weather had turned sunny, so we stopped to shed some layers and refill water bottles. Note to future participants: do not drink the yellow Powerade unless it’s diluted 1:1 with water!!!

Another PG&E Power Pedaler was in the rest stop. Here’s Diane Runyan (Sr. Director’s Assistant, IT Infrastructure, SF GO) !

I hesistated posting this picture. It’s a whole lot of my leg. And it's ugly. But it’s a reminder that things can go wrong. If you’re not prepared, then a serious fall can cause major injuries or fatalities. I walked away with a big road rash, and some swelling around my hip. But I rode the whole rest of the day. Helmets. Gloves. A good pair of shorts. PPE comes in many different forms. USE IT!
The other downside of crashing--besides the pain--is showing your injuries to your parents and grandparents who came out to celebrate Day 1. My mom’s holding my beautiful Trek Madone. The right shifter needed an adjustment, and there’s a tiny scratch on my seat, but it was totally roadworthy.

Pigeon Point Lighthouse.

Waddel State Beach. I took this same picture last year. So beautiful.

There are two schools of thought on setting up the tent. Everybody agrees you first park your bike and head for the gear trucks. Some people say head for your campsite and get the tent set up, then go grab a shower. Others say to leave your bag in the luggage pile, but grab your strategically-packed toiletries kit and run as fast as you can to get in line for a shower. I handled the tent. Jess got the first shower.

My new solar-powered Blackberry. Let’s green this city. We can do this.

The porta potty bank. Another visit will be in order shortly….

Moto safety patrol. There are 30 volunteers on their motorbikes throughout the route, directing traffic and keeping us safe around road hazards.

DINNER!!!! Two lines for meat-eater. One line with ZERO waiting for veg/vegen/gluten free. If you can forgo the chicken and meatballs, the veg line will saves major time. Only pre-registered veggies with their green wristbands are allowed, though.

Or as I call it, The House of Chocolate Milk.

She ate pretty much the whole plate, too. That’s David Haya (Building Mechanic, 1919 Webster) on the left. David’s usually our top fundraiser (over $8K!) and is on his third ALC.

Stan and Ben. Both looking happy and ready for bed. This picture was taken at 6:45 PM.

Team Capitan Jackie Udin was last into camp. Way to go Jackie! You can see that Jessica’s one sleeping bag away from being asleep.