Day Four - Paso Robles to Santa Maria

I awoke early and got my breakfast alone. Glen understood what today meant to me. As I waited in line, I noticed that Chad Allen and several of his friends were in front of me. Chad would be one of those 20 people that I would run into throughout the ride. This time, it was not because we were all riding the same speed. I would run into these people not only on the road, but in camp as well. I'm convinced that Glen would have been one of those people, even if we were not sharing a tent.

I wore one of the two LMRA Bike Club jerseys today. The Bike Club posts pictures of the various rides that our members do and they like to see our club jersey highlighted during those rides. Being that today was going to have a very special photo opportunity, I thought it would be appropriate to wear this jersey.

Glen and I got the tent and the gear taken to the truck. I joined a stretching class, just I REALLY wanted to get on the road. It looked like it was going to be a beautiful day to ride!

The ride out of town was rather slow and predominantly uphill. But on the way out of town, I happened to notice a bright sign (these are not uncommon), only this one said "Welcome to Paso Robles Brian B. from Texas, Roberta". I just wanted to tell EVERYBODY, "Hey! That's ME!". It was so cool!

Roberta told me later that there were four signs total, but I only saw three of them. She also said that she had wanted to post signs all the way to the ocean. That would have been a bit much, I'm sure!

The first pit was quite packed. I'm getting used to this though. The lines to everything seem quite long (insert photo of line to portapotties, but they move at a comfortable pace. Besides, who was looking forward to facing the "Evil Twins" anyway?

The Evil Twins were yet another "oh HELL no!" moment. I am sure they are steeper than the Quadbuster. I also think that I must have done a LOT of walking four years ago, because I really did not remember how hard these hills were. But, once again, I rode all the way up!

Just past the peak of the second "twin" was the traditional "Halfway to L.A." pullout. This time there were several lines to get pictures taken with the signs, so it did not take as much time as it could have, but it was still time-consuming.

I struck up a conversation with the woman in front of me in line and asked if she would take my picture with Ginger. She politely assented. Then I asked if she would like one as well. She declined at first, after all, how does one explain to people back home why you got a photo taken with a guy in a dress?

I told her that several years ago, Rick (aka Ginger) was diagnosed HIV+ and was too sick to ride. He was actually considering ending it all, but got involved with the Ride doing this! Now, the Ride would not be the same without him.

After telling her that, she said, "I think will get that picture, if you don't mind....now that I know the story."

We got our pictures on the rock. The weather was unusually clear. I had hoped that the picture of me on the rock would convey that. It does not quite as well as I would have liked, so I took a couple others.

It would not be long before we would be on the highway tracing the beach. But first, we had a long downhill to descend. This time, there was a strong headwind which actually helped to control the speed down the hill. I was thankful for that. I don't like to ride my brakes.

After heading west and wrestling with a crosswind for a bit, we turned south and headed toward Morro Bay with a very nice tailwind at our backs.

Not far from Pit Two, a couple guys were dealing with a flat tire. I was needing to stop and eat a little bit anyway, so I stopped and provided "thumb service" to let other passing rider know that the guys were alright - otherwise they might have had to answer 100 riders' inquiries about whether they needed help or not.

I got into Pit Two feeling quite good. My fear was that I was going to have a repeat of four years ago. I remember that it was about at this point that I started to "fade". It did not seem that this was going to be a problem this year though.

We got back on the routh and headed toward Morro Bay. What a fantastic ride!

At one point, we had to get on a bike path to avoid the city traffic. There was a stop light at an intersection at the end of the path. We needed to dismount and walk (OK, we RAN) with our bikes across one street, then the intersecting street. What an odd feeling to run with ones bike in bike shoes! Especially when you've got twenty riders or so shouting "Go Go Go Go Go!" when the light turned green!.

I saw Roberta at lunch, she was working the water and Gatorade tent. By this time it was getting quite warm and I was running a little bit behind. I took as much time as I dared with lunch, then tried to find Roberta before I returned to the route. She was nowhere to be seen. I hit the porta-potty and tried once more, but the Roadies were shooing all of us back onto the route. I REALLY needed to get back on the bike or I was risking not being able to make it all the way.

So, I headed off.

I was REALLY feeling MUCH better than I did four years ago. What a relief! I got about a block away from the point where I sagged when I saw what could have been the defining moment of the ride. The Chicken Lady had stopped by a Montessori School and was leading what looked to be 3 and 4 year olds out toward the street. All I hear him say as we passed was "Come on kids! Let's watch the AIDS Riders!" He looked like a mother hen leading little chicks. It was SO CUTE!

At Pit Three, I told Ken (aka The Chicken Lady) how cute I thought what he did was. Others were telling him the same thing. I was also a bit "misty" because four years ago, I was DRIVEN to Pit Three. Today I rode in!

I needed to get going in order to make it the rest of the way. The map showed that it was going to be relatively flat. For the most part, it was.

We went through a town, I don't remember the name and found the M&M guys there! One popped a chocolate chip cookie in my mouth. Another gave me a handful of M&M's. It turned out that I was going to need the energy.

There was yet another "oh HELL no!" hill to conquer. This one was quite narrow and there was traffic to deal with. I got stuck behind a guy who was walking his bike up, while other riders were passing me. It got to the point where I just had to say "Sorry, but I have GOT to pass!". I was going to fall over if I had to remain behind this guy (Bless his heart!).

Almost at the top of the hill there was a guy pointing at the street and to his left saying "Northern California", then he would point at the street and to his right and say "Southern California". I doubt there was anything "official" about the location, but it was the first time that I had even given it any thought.

The afternoon crosswind began to intensify. They reached 18 or 19 mph (I reveal how I know that a little later). It was a real fight to make it to Pit Four (where the theme was "A Day at the Spa"). I had only 10 minutes before the Pit was going to close and camp was only 12 miles away. I could not get anybody to tell me if I was going to have to fight 12 miles of heinous crosswinds to get to camp.

I almost decided to sag it, but then I thought better of it. I got a quick refill for my CamelBak from Jeff Smith (water and ice guy on this ride, but he broke his collarbone riding on my first ride). If it had been anybody other than Jeff, I might have decided against it. I would like to think I would have gone anyway, but those crosswinds were NOT fun! I got on the road to take my chances with the wind.

Good thing I did....I only had to ride a couple more blocks, which were not difficult because the town's buildings blocked the wind, then we turned left...with the wind to our backs! I noticed that I stopped feeling the wind when I reached 18 or 19 mph (that's how I knew how hard the wind was blowing!). We got to ride with that wind all the way to Santa Maria! What a joy!

As we neared the camp, I began to get a bit emotional. No matter what I did for the rest of this ride, as far as I was concerned, I had "patched the hole" left in the ride four years ago. So I relished the ride into camp.

As we rode past through the neighborhoods, a little girl, perhaps around 3 years old, walked out toward the riders, waved to us, and said "Hello, everybody!". How innocent and how welcoming!

A couple more miles of riding and we arrived in Camp. Much to my dismay, the Bike Parking roadies were scoring the "dismounts" from the bikes. I had already gotten off my bike when somebody else's dismount was being judged. They wanted me to give the "something", but I was in no mood to participate. I just needed to process the day.

Glen had gotten in not too long before I did. He said there was a long line to showers, but I did not let that deter me. As I waited in line, Chad Allen came up behind me and asked "Are you in line, sir?"

Sir? SIR?! OK, at least he was polite and if I had not known that he was an actor, I would have thought he was the same as anybody else on the ride. But still!

I called Jamie to see what he recommended that I do for my shin splints. I was taking Tylenol, which was working for the pain, but I wondered if there was anything else I should do. I did not want to have to wait in line at the Medical Tent if I could get my answer more quickly. I got Jamie's voicemail and an answer the next morning. Take Advil.

The next day was to be a short day, only 44 miles, so we could all take it a bit easier. I was also quite satisfied that there would have been no way for me to have completed this day's route four years ago.

I reported my victory in my gabcast and said that I was going to destroy the necklace that has been hanging in my cubicle for four years reminding me about the day that I could not complete. Since I've returned, it means something else. It was the inspiration to return to the ride and try it again. It's not how many times you get knocked down that matters; it's how many times you get back up.

Tomorrow...Dress Red day and Casmalia!