Day Two - Santa Cruz to King City

I slept SO WELL! This would turn out to be one of the unsung benefits of The Ride! When it was finally time to get up, it was a bit chilly outside (a benefit of riding in California). I put on my "Lone Star Ride Against AIDS" jersey, which would prove to be a very good choice for the day. Glen and I got our breakfast. This would be the longest day, in terms of mileage.

After taking care of the tent, I tried once more to record a gabcast. I had no success. This was beginning to concern me. I was spending my phone's battery and was not getting anything for it. I sent some postcards and then headed for my bike.

I wanted to pump up the tires, but there were not many useable pumps around. After feeling the pressure with my thumb, I figured that I could just ride to the first pit and pump them up there. So I rolled the bike out.

Just before starting, I encountered one of the Traffic Crew. She had wings and a wand so I said to her: "Bless me, Traffic Fairy!" She replied, Without missing a beat, "Oh NO, Dear! I'm a Traffic ANGEL! All the fairies are on the road!" And so I was off with a smile on my face!

As I rode through the mist in Santa Cruz, I began having troubles getting clipped into my pedals. Others were having the same problem, so I figured that maybe our cleats were wet or something. But it never got better. It turned out that my cleats had chosen that day to pretty much wear out. I should have replaced them before the Ride, but I had not had ANY trouble with them in my training. Just another data point for the next ride.

I was riding pretty well to the first pit, but decided to slow down a bit. After all, it was going to be a very long day.

Pit One had the theme "Summer of Love". They were playing music from the sixties and all dressed the part. I called Dad and feigned that the Ride was "hard and scary and that I wanted to go home!" Of course, there was no way I would have let THAT happen!

I pumped up the tires and resumed the ride. On to Pit Two. We started to get into the farm land at this point. There was no mistaking the cauliflower field, in spite of the fact that I could not see any recognizable cauliflowers. The smell was unmistakeable!

There were rolling hills and more fields and finally we came to the Fried Artichoke stand. The Traffic Guy there told me that the pickers had been out EXTRA early that morning in anticipation of the riders. This has GOT to be the biggest day of the year for them.

Ginger was dressed for the occasion, so I had to get a picture.

The route after the Artichoke stand took us into headwinds toward the ocean and salty air as we turned southward. I had to find another convenience store because I had left my sunscreen in my gear and I was really going to need it! I noticed a woman riding up with a Texas Longhorns Bicycle Club Jersey on. We immediately had a connection! She said that there were LOTS of UT alums on the ride, but that I was the only rider that she had come across who had actually come from Texas to do the ride. She suggested that all us Texans should get together and get a picture (though I had no idea how THAT was going to happen!).

Pit Two had a very clever Sesame Street Theme. Still....I could not get a call into the Gabcast. This was beginning to bother me, but I found out that others were having the same problem. There was not much I was going to be able to do about it so I proceeded on toward the lunch pit.

It was getting quite sunny and warm. The wind was really beginning to intensify, but, for the most part, it was a tailwind and the route was relatively flat, so we were making very good time.

As we approached the lunch pit, we rode through a residential neighborhood. Several people were out on the front lawns cheering and applauding, but the one person that I will remember particularly was an elderly woman in a wheelchair holding up a row of five or six bells attached to a wooden bar. She sat in the shade on the sidewalk ringing the bells for us as we rode by.

Glen and I met up at lunch. As we ate, a woman rider sat at our table and complained that her CamelBak did not seem to work. She had never used one and thought it might be a good idea to have one for this ride. It turns out that she did not realize that she needed to BITE down on the mouthpiece to open the tube so she could drink! I don't know HOW she could have made it that far! She must have been carrying other water. Gosh! I hope so! We had a BIG laugh over that!

After lunch, the route took us by a school (I'm guessing a middle school). As we passed by, many of the students shouted encouragement. They all knew we were riding to L.A., still several hundred miles away. That was so cool!

We got out of the neighborhood and into the farmland again. The tail wind was REALLY beginning to whip up! It was an amazing experience! Before we knew it, we were at Pit Three, greeted by a man in Superman underwear....and nothing else. Oh my!

Several different superheroes served us our pit stop snacks and I FINALLY was able to get in gabcast! Yay!

After getting on the road again, I was reminded of a strange phenomenon that I encountered four years ago. There is a stretch of road that looks completely flat. But the frame of reference is skewed; it's actually a rather significant uphill climb. All of the sudden the bike slows down. People actually get off to see if there is something mechanically wrong (I know, I did the same thing four years ago).

The road then began making some turns which meant that we were not going to be able to take advantage of the tailwinds. WE were going to have to start dealing with crosswinds. Yuck! But it was along this stretch of road that the cyclists who were passing me (alas! I am NOT the fastest rider!) began commenting on my jersey. The state flag of Texas is plainly visible beneath my CamelBak. One rider even sang the Texas state song as he passed by!

I commented to Glen later that LOTS of people in Texas were impressed that I was even trying to ride this ride, but now I was among 2332 other riders who were doing the exact same thing, so they are not that impressed. But they WERE impressed that I had come from Texas to do it! They wondered just HOW I got my bike there and how did I train? It was kinda cool being "The Texan".

I continued on, seeing familiar sights. The green bridge, under which the traditional skinny dipping was occurring (and once again, I did not stop to indulge). The cookie lady was back. She bakes 3,000 cookies each year to treat the riders. There were Otter Pops at the Water stop at the mission. And the wind continued to blow, but it was a fight to stay upright and it was even a little bit of an effort to breath. It was a bit like trying to breath next to an active vacuum cleaner hose.

Finally, I arrived at Pit Four. On the way into Pit Four though, I would meet up with a "fixture" of the ride, the M&M Guys. These were two guys and a woman from the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center who dispensed M&M's and chocolate chip cookies toward the end of the day each and every day. I had ridden right past them on on Day One. I would not make THAT mistake again! We found out some amazing things later about these guys. The Ride was rife with amazing people!

They also had a huge prop license as a photo op. Pit Four was going to be big into the photo ops this time around. It's a shame that I did not get any shots.

Pit Four was also the last pit before King City. A couple miles down the road was the right hand turn I'd been waiting for. We were going to have a very nice tailwind the rest of the way into King City. But first I would stop and enjoy the scenery from the top of one of my favorite points along the route. THIS time I got a shot of me, as well as the view. As good as the pictures are, they really still do not capture just how beautiful this place is!

The Ride into King City was quite pleasant. I shouted out "Century!" when my odometer passed the 100 mile point.

When we arrived in King City, there was quite a line of bikes waiting to get into Bike Parking. I wondered to myself what percentage of the riders made it all 107.5 miles. For many, it was the first time they had EVER ridden 100 miles! It's a rather significant milestone.

Glen had already set up the tent by the time I arrived. I grabbed a shower and we headed down to eat dinner. I made sure to get LOTS of carbs, because I knew what we all were going to face the next morning....Quadbuster. This concerned me, not only because I knew what were were up against, but because I was still having issues with my cleats. I really needed to be able to use my cleats to help get me up that hill. But in addition, I had developed a shin splint on the front of my left leg. It was not incapacitating, but it made walking a little painful at times.

Still, I fell asleep very easily. It's unbelievable what a winning combination bike riding and cool nights are for sleeping.