Day Zero

The day I've been counting down to since last June has finally arrived! I woke up quite early with little on my agenda to do except to get to the Cow Palace to complete Orientation.

I took the bike to the lobby were several other cyclists were loading their bikes into cars in the driveway. I hailed a larger cab and was on my way. THIS cabbie had a TomTom, so he had directions to get to the Cow Palace. What is it wiht the cab drivers in San Francisco. Do ANY of them know where anything is?

We arrived before the advertised start time, but there was already a long line of riders. The line was moving at a comfortable pace though. The first stop was Bike Parking. These guys were SO organized! A volunteer gave me a tag to indicate where my bike was going to be, then she started to walk with "Scout" to the racks. I got a strange pang when that happened. I did not realize how attached to my bike I was. Apparently, I'm not alone.

I then got at the end of another, even longer, line. An older woman and her son were in front of me. I had no idea at the time, but the woman was the oldest crew member. She was going to be working in Camp Services. It was her first ride. Since I had some experience with Camp Services I told her that She was going to have a GREAT time. I would find out on Day Six just what a time she had. It would be very moving..and not just for her.

A first-time, but hard-core rider got in line behind me. He had LOTS of questions about how things worked on the ride, most of which I could answer for him. I got the feeling that this ride was not going to be much of a challenge for him, but he told me that he considered this to be an "extreme sport". Hm....I'd never really considered that before.

As we got closer to the Registration Table, I noticed Glen Rutter a little bit behind me in line. I have not seen Glen in several years and had no idea that he had moved to Orange County California. We agreed to be tent mates, which worked out quite well.

We picked up our goody bags, which contained a sample of sunscreen, a couple packets of Bio- Freeze, a cool pair of Suburu-sponsored bike socks, and our rider number labels for the bike and helmet. It was then on to yet another line... This line was for the mandatory Safety Video. I called Joe Ede, a rider who has been on 30 previous rides, many of which I have either ridden or crewed. He was all the way up at the front of the line we were in! Small world!

After watching a rather plain Safety Video, Glen and I got our Tent assignment and got ready to leave. We put our bike numbers on our respective bikes. I called Bruce in Kansas City to see if he had gotten to listen to any of my gabcasts so far. He told me that he had been having problems with that. So, I gave him an alternate way of accessing them (which did not work for him either). I always call Bruce when I'm doing something "significant". I guess this Ride qualifies, right?

We hailed a cab to return us back to town. Once again, the driver did not know where he was going! Once WE figured out where we were, we asked the driver to stop and let us out. We were both within walking distance from our respective hotels. But before we parted, we made plans to meet for dinner with Mikey. We needed to make it an early dinner because we needed to be back at the Cow Palace very early in the morning.

I was originally planning to get a cab to take me to the Cow Palace in the morning, but instead I made a deal with the concierge at the hotel. It was a bit pricey, but I wanted to SURE that I got there in time. I was not going to let a little bit of money get in the way at this point. Gen and I met Mikey at the intersection of Van Ness and Market to catch a subway to the Castro District. Mike recommended a place called "The Sausage Factory", which had several past specialties on the menu. That was just what we needed! While we were there, we met with several other riders who had the same idea. It was then that I began my week-long eating binge! I figure that I would need around 6000 calories a day, just to keep up!

After dinner, we wandered around the area for a while. Mike was going to meet up with Brandon, his boyfriend, to go see a play while Glen and I headed back to get to bed early.

I spent some time trying to figure out the alarm clock in the room. I also called for a wake-up call. It turned out that neither would be necessary. I was QUITE excited about the Ride and had a difficult time staying asleep, even thought I KNEW it would be helpful to be as rested as I could be for the firest day of riding, particularly if the day included the Skyline Climb, which I was hoping would not be included in the route.

After eleven months of not-quite-constant preparation, the Ride was just about to start. At the end of June last year, this date seemed to be merely hypothetical, but suddenly it was here. I hoped I was ready. If only it had not been raining in Fort Worth on the last two days of my training! If only I had climbed more hills or ridden to work more often! There were lots of "if only's" going through my mind. It was too late now. I was going to get to try the California AIDS/LifeCycle again.