King City might consider changing its name to Wind City. Last night was windy and cold. And windy.
The skies were a little cloudy, and the temperature cool, as we rode out of King City this morning. Unlike previous days, there was no fog and the sun broke early in the day. After that, it was just plain hot. Very hot. 90+ by the time we reached Paso Robles.
The majority of today's ride (a good 45-50 miles) was along one road thru Nowheresville, CA. In all that time we past exactly 2 country stores and a very few houses. It was all vineyards and farmland. And it was breathtaking.
The big challenge of the day came at mile 10; the infamous "Quadbuster." Edith, you'll like this... 1.3 miles with 750 feet of climbing. Uphill? More like uphell. I shifted into my tiniest gear (really, there's no more? there must be a smaller gear), and pedaled and huffed and puffed and worked as hard as I could, all so I could speed up this beast at... 3.2 miles per hour. Yep. And I even passed quite a few riders on the way. It took me 15 minutes (almost 16), but
I did it. There was a photographer at the top taking pictures of every rider as we reached the summit. Everyone who had already made it had gotten off their bikes to cheer in the group arriving after them. Party at the top! And then there were the monster hill-eating climbers who rode up, came down, and rode up again cheering us on along the route. It was pretty awesome. Oooh, and the downhill on the backside made it all worthwhile. Today's picture of moi is at the top of the hill, right before I saddled up and headed down.
Lots of rolling hills, vineyards and farms followed until we rode into the town of Bradley, population 120. As it turns out, they love ALC. Our little ride, with 2500 people, is their school's main fundraiser for the year. There was a huge hand-painted banner on the side of a schoolbus welcoming us to town. And they were selling (here's the fundraiser) freshly grilled burgers for lunch. Hmm. Boxed sandwich or burger? Tough call. Hands down, the best cheeseburger EVER. Ok, I may have just been really hungry. But it was good. So far, it's the only lunch I actually remember. The next photo is the bike corral in Bradley. Lots of hungry cyclists there.
Well sated, we continued down the road to San Miguel. This town was a big city compared to Bradley. Final rest stop of the day was at Mission San Miguel, founded by (who else?), Father Junipero Serra in 1797. Fr. Serra was working his way down the coast in the late 18th Century.
The final stretch covered more winding country roads thru more vineyards and farms until we reached the California Mid-State Fairgrounds in Paso Robles. This is my favorite camp to date. We have our tent city and all the camp service tents, but we also have full run of the fairgrounds. Lots of places to wander and sit and get
comfy and relax. Dinner was actually served INSIDE tonight in one of the fairground buildings. What a treat to finally sit down inside for the first time since 6am Sunday morning. But the biggest treat of the site is ELECTRICITY! We can plug in and charge our gadgets. This place is littered with outlets everywhere. Our tent is right next to an outlet. Don't think I won't be taking advantage of that tonight.
Dinner was fabulous. Again. Chicken, salmon (yum!), rice pilaf, green beans, and spinach salad. They've had dessert every night, too, but I have no idea what it is. I'm not a big dessert person.
I suspect I'm eat more than usual; I know I'm cleaning my plate a lot faster than I typically do. At the rest stops, I have discovered a new found affection for salty snacks, especially salted peanuts. But hands down, my new favorite snack is the pb&j sandwich on a Graham cracker. It's a little hand-held slice of heaven. I think I could live on those. For this week anyway.
I've meet so many new people, all of them genuinely nice. This is an amazing traveling community (circus?) of folks with a common interest. At one rest stop today there was a woman, Nancy, who desperately wanted something salty, but had gotten in the wrong snack line. So I gave her a packet of my beloved peanuts. My gosh, you might think I'd given her a million dollars. She was that pleased. I passed her many miles down the road and she said, "Hey. It's Ami-with-
the-peanuts."
I feel great, both mentally and physically. I'm actually surprised that I'm not more tired. You'd think that waking at 4:30am and riding all day would wipe a girl out. But I'm going strong and looking forward to another day of fun on two wheels.
This fantastic day is winding down. Tomorrow we take the long way (94 miles) from Paso to Santa Maria. We'll be passing thru Morro Bay and Pismo Beach - home of the best cinammon rolls in the world. Tomorrow we also pass the halfway mark. Then it's all downhill (ha!) into LA.
More tomorrow from Camp 4 in Santa Maria.
G'night.
Ami (with the peanuts)
No comments:
Post a Comment