Oh, my. What a day. A glorious day.
We rode out of Ventura under overcast skies. City streets thru Ventura, Oxnard and Port Hueneme (Why-Knee-Me). From Pt. Mugu Naval Base we picked up Hwy 1 - Pacific Coast Highway. The next 40 miles we coasted down PCH. This was, by far, the most beautiful day ever. There were plenty of picture-moments, but when there's parked cars on the right, high-speed traffic on the left, and not much space between the two, there really is no good place to stop to take a picture. You'll just have to take my word for it. SPECTACULAR!
Our first rest stop was at the Santa Monica Mountains Recreation Area - on the bluffs overlooking the ocean. Lunch was in Malibu - on the bluffs overlooking the ocean. There has never been a more perfect day.
I made it in to LA around 1pm - much earlier than I anticipated, and about the same time Jose and Agina were leaving Riverside. Needless to say, I had to hang around for a while. I went to the finish and cheered in some riders - what a party! Then I pulled up a piece of grass under a tree and took a nap. Oh, wonderful nap. Jose and Agina arrived just before line-up for closing ceremonies. They headed over to Wadsworth Theater while I went over to bike parking. My bike was an absolute workhorse throughout the entire ride and NOW my rear brake starts locking up. If it was gonna happen, I guess that was the best time. Back to the shop this week.
All the riders rode in together. What a sight. Then the 550 roadies entered. I think the riders cheered louder for the roadies than everyone cheered for the riders. We absolutely could not have done this without these wonderful volunteers. They did everything - set up camp, served food, tore down camp, tended to our medical needs (blessed are the medical personnel!), gave massages and hauled all our crap from one camp to the next. I think they're job is way harder than riding a bike 500+ miles.
There were some speeches, and I couldn't even tell you what was said. All I can say is that is was very emotional and there were lots of tears. I do remember hearing that ALC 9 raised $10 Million! How awesome is that.
But the day wasn't done yet... back to the gear truck to pick up my bag. I was so tired of wearing my cycling cleats that I took them off and walked over in my socks. Big mistake - I burnt the bottoms of my feet on the hot asphalt. Silver lining - that is the only injury I incurred throughout this event.
A quick change into clean clothes in the parking lot (thank you, Jose, for bringing them), then off to dinner. Jose said we could go anywhere and I could have anything I wanted.... What did I want? A cheeseburger and a margarita. And so I had both.
We finally made it home sweet home around 9pm. A little elf named Mom snuck in to the house and hung a welcome home banner. Thanks, Ma.
I have already decided that I will ride AIDS/LifeCycle again. Perhaps not 2011, but 2012 is looking good.
Thank you all for everything.
Ami
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