We leave on Sunday and I can’t wait!  I got my bike checked out yesterday and it’s OK but it will need a little work when I get back.  I rode out to the beach after work yesterday and it was really windy but really pretty.  Ashley’s foot seems to be a lot better so I have one less thing to worry about.  Mimi, of course, has completely recovered and is back to romping around the house all day long.

I went on an AIDS lifecycle training ride this morning–  nothing very challenging just a slow 17 miles out to Tiburon on the flats.  The ride was staying for lunch and Margaritas and taking the ferry back.  I had a party in the afternoon so I ate my luna bar and headed back to San Francisco.  I felt a little sluggish and my bike definitely needs to get the gears tweaked but I think the rest of it will hold until after the AIDS lifecycle.  I’m going to head out tomorrow by myself.

Here’s bike #2 that has been such a trooper this year. 

Day 0 for the AIDS lifecycle is one week from today and I’m very excited. I was a little worried that after my long tour I would not be looking forward to it but I’m so excited and I find that my fondness for biking has increased instead of waned. I’ve been taking little rides before work and taking the slow way home almost every night this week. I haughtily boasted that I wouldn’t be experiencing an separation issues from my tour but last night, I blew off plans with my friend nick and proceeded to wash and lubricate first my three bikes, then Jeff’s bike, then the neighbors upstairs’ bikes and then there wasn’t anything with two wheels left to work on.

I had to go to Kaiser for a check up on Wednesday and some 70 year only russian lady totally felt me up on the Geary bus on the way back. And I wasn’t even in bike shorts. She tried to make off like it was an accident but it totally wasn’t an accident because the bus wasn’t really crowded and the length of contact was … extended. I’m looking forward to my layout in AARP magazine where I’ll be photographed scantily clad filling out the medicare drug benefit forms.

I’m very pleased with REI this week as well. They reassembled bike #2 and luckily my half assed packing job did not result in any trauma to my bike this time. I’m never packing my bike again!!! I wouldn’t have this time but there was no other option because I needed it right away. And that bike goes to Lombardi where I get free gear adjustments because I bought it there but the only way I can make it there on a weekday is on my bike. So…. it had to be assembled at REI. They did a great job for $30. Can’t beat that. I was back a few days later to get a gear adjustment on Bike #1. I could probably save a lot of money if I learned to do all this crap myself but I’d rather go to the professionals rather than risk my bike or my safety with my own crappy repairs. My cleaning skills are pretty good though.

Today we had to go out to the Richmond to get a smog cert for my truck. And it passed! It turns 10 next month and shows no signs of slowing down. We had lunch at a Korean place and I had Bi Bim Bop which is about my favorite and it came in the hot stone bowl which made it better still.

I got up early and had a nice bike ride this morning.  Nice to see I’m still interested in biking.  My bike is assembled at REI and I’m going to go get it after work.  I’m excited that it wasn’t ruined because I had to pack it myself and I did a crappy job.  The guy at REI was a real trooper and didn’t scold me on my half assed effort but rather showed me the important parts on my bike I’d neglected to proptect.  Ouch! 

Back to work!  I’ve been eating all day like some kind of crazy person.  Today it’s OK but I’ve got to get back to regular diet pretty quickly or I won’t be very happy with the results.  Taking my bike to get reassembled after work.  I need it for this weekend because I’ve got a training ride because I’m kinda out of shape

Day 28 – Travel Day SAV-SFO

Woke up at 6:30 very hungry.  I had a nice breakfast with Klaus who seemed a little sullen until he realized there was a waffle maker–  which I might point out that he has mastered the use of to the point that he knew there was a waffle maker in the room because he could recognize the ding it made when it was done cooking.  Stan took us to the airport where I hung out until my flight.  Flew on Delta Savannah to Atlanta and then Atlanta to San Francisco.  The flight to Atlanta was on an MD88 and it was really neat because it’s such a short flight they don’t need a lot of fuel and we were off like a rocket when we took off.  Easily made my connections to a 767-400 that was continuing to Honolulu and was back to rainy San Francisco in the late afternoon.  Jeff made me cold soba noodles for dinner and they were just delicious.  Had trouble getting to sleep because of the lack of exercise that day but eventually drifted off in my comfy comfy bed.

Day 27 – Savannah, GA – 105 Miles

Today was a fun day.  Hot but fun.  It was a reasonably flat, fast ride from Vidalia to Savannah.  The countryside is beautiful and got prettier and prettier the closer we got to the coast.  Everybody seemed to have a good day and nobody got into too much trouble.  I finished pretty early so I took a brief tour of Fort Pulaski out on Tybee island. 

When everyone was assembled we biked the final five miles to the beach to dip our wheels in the Atlantic and then then we were done. 

We went to the hotel, I had to box my bike, and then I went for a fun but fast walk around Savannah. 

Then we had our final banquet and it was time to go to bed.

Day 26 – Vidalia, GA – 103 miles

The days have been getting a LOT easier as we head for the coast.  Honey, we’re racing through Georgia faster than Sherman did.  We saw a lot of farmland today and we went through a few cute little towns.  Vidalia, unfortunately, is not one of them.  There’s a lot of traffic and all I saw were highways and trucks.  There’s probably a lovely part to Vidalia but I’m not sure where that is and we missed the onion festival.  Tomorrow we go to Savannah and our journey is finally over.  I’m really looking forward to going home but I’ve had a fabulous time.  Here’s a pic of me in our kitschy hotel room. 

The news from home is that Mimi needs to drink more water so we’re going to be introducing a consumme course to their dinner in hopes that she’ll drink more and Ashley will eat less.  Man are we whipped.

Day 25 – Perry, GA – 97 miles

Today had a lot of variety.  We started out going through a beautiful river walk up to Fort Benning.  Then we headed through rolling hills through Buena Vista, GA and Ellaville to Perry.  It’s a beautiful town with friendly people.  I enjoyed a vegetarian meal at Arby’s with the staff who were eating waiting for the dinner rush to start.  Then I headed back to the hotel.  Only two days left!  Here’s a pic of Johannes and I from the cracker barrel gift shop.  They have all sorts of genuine country things.

The news is all abuzz over the bigoted same sex marriage ban they have in Georgia being thrown out on a technicality and the governer is going to call a special session to protect the good people of Georgia from – you guessed it — me.  It would seem that I’m such a threat to the southern states that it’s a wonder I haven’t been whisked off to Guantanamo by now.

Day 24 – Columbus, GA – 110 miles

Today started off with some horrible news.  The ride leader Mike’s mother was taken ill suddenly and he had to leave the ride to go make preparations.  We bade him goodbye and started off on our day.  First, we made a visit to the Emerald Mountain Christian School to visit the kids who had been following our journey via or postcards and updates from the ride staff.  They were very sweet.  Here’s a picture of Rachael posing with some horrible rasberry twinkies I’d gotten her. 

Then, we went through Tuskegee, AL.  Gorgeous!  Small, quaint, friendly, and southern.  Also the home of a fine University:

and the home of  George Washington Carver

Nice!  The rest of the day was a little dull–  nothing but pine trees and single wides.  After a confusing detour, we finally made our Alabama Getaway into Columbus, GA.  Our last state!  It’s a town outside of  Fort Benning that has a beautiful downtown.  We stayed pretty close to it, but our hotel was stocked with so much white trash I was wondering where the tractor pull was.  I babysat one of the rider’s dog while he was at dinner and we went for a little walk through the historic district:

Then I watched the final of America’s Next Top Model (go Danielle!) and went to bed.

Day 23 – Prattville, AL – 120 Miles

Another big climbing day in Alabama with 6000 feet of climbing.  Who knew there were so many hills in Alabama?  Besides the Alabamans.  I started the day in a crappy mood because I saw a reelection campaign commercial for the Alabama governor pledging to “defend the sanctity of marriage”.  From me.  Yep, you heard it here first..  the good people of Alabama need to be protected from me and my insidious desire to have the same rights as everybody else.  Unbelievable.  I keep forgetting the thing I liked least about the south was not the heat or the poverty but the bigotry.  And whether you’re a bigot with a hood and a burning cross or a bigot with a bible in one hand and republican national funding in the other you’re still a bigot.  And that means you too Bill Frist.  The record will show that I knew that Jeff was the man for me the second we met and I married him the first chance I got.  If that threatens your marriage than you’re relationship has problems that keeping us down isn’t going to fix.

So I was pretty pissed for the first few hours but I finally got over it when I found two adorable puppies playing in their front yard.  Luckily for Jeff I couldn’t keep them but they were so sweet–  lab hound dog mutts and I think I saw their daddy a little further up the hill.  Most of the day was pretty monotonous.  Trees and single wides with an odd farm or two.  We stayed way away from populated regions for some reason so I focused on staying on top of the hills and trying to get in a good run.  Which I did.  After lunch I headed into Prattville, a cute little town outside of Montgomery.  It has an old cotton gin factory that is very pretty.

and also a pretty victorian– although it could be Antebellum it looks 1870′s to me or maybe a little later.

I got totally lost on the way to the hotel and ended up on a busy road and the motorists were not happy about it at all.  Man everybody seems awful wound up in this town.  With all the honking and shouting and cursing I heard you would of thought I was walking down the street buck naked with a burning flag in one hand and wiping my butt with the bible with the other.  Sheesh!  I wonder if they make Xanax in town size?  Tomorrow we’re off to Georgia!  I can’t wait.

Day 22 – Tuscaloosa, AL – 110 miles

Today had 5000 feet of climbing but it was all rolling hills so I didn’t have any problem with it.  We’re in Alabama now!

Note that my bike is the only one pointed into Alabama.  Ain’t no way I’m going back to Mississippi.  Almost immediately I saw my first “Tara”.  I expect I’ll see many more versions of that house as we head towards Georgia.  Coming into Tuscaloosa, which I believe is an indian word meaning “hard to spell”, we passed by Lake Lurleen which left me chuckling about Lurleen Lumpkin, the Simpson’s favorite country singer:

Once I got into town, I went to the bike shop and got my handlebar tape replaced and my tires rotated.  The guys at the bike shop were really nice and did a lot of things on my bike for very little monry.  Also they were hot in a country fried way.  Then I took a short tour of the University of Alabama campus.  Man, they love their football here.  The bank machine actually played the Alabama fight song while it spits out your money!  The campus is enormous and very beautiful. 

This is the home of the president of the university.  Or maybe Coronel Sanders.  It’s really kind of hard to tell.  Then I headed into the hotel to get ready for tomorrow.  120 miles to Prattville, AL.  Only five ride days left!

Day 21 – Aberdeen, MS – 135 miles

This was our last really long day, a backwoods ramble through rural Mississippi.  We were chased by many dogs and several of them meant business.  Aberdeen, MS has a small Antebellum neighborhood.  I was impressed by The Magnolias

Fiddle-dee-dee!

The town itself, unfortunately did not hold up to it’s architectural heritage.  There wasn’t much in the form of food and the hotel restaurant evidently had a “animals only” policy.  So I had french fries and peanut butter sandwiches for dinner.  But that only cost $1.65 because I brought the peanut butter.  On budget!  It’s probably a good thing that this ride is winding down because I’m getting pretty skinny but at least I don’t have zombie hands like Nicole Ritchie.  Yet…

At least I got to watch Simpsons although I also watched The Family Guy which did a Hitler bit which totally horrified Klaus.  I couldn’t even explain it to him myself.  It was a little tense because the Germans don’t find anything about Hitler funny AT ALL.  I don’t blame them.