It was hot in San Francisco!  Which was kind of fabulous.  I headed off after work up Columbus and stopped at Washington Square for some pics.  Saint Peter and Paul's looked beautiful as always:

  

And the square was full of people loungin' about in the afternoon sun:

And me in short sleeves.  In San Francisco in the summer!  Imagine!

I continued up Columbus to North Point to Van Ness to Francisco to Gough to Chestnut to Lyon and into the Presidio.  I came around on Lincoln into Camino Del Mar and went through Seacliff to 28th to Lake to 29th to Clement to 34th to Balboa and down to the coast.  I went down the Great Highway and then went into Golden Gate Park at JFK and followed it into the Panhandle.  Then I took Baker to Page to Scott to Duboce to Castro to 17th and then home.  The dogs had a great time romping around and then we had dinner and went to bed.

Bike Mileage:
Today                                         38.5
Week to date                            103.6
Month to date                           648.6
Year to date                           5,666.7
Remaining to Goal                  4,333.3
Over (Under) plan                  1,185.8

I headed off Corbett to Portola to Woodside to Dewey to Taravel and down to the coast.  I came up the Great Highway and went into Golden Gate Park at MLK.  I followed it to the Music Concourse where I stopped for pics:

I got on JFK to 8th to Arguello and into the Presidio.  I came out the Lombard Gate and then rode Lyon to Chestnut to Octavia to Francisco to Polk to North Point where I got a great shot of the Fontana:

I continued on North Point to the Embarcadero to Washington to Battery to Sacramento to Sansome and into work.

When I was coming back from lunch I noted that the flags were up on Market for Pride. They make me very happy.  I think it's going to be a heck of a celebration this year with the marriage stuff. 

  

After work I headed off Howard to 11th to Harrison to 23rd to Valencia to Tiffany to 29th to San Jose to Wilder to Diamond to Monterey to Ridgewood to Flood to Hazelwood to Greenwood to Plymouth to Southwood.  Check out the view:

I continued on Southwood to Miramar to De Montefort to Pico to Urbano.  This cool house on Urbano has all these cool plantings in the yard:

I think we had one of these when we lived on Sanchez but it looked nasty.  These are fabulous:

I continued on Urbano to Alviso to Holloway to Lake Merced.  There were boaters on the lake and I stopped for pics:

I continued on Lake Merced to Skyline to the Great Highway to Taravel to Merced to Hernandez to Laguna Honda to Portola to Corbett and home.  Beautiful day.

Bike Mileage:
Today                                         40.5
Week to date                              65.1
Month to date                           610.1
Year to date                           5,628.2
Remaining to Goal                  4,371.8
Over (Under) plan                  1,174.6

It was a gorgeous morning and I headed off Corbett to Portola to Woodside to Dewey to Taravel and down to the coast.  I came up the Great Highway and then Geary to 34th and up to the Palace of the Legion of Honor where I stopped for pics:

Such a gorgeous morning:

I came down Camino Del Mar to Lake to Arguello to Clay to Steiner and stopped for a few shots of Gothiclicious St. Dominic's.  Such great detail:

  

I continued on Steiner to Post to Kearny to Bush to Sansome and into work.

I went and got my bike mid day and then headed off for a ride in the late afternoon.  I headed off Corbett to Clayton to Parnassus to Cole to Waller to Stanyon and into Golden Gate Park.  I came down JFK to Bernice Rodgers to MLK and onto the Great Highway.  I headed down the coast and stopped at the foot of Sloat for pics.

Surferlicious!

I continued on the Great Highway to Lake Merced to SoutGate to Palm Plaza to Park Plaza to 87th to Washington to San Pedro to East Market to Guadalupe Canyon Parkway.  I saw a little brush fire on the side of the road.  They're building a lot of homes up there and I would be scared to live in them.  It's too dry to spread out and too prone to brush fire.  And landslide.  And mudslide.  And earthquake.  Pretty much everything except Godzilla.  I contineud on Guadalupe Canyon to Bayshore into San Bruno over to Cambridge to Trumbull over the 280 footbridge into Saint Mary's Park.  I then took Justin to College to Mission to Richland to Arlington to Randall to San Jose to 29th to Tiffany to Valencia to 19th to Dolores where I took a couple of shots of Dolores Park:

I continued on Dolores to 18th to Diamond to 17th and then home.  It felt good to be back on my bike.  It had, after all, been TWO WHOLE DAYS.

Bike Mileage:
Today                                           24.6
Week to date                                24.6
Month to date                             569.6
Year to date                             5,587.7
Remaining to Goal                    4,412.3
Over (Under) plan                    1,161.5

We got up and headed over to Venice Beach before our flight.  Venica kind of has me scratching my head.  It has the nicest beach and all this great architecture but the neighborhood is definitely sketchy.  It's either all the tourists or all the head shops but that's a chicken and egg comparison.  At least the surfers looked surferlicious:

There's a lot of fantastic architecture and a lot of great murals as well:

I love this Moorish detail:

This is the greatest mural:

.

This is tilework on the entrance to an apartment building.  Maybe a little tacky, but you know I love that:

We headed over to Marina Del Rey which isn't as walkable but has a lot more fabulous:

Hello gorgeous:

Me with the channel behind me.

We got rid of the rental car and headed over to the airport.  Check in at Virgin America was pretty easy because we were early.  It's a very stylish airline.  They've spent a lot of time on styling and it really shows.  Whether or not they can afford to keep this up remains to be seen.  It's also the gayest airline I've ever seen, at least in LA.  Which, of course, is fine with me.  I had some time before the flight to look around:

Delta regional:

Air Tahiti Nui A340-300.  Such a beautiful aircraft and such a great livery.  Me likey:

An American MD80.  Insert fuel here:

It was a hazy day but I could still see stuff taking off:

LAN 767-300.  So pretty:

Our ride--  an A319

An American Airlines 767:

A whole row of Fedex.  There's a couple of MD-11's in there which are my favorite.

We stopped and got some food.  Mr. Poe is happiest at airports when he's eating.  Eventually it was time to head to the gate.  The Virgin America people were really friendly which was a nice departure from a lot of American Airlines who's surly employees leave you scratching your head as to whether you're going to Orlando or a concentration camp.

Virgin America Flight 1852 LAX-SFO Dep 3:55 Arr 5:15

The plane was spotlessly clean and everything seemed really new.  It didn't have bulkheads in it and I'm not really sure why that was.  Mr. Poe said the flight down from SFO had them and that they were clear.  Maybe our plane was still in process.  Inflight entertainment was down.  They gave us a drink ticket as an apology.  The interior of a Virgin America aircraft is highly styled.  Anything thing that could possibly be different and cool looking was different and cool looking.  A marked departure from any other US airlines I've flown on.  Check this out:

In flight entertainment:

It swivels out:

Even the safety card is heavily styled and in the brightest color palette I've ever seen a safety card in:

Airport views from my seat. 

I didn't know Air Berlin flew to LA.  But they do.  I can't tell whether this is one of their A330's or their lone 767.

Some cargo jets:

Loving the Virgin America winglet:

The take off roll:

The beautiful control tower at LAZX

Fog on the coast as we head north:

The flight attendants are all in black.  They look like waiters at hip restaurants.  I think it's probably a good look and it looks comfortable. 

Mr. Poe fell asleep:

A view up the cabin from the back:

Soon we were descending into SFO:

The Dumbarton Bridge:

The San Mateo Bridge:

The view of San Francisco as we came in for landing:

Brisbane:

Our snazzy winglet with the east bay in the background:

The pier as we came in for a landing:

San Bruno mountains in the background:

USAir old livery:

British Airways 747-400

Virgin America is in the International Terminal which was neat because I hadn't seen it before,  It's gorgeous:

Qantas 747-400 from the International Terminal.  It parks for a big part of the day there.

International Terminal:

How cool is this terminal:

  

Exterior:

We got the truck and headed home.  Ashley cried for me the most.  Rufus seemed a little pissed I'd been gone then forgave me.  Mimi hadn't noticed I'd been gone.  We took the boys to the park and then had dinner and went to bed.  Long day.

We got up early and went to the Getty on Sunday morning.  The Getty museum is amazing.  It has a lot of really fabulous art in it, but it's the architecture of the museum itself and the gardens and the views from the site that are so amazing.  I like:

 

  

  

These are from the gardens by the parking garage at the base of the mountain the museum is on:

  

We went to Westwood Villiage for lunch.  It's really pretty there.  Not as touristy as Santa Monica and with a lot of beautiful movie theaters:

  

  

After lunch we went and hung out by the pool and then we went into West Hollywood for dinner and then to some of the bars afterwards for a while.  When I got back I got a lot of attitude from some young woman who works for the SFAF and evidently takes herself way way to seriously.  However, just for her, I shall no longer refer to myself as a "Hot Trannie Mess".  Instead, I'll refer to myself as a "Hot Transexual Mess".  I guess I've been schooled.

I got up at 4 and was out of camp at 6.  There weren't a lot of people waiting to go at 6 which was kind of surprising because last year there were a bunch.  I had a pretty easy ride to rest stop 1 except I got a little lost and ended up on the freeway but I figured it out pretty quickly and was back on the route.  I stopped in Malibu and here is the view:

Adn me enjoying it:

I finished at 9:50 which is the earliest I've finished.  Everybody started at a different time and it was a ride not a race but I was #5.  And I'm pleased with that.  Here are Geoff, Ben and I at the close. 

Mr. Poe came in his car with GPS and collected us and then took us to the hotel where we had lunch and went swimming and then I took Ben back to the close and then came and got ready for dinner and we went to Santa Monica.  Santa Monica is a beautiful city with many gorgeous buildings everywhere you look:

.

And a cute little amusement park on a pier that I hadn't noticed before:

Money shot of the sunset:

And one of my wonderful husband.  Hello Gorgeous!

We went back to the hotel and sat by a pretty outdoor fireplace for a while and then we went to bed.  I was beat.  But I'm already looking forward to next year.

Bike Mileage:
Today                                       0.0
Week to date                            0.0
Month to date                           0.0
Year to date                              0.0
Remaining to Goal                     0.0
Over (Under) plan                     0.0

Day 6 has been my favorite day in years past, but this year it was pretty much a disaster.  At least the weather was great and I looked fantastic.  We started with a long climb followed by a screamin' descent down Gaviota Canyon.  And, let me tell you, Gaviota Canyon is so pretty it's hard to believe.  We had to wait at rest stop 2 for Caltrans to put cones up for us at a dangerous bridge.  I took some pics while I waited:

I think this guys name was Mr. Flexibility.  You know, of the South Carolina Flexibilites.

Caltrans was forty five minutes late opening the rode for us.  This, I pretty much expected because they were late last year.  The Lifecycle staff at rest stop 2 was totally unprepared for this.  They'd made no provision for a delay, and when a thousand riders accumulated at the rest stop before they were able to open the road they were totally disorganized.  I'd been in line for an hour yet when the road finally opened up they let people go ahead of me that had just shown up.  Although that might not seem like a big deal, the result was that they stuck the fastest riders behind much slower riders which caused all sorts of dangerous issues on the highway and took us fifteen miles or so to get sorted out.  The crew members didn't seem to be operating off of the same list of rules and were yelling conflicting instructions at us.  From megaphones.  When one of the pos peds asked for clarification, the roadie responded "Don't get started with me!"  which was both insulting and not helpful.  Not a good combination.  I realize that the base problem, that Caltrans was really late in opening up the road, was beyond the Lifecycle's control, but their response was completely disorganized and tended towards unacceptably rude and led to an unsafe situation that totally could have been avoided.  They need to be ready for next year for a similar delay and organize a queue system to get people back on the road in the order that they lined up and have the roadies working under a single set of ride instructions and tell them not to be rude to the riders.  They need to tighten their shit up.

I finally rolled into rest stop 3 and was still crabby from all this drama.  Somebody gave me a hug.  My gears were getting a little creaky and it took the technical guy forever to tweak them and then I was on my way.  Here's a pic of me with one of the rest stop folks:

About three miles out of rest stop 3 my rear shifter cable snapped in the shifter.  Which left me with my front chain ring for shifting gears which was a huge, huge problem.  I talked to some commuter and he steered me to Rincon Cycles in Carpinteria.  I think that's what it was called.  The mechanic was fantastic.  He called Shimano who told him to send the shifter back.  He wasn't satisfied with that so he fished around in my shifter until he found the broken piece and got me shifting again, got everything pieced back together and then sent me on my way.  Which was really awesome and he only charged me $18.50.  Delighted!  I finally made it into camp around 2 which was much later than I'd anticipated but it had been a hell of a day.

I have a boyfriend at each rest stop.  It's a coveted position and there's a lot of competition.  At least there should be.  I'm afraid I don't know the names of all of the winners but each of them was really nice to me or looked super hot in something they wore or likely a combination of the two.

Rest Stop 1:  Richard.  Would be described in Alabama a "A little slice of heaven right here on earth".

Rest Stop 2:  I want to say his name is Daniel.  I'm not really sure.  I can tell you that he wore a football costume on day 2 and a caveman costume on day 3 both of which I was very partial to.  Bonus points to him for never mentioning my odor.

Rest Stop 3:  I don't think I ever got his name.  Super cute and super nice.

Rest Stop 4.  Randy.  I believe he runs the cosmetics department at Saks.  He was responsible for all the nice skin care freebies at his rest stop.  And a super cute ginger.  Is it love?

Bike Parking:  I can't remember his name, but we have 2 pictures together, the second being my favorite.  Because it reminds me of those cheesy staged Heidi and Spencer paparazzi shots.  Fine,  I'm Heidi then.

I headed off with my posse off for dinner in Ventura.  Ben picked the place which kind of made me nervous because I generally don't associate him with eating solid food.  But it was great and I had a BLT except with avocado instead of bacon.  We all had a great time and I was rockin' some seriously big Southern hair.

Do these two ever take a bad picture together??

The rest of us-- not so much.

  

I skipped the candlelight vigil.  Don't judge me.  I've been twice.  I went to bed hoping that day 6 wouldn't be quite so crappy next year.

Bike Mileage:
Today                                       0.0
Week to date                            0.0
Month to date                           0.0
Year to date                              0.0
Remaining to Goal                     0.0
Over (Under) plan                     0.0

Ahhhh, day 5.  Day of costumes.  Day 5 originally started as a day or remembrance where everybody was supposed to wear red.  It rapidly moved to red dresses  I think the results speak for themselves:

Regan, Courtney, and Ben:

Chris and Larry:

How cute is Regan's outfit?  And she's wearing my lipstick. 

Regan, Ben, Courtney and I.  I don't think it photographed too well but I used a red lipstick as a cream blush to create a look that was halfway from crazy lady to clownish.  I liked.  It kind of started to move all over my face as the day wore on but I was generally pleased with the look.

Will as a fireman and I:

Gabo and husband:

  

More fabulous outfits:

   

Beau and I:

Adorable TAB Bruce King-Shey.  He's super nice too.  I have nothing snarky to say about him.  Which is unusual for me.

Here are Ben and I with Ginger Brewlay.  Here's an excerpt from our conversation:

Joseph:  Ginger you are the classiest, most elegant, most beautiful girl I know in real life.
Ginger:  You are so full of shit.

Here's Peter.  Who has a really, really nice rack.  He's from New York and doesn't take well to complements because he always thinks there's an insult embedded in it.  I think New Yorkers are kind of like that. 

The day went downhill from lunch.  The shower line was really, really long and I missed my team pics because of it.  Which, in the grand scheme of things I don't really care about but I hate being late for things.  Dinner was a disaster.  They were a little cagey about what was vegan and what wasn't and I ended up eating broccoli, breadsticks and potato chips for dinner.  Not good.  But I went to bed early and sleeping always cheers you up.

Bike Mileage:
Today                                       0.0
Week to date                            0.0
Month to date                           0.0
Year to date                              0.0
Remaining to Goal                     0.0
Over (Under) plan                     0.0