I’m FINALLY over the cold I got on the Lifecycle but did not get much biking in on Monday.  I came down Market into work in the morning and then went the same way home after work.  I didn’t go home over lunch because Mr. Poe, Mr. Chris and I had lunch with my friend Erik from college and his cute partner Barry who were visiting from Nashville.  It was so nice to see Erik after so many years and I hope they come back to visit us soon.  I ran home after work because Mr. Chris and I headed over to see Nathan’s fabulous new condo that he’s in the process of moving into.  There was wine and champagne and I went to bed pretty late.

Bike Mileage:

Today 7.0 Week to date 7.0 Month to date 711.5 Year to date 4,551.9 To Goal 5,448.1 Over (Under) plan (352.2) YTD Mileage vs Last Year 626.7 Rolling Year 8,518.8 Since Inception 10/1/07 25,721.7

Mr. Poe and I left for Big Bear Lake on Thursday for a family reunion that was lots of fun although all we really seemed to do was sit around and eat.  This was my family on Daddy’s side and I hadn’t seen some of them ever.  Mr. Poe was a total champ all weekend and prepared many, many meals for us.  I’m not exactly sure what we would have done without him, but it surely wouldn’t have been as tasty.  I loved spending time with Athena and we had a great time.  This is a picture looking towards the LA basin from the mountain about 2/3 the way up:

We stayed at Big Bear Lake til Sunday and then we went and visited my Mom’s sister in San Dimas.  I hadn’t seen any of my cousins on my mom’s side since Grandma’s funeral in 2000 and it was nice to see everybody under happier circumstances.  Everybody on my mom’s side of the family has a zillion pets.  That must be where I get it.

I came down Market mid day into work and then managed to get in a bike ride after work.  I rode Sutter to Fillmore to Clay to Spruce to Washington to Arguello to Lake to 8th and into Golden Gate Park.  It was super foggy and gloomy in the park but I wasn’t complaining.  At least I was riding:

I got on MLK and came out of the park at 9th and took it to Judah to 7th into Laguna Honda to Dewey to Claremont to Portola to Santa Clara.  I love Saint Francis Wood.  It’s gorgeous and spread out and oh so suburban yet still in the city.  Likey:

Me:

I took Santa Clara into Monterey to Diamond to Wilder to Arlington to Randall to San Jose to Duncan to Valencia to 18th to Diamond to 17th to Ord and home for dinner.

Bike Mileage:

Today 17.7 Week to date 31.7 Month to date 704.5 Year to date 4,544.9 To Goal 5,455.1 Over (Under) plan (194.8) YTD Mileage vs Last Year 619.7 Rolling Year 8,511.8 Since Inception 10/1/07 25,714.7

Ugh.  I’ve had a shitty cold since I’ve gotten back from the Lifecycle and haven’t been biking much.  I think I’m finally on the mend.

Bike Mileage:

Today 14.0 Week to date 14.0 Month to date 686.8 Year to date 4,527.2 To Goal 5,472.8 Over (Under) plan (185.1) YTD Mileage vs Last Year 602.0 Rolling Year 8,494.1 Since Inception 10/1/07 25,697.0

I came down with a cold on Friday night and felt pretty crappy all day Saturday.  I rode as hard as I could but I wasn’t really on my game.  I managed to finish about 9:45 and was the first rider in which really isn’t much of an accomplishment given that the riders faster than me had stopped for coffee a few blocks before the finish.  Still, I won the AIDSLifecyle. 

I had a huge plan for the rest of the day and I had already finished a little late so I got moving.  I got my T shirt and gave myself the whore’s bath using Shiseido Pureness Cleansing Cloths and put on shorts and sneakers that I had put in my Camelbak using a cop car as a shield so that I didn’t flash my ass to San Vicente Blvd and then I took off on foot headed towards Westwood to pick up my rental car.

This is one of the buildings in the VA campus:

This beautiful sculpture graces an entrance to the Los Angeles National Cemetery:

The 1941 Crest Theatre on Westwood:

I got the rental car and went to Chipotle for lunch where I managed to consume more food in one sitting than I have in recent memory.  Then I did a little shoe shopping and then headed back to the VA to pick up my luggage.  From there I went to West Hollywood to Millions of Milkshakes which I can report has a delicious vegan shake that was all shades of awesome.  Then I headed to Hancock Park to check out the LA County Museum.  As expected, I was too cracked out to enjoy any of the art but I loved walking around the grounds and it was free that day.  It’s a gorgeous complex  with a gigantic collection that would take me a long time to get through.

Street lamp sculpture:

The Japanese Pavilion:

Me:

Then it was time to head to the airport.  I got up there with plenty of time to spare and returned my car and then got checked in for my flight.  There was one first class upgrade left and I grabbed it.  I can report that the Virgin America offers a gratuitous amount of legroom in first class.  We got back to San Francisco on time and Mr. Poe picked us up and then we dropped off Larrry and Lulu and I went home and went to bed.  I was exhausted.  I had a fantastic time on the Lifecycle and am already looking forward to next year. 

Bike Mileage:

Today 61.5 Week to date 486.7 Month to date 655.3 Year to date 4,495.7 To Goal 5,504.3 Over (Under) plan 29.9 YTD Mileage vs Last Year 570.5 Rolling Year 8,462.6 Since Inception 10/1/07 25,665.5

Day 6 – Lompoc to Ventura – 85.5 Miles

Day 6 is my favorite day of the Lifecycle.  It’s got an awesome climb, a screamin’ downhill and then a gorgeous route along the coast down to Ventura.  It’s also got a pain in the ass bottleneck–  people have to wait at pit 2 for Caltrans to put cones around a lane so that we can make it over a bridge safely.  Two years ago it was a complete nightmare because they ended up releasing people from pit 2 kind of haphazardly and it resulted in the fast riders being stuck behind and having to pass much slower riders on the 101.  Yuck.  It was a pain in the ass and it was scary.

This year I was determined for that not to happen again.  So, when I pulled into pit 2 at about 8 AM, I politely asked who was in charge.  They directed me to a nice lady.  I very politely (always be polite) explained to her that I’d really appreciate it if they had a plan for releasing the riders once the road opened up because it would ultimately be safer for everybody and that I wanted to be in the first group of riders who was released (I was one of the first riders who showed up the rest stop) and that I was willing to line up an hour early if they wanted me to.  She promised me they’d take care of it and I halfway believed her.  They came up with a scheme where people would rack their bikes in a certain order and then the bikes would be released based on rack order.  It sounded fair and reasonable I thanked her profusely.  I saw her talking later to my friend Peter and learned that her name was Barbara and she was the head of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.  Eek!  Lesson:  always be polite you never really know who you’re talking to.

Alvin:

Wanderson:

Me looking a little dewy:

Wanderson and I:

The line getting ready to leave:

As Barbara had promised, the riders were pretty much released in the order they had arrived which made things much, much more pleasant for everybody.  I hada great (as opposed to terrifying) ride into Santa Barbara,  I got a couple of pics at pit 3 which was on the beach.

This is Maggie on the right.  She was one of the few who dared to taste me when I was covered with marshmallow flavored stripper glitter the day before:

This was the best bike tech area of the entire ride:

The Santa Barbara Marina:

I stopped at the water stop for the first time on the ride.  Tia was in a glamorous gypsy she-male costume:

From there I had a screaming run down PCH and got a little lost in Ventura but I made it to camp a little before 1.  Scott and I headed over to In-N-Out burger for lunch.  They got my sandwich order wrong and I was served a bun with mustard on it which was surprisingly OK.  I was there for the french fries anyway.

I got cleaned up and had a couple of dinners.  We Scott and I headed over to Duke’s which I thought would be a good idea because Ben likes it so much.  Then I got cleaned up and headed off to bed.  Exhausted yet again.

Bike Mileage:

Today 85.5 Week to date 425.2 Month to date 593.8 Year to date 4,434.2 To Goal 5,565.8 Over (Under) plan (4.2) YTD Mileage vs Last Year 509.0 Rolling Year 8,401.1 Since Inception 10/1/07 25,604.0

Day 5 – Santa Maria to Lompoc – 67.7 Miles

Day 5.  Ah, day 5.  Day 5 is costume day and many of the riders wear red dresses.   I’m not wearing a red dress on an almost seventy mile day.  I’m just not.  I’m not exactly in the majority on that:

The route wasn’t the one we had two years ago.  We went through Solvang which is dripping with Danish-ness:

Me in Solvang:

I rode like hell all day and encountered some of the worst headwinds and toughest riding we’d had and I was really happy when I rolled in around 11:15.  Almost immediately I was pulled over by a guy from Media Relations who told me that the local news was there for an interview and there was literally nobody else as I was one of the first riders and I was the only one there and they were gonna leave soon.  So I had to give an interview in my red dress day outfit which was a sleeveless jersey with arm warmers that looked like evening gloves.  Plus I was exhausted from the ride because it was a hard one and I’d pushed really hard.  Oh, and I was covered head to toe with marshmallow flavored stripper glitter.  I’m pretty sure I made a fool of myself on television and haven’t had the nerve to watch it yet.  I’ll keep you posted. 

Scott and I went into Lompoc for some food.  We asked the bus driver for advice and she steered us to a Mexican restaurant that I think I ended up liking a bit more than he did.  Is there anything better than Guacamole??

Wanderson and Eric in camp:

I skipped group pics for the most part because 1)  I looked like shit and 2) I was helping the Positive Pedelers get rid of the massive number of free pizzas they had been sent from Domino’s.  Not that the day 5 dinner was crappy, but people seemed really delighted with the concept of free pizza.  I was really beat yet again.

Bike Mileage:

Today 67.7 Week to date 339.7 Month to date 508.3 Year to date 4,348.7 To Goal 5,651.3 Over (Under) plan (62.3) YTD Mileage vs Last Year 423.5 Rolling Year 8,315.6 Since Inception 10/1/07 25,518.5

Day 4 – Paso Robles to Santa Maria – 97.7 Miles

We had gorgeous weather yet again and day 4 was a really good day.  I was really happy to have slept in a bed.  This is bike parking before we left:

I pulled into pit 1 and noted they had a county theme:

Then the big climb to the top of the coastal mountains and the screaming descent to the ocean.  There was blissfully little side winds and my terror level was low.  This is the beautiful beach at Morrow Bay:

The queens at rest stop 4 were too busy with their name tags to feed me when I rolled on through so I had to have my second choice snack which was still pretty yummy but we were not amused.  I rode like hell and got in around 12:30.  The fast riders were assembled in the shade as they were still setting up.  Scott and Glenn:

Super cute dogs.  One of them had an amazing underbite that made him look like Aliens:

I had dinner and went to bed.  I was completely beat.

Bike Mileage:

Today 97.7 Week to date 272.0 Month to date 440.6 Year to date 4,281.0 To Goal 5,719.0 Over (Under) plan (102.6) YTD Mileage vs Last Year 355.8 Rolling Year 8,247.9 Since Inception 10/1/07 25,450.8

Day 3 – King City to Paso Robles – 107.6 Miles

Day 3 is one of my favorite days.  I love the ride to Paso Robles.  Rolling hills into Paso Robles with a big hill at the start.  Here are my bike parking friends sending us off:

Wanderson:

Scott and I:

When I pulled into rest stop 1 I ran into Ginger Brewlay the most beautiful, most glamorous woman I know in real life:

A pretty ruined adobe at rest stop 1:

Rest Stop 2 had an Alice in Wonderland theme.  Clearly the guy in the middle checked his dignity at the door.  Willingly.  And he’d do it again:

I pulled into rest stop 4 only to find that those queens were too busy practicing their goddamn dance to get me a peanut butter graham cracker treat.  The bastards:

The beautiful San Miguel Mission:

I pulled into camp about 11:30 (I think).  I surprised Wanderson with a hotel room for night 3.  Which was really fortunate because they had pulled out the grass on the camp site to conserve water and replaced it with gravel.  Ouch.  It was pretty awful and a setting I normally associate with ethnic cleansing although I was unable to find a trench for any kind of mass burial.  In constrast. here was the pool at our hotel:

It was so fabulous to have a real bed and a real shower.  I put on a mud mask and totally scared myself when I looked like Heath Ledger in Batman.  But I slept like a baby.

Bike Mileage:

Today 66.7 Week to date 174.3 Month to date 342.9 Year to date 4,183.3 To Goal 5,816.7 Over (Under) plan (172.9) YTD Mileage vs Last Year 258.1 Rolling Year 8,150.2 Since Inception 10/1/07 25,353.1

Day 2 – Santa Cruz to King City – 107.6 miles

I woke up bright and early and was ready to ride by 6AM.  Here’s the people who agreed with me on that:

The gods of bike parking:

Fast riders:

It was kind of a pain in the ass getting out of Santa Cruz but eventually I managed to hit open road.  The Salinas river valley is very, very pretty:

I managed to make it in around 1:30 (I think).  King City is a little hot but it wasn’t as humid as the night before so I was a lot happier.  I noticed a curious sign on the men’s showers which was clearly meant for people with more energy than me:

I had dinner and made my way to bed.  Here’s the view from the tent:

I slept like a rock.

Bike Mileage:

Today 107.6 Week to date 107.6 Month to date 276.2 Year to date 4,116.6 To Goal 5,883.4 Over (Under) plan (212.2) YTD Mileage vs Last Year 191.4 Rolling Year 8,083.5 Since Inception 10/1/07 25,286.4