This is another picture that isn't all that remarkable, but what it does show is Jody not wearing his leg warmers to start the day, (Joe went without them, too. I think I wore them to start off but probably took them off a short while later.) which, I believe, was a first! That obviously meant that the temperatures were rising, which is always a good thing. Because of our later arrival in Santa Cruz the previous night (we got there around midnight), however, we got an equally late start in the morning. By the time we hit the pavement, it was already after 10:00, making it our latest start up to that point. You can't blame us, though: We all need our beauty sleep. Unfortunately, the late start came back to sting us badly when we got caught up in that nasty storm past Big Sur.
This picture won't win me any contests, either, but again, it does tell a short story. Over the course of our "epic" adventure, we came across quite a few other cyclists. All of them, however, were going at a much slower pace and were, for the most part, staying at campsites. This guy here on the left, with whom Joe struck up a conversation less than an hour into the day's ride, is carrying at least as much gear as most of the other riders we encountered, which is substantially more than we had.
I took this picture at 11:25 a.m. As you can see, the weather is getting pretty iffy and it's raining off in the distance. You can also see that we moved a bit inland and that we were in prime agricultural territory. We weren't allowed on Highway 1 in this area (between Santa Cruz and Watsonville), so we were forced to follow a rather roundabout route. I thought it was actually nice to catch a breather and make our way around all sorts of fields rather than bee-lining it down the freeway, but the downside of that was, you guessed it, the hours were ticking by faster than the miles.
If you're familiar with the area, you're probably familiar with signs like these. It doesn't get much cheaper than that!
Luckily, at around 12:30 p.m., we found this food truck parked off the side of the road, so I was able to stock up once again on calories of both the liquid and solid variety. (I wonder how many hungry bicyclists they have as customers.) As happy as I was to see this truck, I would have preferred a restaurant, but you just have to take what you get when you're on the road. Then again, I should blame Jody for this blunder. After all, he does have the magic phone that knows all and tells all, so surely he could have found us a nicer place to fuel up... Hear that Jody?
Speaking of Jody, here's a rare shot of him walking his bike, rather than riding it. Now Jody, why the heck would you be walking your bike? Tired? Fed up? Thinking of quitting? I bet you didn't tell your friends about this moment of weakness, did you?
Oops! Never mind. My apologies, Jody. You were just being a good, law-abiding citizen. Atta boy!
For some reason, that day I remember feeling like we weren't getting anywhere fast. I think it's because the mile markers were all too obvious, which made me think exclusively about distance traveled rather than anything else, such as the weather, the World Series, my aches and pains, food, the scenery, climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro... By the time I took this picture it was already 1:00 p.m. and we still hadn't made it to Seaside. And look at how many miles to go to LA: 338. That is one scary number, which equates to a good three days of riding.
I rode past this sign an hour and a half later, at 2:30 p.m. Somehow, even though I got 11 miles closer to SLO in that time, I only managed to get 1(!) mile closer to LA. I knew LA was big, but that's ridiculous. The other not-so-comforting thought was that Hearst Castle was still so far away. In the back of my mind, even though I didn't want to believe it, the thought loomed that I was going to see that historic building before the night was over. Please pass me a tissue. I think I'm going to cry...
At least the ride was full of spectacular views ...
... which just got better and better ...
... and better? Wait, that's Jody, not some supermodel. What's he doing there? He was light-years ahead of me. Or so I thought. Somehow I caught up to him (could it have been that 520-calorie King Size NutRageous bar that I ate earlier in the day at his recommendation that gave me the sudden burst of energy?) just in time to take some cool pictures with him of the Big Sur coastline. (Joe pulled in a couple of minutes later to join in on the fun.)
Nice view, huh? And I'm not talking about the coastline; I'm talking about the guy in the middle of the picture! Of course, Jody would argue that he's the better-looking of the two of us... If you look carefully, you might notice what else the picture shows: Jody and Joe are wearing arm warmers. I'm not. Jody and Joe aren't wearing leg warmers. I am. Jody and Joe are wearing shoe covers. I'm not. Well, at least we all agreed on one thing: We're all wearing our helmets. Safety first!
Oh, crap! There goes Jody again, taking off while I'm still enjoying the view! I better go try and catch him again, which is nearly impossible... By the way, this is the last picture I took that day. It's really I shame that I wasn't able to capture on film the sights and sounds of the brutal storm that we endured later that evening. Oh, well. I guess you're just going to have to go back to the blog I wrote about it and re-read it to get a feel for what we went through. And I guess I'm going to have to go back to the store and buy a waterproof camera for the next time!
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