Opposite of Congress

Progress!
This past weekend we rode the "Benchmark" route again. 43 miles of hills out in Winters. The weather folks predicted thunderstorms for Saturday morning, and though it was chilly starting out, it didn't rain on us. We did the same ride last month (see February 19). It's a lot of hills. They say it's only three hills, which makes me think I don't know how to count hills. It seems to me that when you go up, that's one. Then you go down or even around, and go up again, that's two. Counting this (completely reasonable) way, we climbed about 8 hills. 4 of them seemed darn nigh impossible right up to the point I could just about see the top. Last time I finished the 43 miles of [8] hills in 3 hours and 8 minutes. This month, 3 hours even. Progress! Partly due to my fancy new cassette on my bike that allows me to drop into lower gears on bigger hills. And partly due to my thinking I could make it. Last month I stopped several times on some of the hills while my head spun out about how if I turned around, it would be down hill and I could just coast on home.

The group was fantastic again.
Some of the newer riders had great rides and everyone finished this time around -- all [8] hills. Here's Jana -- big smile on finishing -- she said she felt like a billion dollars. That's a lot of dollars. We had excellent ride support as well -- rest stops offering oranges and water and lots of other treats. Here are some riders checking out the goodies. It's kind of like baseball practice when you're a kid. You play for a while, and then someone shows up with oranges and juice boxes. Only for us, it's oranges and chamois butter to smear on those sensitive parts.

And how lucky are we to have not only people to bring us food, but people to tell us where to turn and shout out encouraging words.
Here is Krazy Horse's motorcycle parked at the top of the last hill (monticello dam). Krazy Horse is one of several motorcycle riders who provide road support on the Ride in May.

Forty three miles sounds like a lot. If I got in my car and drove east for 43 miles, I would be most of the way to South Lake Tahoe. If I drove west, I would be more than halfway to San Francisco.

Oh course, it's all relative. 43 miles compared to 60 miles is only -- well, it's still 43.