It's raining, it's pouring. . .

Friday it poured and poured and poured. It poured in Sacramento. I drove to Cotati, it poured there. I had a fabulous decaf soy latte at the Redwood Cafe and watched the rain come down. With a 60% chance of rain for Saturday, it wasn't looking good. It rained so hard on Friday night that it woke me up.
Saturday morning, I woke up and it was wet but not really raining. I felt a little more optimistic about the ride. Maybe in a few hours the clouds would lift and even if the sun didn't come out, it would be a cool, dry ride.
My car at the start -- wet. Emily at start. This day was a series of badly timed presses of the picture-taking button (what's that thing called?).



We were not so lucky. It started sprinkling when we left the starting area, and basically got harder and harder throughout the day.
Ahh. Rest stop one. In which we had hot coffee/chocolate, hot tortillas, M&Ms, whole wheat fig bars (etc etc) and during which we figured out that Emily was having her worst ride of the season and we probably should have made her stop at that point to sag in. Live and learn.

Santa Rosa century rain from HMR on Vimeo.

Emily and Mindy at the top of a hill. Emily not expecting a photo, and Mindy looking for Vincent.
I tried to get a photo of this building mural, but didn't stop to do it.
A bar I think I'd like to go to.
This photo didn't turn out all that well -- it was also taken on the move. But I include so you can see that even though it was a steady rain all day long, we were riding in some of the most amazing areas of Northern California ever.
Self-protrait: a view from the handlebars.
Vincent being Emily's hero: tire change #1. Tire change #2 came for Emily about 3 miles later. Like I said: she should have sag'd in from the rest stop.
Mindy offering an example of how wet and muddy we all were.

Some gentle prodding got Emily off the route and into a warm (and I'm sure steamy) car. At mile 44.6, we turned off for the "bail-out route." If we went straight, we'd ride in the pouring rain for 65.4 more miles. If we turned right, we ride 7 miles and get back to our cars.
Yeah -- turn right folks. Call it a day.
It was actually a great ride. Amazing country. Some hard hills (some minor hyperventilating). Disappointing to look forward to it for several months, and then not be able to finish it. I got into a riding vibe where I felt like I could just keep going. But I wasn't going to go it alone, and I'd given Emily my extra tube (we saw no less than 25 people with flats), so I took the bail out. I think I'd like to go back sometime when there's at least a 60% chance of sun and give it another go.

Yes -- that's a bit of a forced smile.

Less than two weeks to NCAC '09!