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!

And I would ride 100 miles . . .

Some photos from my self-styled century a couple of weeks ago.

My lens cover got stuck, but here's a photo of (gasp!), a Target in the building process in (gasp!) Davis. What the heck? The city council of the People's Republic of Davis allowed a Target? No way.

En route to Winters.

Again, the trouble with the lens (the next day, I found a small piece of plastic that was stuck under the lens cover. Hopefully, that fixed the problem -- which was apparently compounded by my not noticing it was happening). Here's the Railroad bridge coming into Winters.
I spent a LOT of time at Steady Eddy's on this ride -- the most bike-friendly coffee shop ever. With good coffee and food and cycling snacks. Also, they'll fill your water bottle with ice and water.
I sat around here on the way out of Winters, pre-hill-climbing, for about 40 minutes. Like I had nothing else to do.
Not a whole lot of photos on the way up. Lots of climbing. Cardiac Hill was a little bigger than I'd remembered, but I did it and it's done. Didn't stop, didn't scream, didn't puke.
This sign cracks me up. It's on the back side of Cardiac if you're looking for a Pleasure Cove. Sounds like an Elvis movie. Or maybe a porn film.
A strip mall? No! It's a church!
Winters? Napa? Winters? Napa? Hmmm. . .
California poppies. Growing EVERYWHERE. Except my backyard, that is.
Lake Berryessa. Visible from the top of a very big hill.
Me at the top of the very big hill. Still smiling (only 35 miles to go).
This is great, too. FREE in giant lettering, and below, "Camping Information." So really, you get not much for free because it's posted at the entrance of a what? A campground. Yeah.

Up at the lake again.
The longest six miles ever. You get to this point where you turn a corner and all you can see are walnut orchards. As far as the eye can see. Walnuts.
Excellent post-ride meal. Sort of like a quesadilla, but without cheese, and with eggs on top. Mmmm. I'm hungry.

100 miles. . . in the rain . . .

I don't know. 100 miles is hard enough. Riding in the rain is lousy. Now I'm going to do both, it seems.

Weather in the Santa Rosa area:

Today
May 1

Rain

61°
49°

70%

61°F

Sat
May 2

Showers

65°
51°

40%

It's in some of my favorite areas of Northern California, and I haven't ridden there before. Wish us all some good, dry luck.
Check out the route here.

Where a man can walk a mile high

Every Friday afternoon at 5 p.m., a radio station in Colorado Springs would play the "Colorado" song.* It's been getting stuck in my head a lot as I ride, but I replace the lyrics with "If I had a bicycle, I would bike to the place where a man can walk a mile high. . ." [please note that when I say "high" in this context, I do not intend to call up any reference to illicit drugs. Nor do I think that the Colorado song is in the category of "rock and roll."]

In every mile there are 5280 feet. Yesterday, the Wildflower Century had 4,300 feet of climbing. If we had just been climbing straight up, we would have climbed over 80% of a mile. It wasn't all straight up, but parts of it felt like it was. Hilly Humboldt Road Hilly Honey Run, and Hilly Table Mountain. When I pictured Table Mountain, I imagined a table top - up on both sides, and flat on the top. Here, for example, is my dining room table (it's pretty, huh?):















But, no -- when they say "table" this is what they mean:



















Here's a photo of the hill -- see how little those bikes are? It's because they're 80% of a mile into the air.
















Weather report for Chico, CA -Sunday April 27, 2008:
High: 91 degrees
Feels like: 127 degrees.

There are a few more things to say about the ride --

• my bike wasn't working on the first hill. Emily helped me with that. She (the bike, not Emily) is going to the bike shop tomorrow. A bike that wants to stay in high gears while climbing big hills is not a bike that helps my sour mood.
  
• I finally found an 18 mph stride and suddenly a man appeared with a hand-held stop sign. I looked for children crossing or maybe some sort of rural emergency (something important enough to makes us stop in the middle of nowhere). Apparently it was a little of both:

• Emily has a freezing cold pool that we sat in after the ride. It was thinking about this pool that made me continue to pedal the last 10 miserable miles.
• I've heard so much about the food on this ride, and it was not that great - or not that great for cycling -- I probably would have liked to sit around and drink water (sometimes they ran out), and eat pastries in another setting. But while cycling a gagillion miles, I want salty foods, high-energy foods, some protein if possible, and lots of cold water -- and, okay some gatorade or recharge or something, even though I think they taste like sugary chalk.
• Emily made some dinner after the ride (and after the pool) called "Heather-safe pad thai." Not to be confused with "Anaphylactic pad thai" (the kind that has peanuts).
• There are some really patronizing tandem-riders out there. One would think they have better things to do than to teach me how to ride up a hill when I'm in a bad mood. This photo accomplishes two things: 1) a photo of the bathrooms (I don't know why I always take photos of the bathrooms) and 2) a photo of one of the tandem bikes, but, at least to my knowledge, this one did not have patronizing riders.

As of this coming Thursday, only TWO weeks to the big ride! Not be confused with this piddly century this weekend with 4300 feet of climbing.

---

*Colorado
Up With People (ca. 1960)
[highly edited lyrics]
If I had a wagon, I would go to Colorado,
Go to Colorado,
If I had a wagon, I would.....
If I had a wagon, I would go to the state,
Where a man can walk a mile high.

If I had a Chevy, I would drive to Colorado
Drive to Colorado,
If I had a Chevy, I would.....
If I had a Chevy, I would drive to the state,
Where a man can walk a mile high.

If I had an Airplane, I would fly to Colorado
Fly to Colorado,
If I had a Airplane, I would.....
If I had a Airplane, I would fly to the state,
Where a man can walk a mile high.

If I had an Spaceship, I would land in Colorado
Land in Colorado,
If I had a Spaceship, I would.....
If I had a Spaceship, I would land in the state,
Where a man can walk a mile high.

Refrain:
Well I don't have a wagon
And I don't have a Chevy
And I don't have an Airplane
And I'll never have a Spaceship
But I've got two feet to climb with and it's
Pikes Peak or Bust
Where Americans can learn again just like
Colorado men how to hold you head up high…….
Where a man can walk a mile high…………..