July

The weather at the end of June was 10 degrees below normal for this time of  year which made bicycling great.  However, July seems to have started a little different. It has  been 100 degrees where I live. As I have not felt so great this weekend no biking for me. As tomorrow is a holiday and I am feeling better perhaps a little ride.

With the XC11 finishing I think about when I finished nearly two years ago. You think that you are going to make great changes in your life, but at the end of the day, you are who you are.  It is fun riding the bike, but what makes it harder for me is that I still pass where we started in 2009 and it is now a bittersweet moment.

I bought the bike in 2007, trained and was fortunate enough to bike cross country, meeting a great group of people and making friends who are more like family. I read the XC11 blogs, but it is not the same thing as biking it yourself. Sometimes now when I ride, I think too myself "Could I do it again ?" Will it be the same experience as the first time ? Sometimes the memories are better than you remembered.

The answer is i am not sure, but I would like to try it again, but a different route

That goal and thought is what keeps me riding.

The Music will never be the same

Dear Mr. Car

Dear Mr. Car

A bicycle has the same rights as a car.  Please bear this in mind when:

1) You make a left hand turn at a light and a bike is coming straight through the light.  The bike does have the right of way just like a car.

2) When you are riding behind me and the traffic is stopped at a light and you are beeping at me because I am slowing down to stop at the light and you want to be one car in front of me even though the light is still red and you have no place to go.

3) You decide to  make a right hand turn and do not signal and I almost crash into the back of you.

4) You decide to go from the left hand lane to the right hand lane and almost hit me.  You wave to me to apologize for almost hitting me, but somehow I do not think that absolves you of poor driving.

Your Friendly neighborhood bicyclist.

4K

While I enjoy the riding it has been a little difficult as I have ridden with no bike goal this year. 2 years ago it was cross country. Last year it was the death ride. Having said that I continue my riding on the weekends and my commute to work.  This week I hit the 4,000 mile mark. I feel it has been an easy 4,000 miles as not as much climbing as the last two years.

As most of the persons who follow my blog know, Harry has joined Barbie for her remainder of the journey she started with us in 2009. 

Ofcourse Harry coould not go without 1 and 2 and Boston. He even had some bottles from the death ride.

Empty Calories

Lately I have been riding with 2 friends who live close to me. Today we met one of my Friend's friends a little up north from where I live and whom we biked with last year. We drove around 40 miles north to meet them. We biked around Ventura and Santa Barbara County. There was a fair amount of climbing. We biked from a little north of Ventura around Lake Casitas. Below is a map of our route.

The ride was around 45 miles, but there was a fair amount of climbing.

After the biking some of the group decided to go to eat. It was decided that we would stop at

In 'n Out Burger. Although our intentions were to order a chocolate shake everyone in our group ended up getting a double double, French Fries and a chocolate shake (or coke instead of shake). For me that was around 1,700 calories.

After driving home I biked another 6 miles for a total of 51 for the day as I had to burn off some of those calories.

Ramblings

I do not sleep well on planes. Long plane rides result in jet lag. Jet lag leads to ramblings...

I watched the following movies on the plane:

Black Swan - I am not sure what was real and what was not in this movie. Natalie Portman was good, but I do not understand what all the fuss was about her role.

The Fighter - Boxing plus family dysfunction equals a very good movie. Christan Bale was excellent and I can understand why he won an Oscar. Michelle Leo was good, but maybe not as Oscar worthy.

Inside job - If you want an easy explanation of the financial crisis this is an excellent study. Both Democrats and Republicans share in the disaster. The brokerage firms, banks and insurance companies took advantage of deregulation or lack of oversight. With all of the hype over the new tech stocks this is beginning to happen again.

And finally, as I could not sleep, I save the best for last. Turning channels last night I saw the Shawshank Redemption. I have seen this film at least 10 times and never get tired of it. Easily in my top 5 of all time films.

It is still 2:00 AM and I am not tired, but I need to pretend to sleep....

Two years

It is hard to believe, but it was two years ago that we started the cross country trip.


I was reading my emails this morning and Bob sent an email out that if he was within 100 miles of the pier he would go. I was not planning on going, but like a magnet I was drawn to the pier.

As I was going I was going to take the beach path, but I saw all of the cross road orange flags on this years group. I did not want to intrude on their moment so I decided to bike as fast as I could on the surface road. As I was going uphill I saw the lead group and passed them. I arrived a few minutes before they did.



The first person I saw was Jim.

Also, Randy from 2008 was there as well. Both were there last year as well. I said hello (and hugged Tracy) and as this years group were dipping their tires in the Pacific I mentioned to Rick that the temperature this morning must have felt like 20 degrees.

Tracy gave me my first cross roads job this morning. I watched every ones camera as they did the group huddle at the beach. I sure like my new camera !!!

This year I had a little different feeling. I was excited for this years group, but I did not feel the sadness that I did last year when I saw the last bike with their flag disappear over the horizon up Manhattan Beach Blvd.

Barbie , I know that today must be a bittersweet day for you, but you will complete your trip this year and I wish you luck.



Harry, hopefully not too many bud lights on the trip for you.

And to all of you reunion riders out there, only 5 more months until you start your new adventure.