The summary of Day 1 is as easy as it is confusing. Here we
go: hills, woods, windmills, the Wizard of Oz and Brian. Let’s start with the
hills and the woods. The main feature of the today’s ride was a monstrous hill
of 2.400 feet (more than 800 metres) and climbing this chunck of rock lasted
about 15 miles (about 23 km). Being a Dutchman I do have a slight handicap. We
don’t have serious hills in the Netherlands.
Hence the name of my country nether (= low) lands. Luckily I long ago stopped
being scared of monsters, so I just gave in and kept thinking: going up means
going down. And somehow I managed to do this long climb at a considerable
speed. The real funpart started once I reached the top. No Porsches or Maseratis
for me. I prefer that oldfashioned feeling of going downhill on a steel horse,
reaching a speed of 34 miles (50 km) an hour. Who needs an engine when the
sheer force of your body and bike can do the trick?
In order to be fit for this ride I did 75 miles (125 km) rides
with a couple of cycling friends of mine. We took the train, got out somewhere
and cycled back to our hometown Amsterdam.
It’s rather peculiar. Only recently have I discovered how beautiful my country
is, especially when you cycle alongside a river. But cycling through California is an event
in itself. My lord, have I enjoyed the scenery, ranging from woods with skyhigh
trees and replenishing scents, to the Pacific coastline with its thundering
waves. Although it was a real exotic scenery I had this one moment of feeling
at home.
In the middle of the woods I bumped into a real windmill.
After the long climb my body felt rather empty and when I
was about to go into the ‘glass half empty’ modus, Brian showed up. He recently
moved to Berkeley where he works as a lightning
technician for the Berkeley University. Somehow my
image of Americans is that they don’t travel abroad. After talking to Brian I
know this is not true. He’s been traveling all over the world to do the
lightning for a dance company. Anyway, it’s Brian’s first Aids Lifecycle and it
was really charming to see how enthusiastic, curious and also slightly anxious
he was. Although he told me he is an avid cyclist, doing 545 miles (900 km) is
very demanding. So good luck to you Brian, and all the other first time riders.
Talking about fun and entertainment, today was a neat day.
Just for the record, every day there are 4 reststops. Teams of volunteers
supply all of us with food, sportsdrinks, ice cold water and a lot of
(medical)care. Every reststop has its own theme and today’s highlight for me
was The Wizard of Oz. Somehow this film always makes me feel a bit depressed.
Perhaps because Dorothy is being bullied by her neighbour, Miss Elmira Gulch, perhaps because of the Technicolor
colorscheme, perhaps because of the initial loneliness of her friends. Who
knows. But at the Wizard of Oz reststop I felt none of this. In fact all
characters seemed so real and so gay. And they even let me make a picture of
them. Somewhere over the rainbow was definitely in California today.
In order to be fit for this ride I did 75 miles (125 km) rides
with a couple of cycling friends of mine. We took the train, got out somewhere
and cycled back to our hometown 
I noticed that there are not a lot of people at the pit stop with you in the picture. Either you are very fast or very slow. I imagine the former. Best wishes for your spectacular ride.
Posted by: Rella | June 04, 2007 at 08:53 AM
Bart!
Welcome back to the states! Keep up the descriptions and comparisons for those in the nether-lands. I'll be looking forward to catching up with you when you are finished.
Posted by: Wayne campbell | June 04, 2007 at 10:42 AM
Bart, how good to read about your experience. I had a good chuckle at your comment about Americans not traveling. We do presently breed alot of internal fear here, but my niece (19) just traveled to the Netherlands, spending much of her time in Amsterdam, and hostels in the area. My cousin moved to the Netherlands many years ago and is still there raising her family.
SO while we Americans grumble about traveling, mostly it's finances - HAHA! NOT politics. My beloved nephew Chris Cole is the Director of Aids Lifecycle, if you see him send him my love! I am incredibly proud of him and the work done by the remarkable and dedicated people who surround and support him.
Safe journey - thank you for all you do, hugs of support! A :)
Posted by: Amy Chayefsky | June 04, 2007 at 05:27 PM
Bart,
good luck the upcoming days, riding your butt skimpy (schraal?) !
huggs from the NETH
Thijs
Posted by: Thijs | June 05, 2007 at 11:25 AM
Americans in general don't travel abroad? This is proven by the amount of people that own a passport. I find someone who tried to find the formal statistics, and he found out it that in published articles is said that the % of people who owns a passport varies from 7% up till 25%......
The other way around: let's say it is 20%, then still it is nominal about 60 million people that do travel!
bye
Thijs
Posted by: Thijs | June 05, 2007 at 11:35 AM