Although today was not the longest day on the ride, it was certainly the most difficult. For those who know day three, you may be assuming that it is because of the steep 1.3 mile long hill called Quadbuster. Well, that was part of the difficulty. What was truly the most challenging part of the day was keeping my emotions in check. When I get very tired, I turn into a big old crab like the Cancer I am. Unfortunately for my partner, he got the brunt of it. Luckily for me we were able to quickly patch things up and have a great day.
This is not to say that Quadbuster was not a hard hill to climb. It is steep and seems to go on forever. This is the first time since I started training for the ride that I had to stop on a hill in order to catch my breath. I biked every foot of it though and feel very proud. Thank goodness for Ginger Brule accompanied by scores of others riders at the top cheering us into to flatter land. This is true community. Riders stopping to cheer each other on when the going gets tough.
Rounding the last turn after the decent from Quadbuster the landscape opened up to amazing Live Oak/Grassland country. Living in an urban California area one forgets that there are untouched segments of our state left. It is easy to imagine what the entire state looked like before man took over, and it is kind of sad how much of it we have irreversibly changed.
Our lunch stop was in the town of Bradley. A tiny little town that if you blinked while driving through it, you would miss it. What is great about this stop is the symbiotic relationship AIDS/LifeCycle has with the local school. It is my understanding that it is a K-12 school whose academic year depends on the money made from the lunch sales in front of their campus to the riders. The money funds their field trips and enabled them to build a much needed computer lab for their students. So, they need their funds and we need to get fed. Perfect combination.
The highlight on this stretch of the ride was rest stop for at one of the many California missions. Built in 1797, this mission was one of the many built by Junipero Serra, a missionary who built them spaced out so that one could make it to the next one up the coast in a single day on horseback. This stop was cool because I was finally able to see one of these missions that our elementary school teachers made us make out of sugar cubes. Yes, we were forced to make California missions out of sugar cubes as children. The real thing is much cooler believe me.
Let’s all hope, at least for my partner’s sake, that I am not so testy tomorrow! Until next time, have a great night.
320 miles on the road.
Hey James! Jaime Merrifield again, you keep going! I am proud of you, maybe I will have to do it next year too, go for it and keep up the good work, thanks so much for blogging, it means a lot to those of us that are not there and can live through it a little bit with you, I imagine when you are really tired how hard it must be to write too!!!! But thanks for doing it it means a lot!!! Jaime Merrifield
Posted by: Jaime Merrifield | June 06, 2007 at 12:41 AM
Hey James,
Nate and I really look foward to reading about your day, and by the time you read this you'll be over half way home yaay!
Lv, Gillian
Posted by: Gillian | June 06, 2007 at 08:02 AM