I couldn't sleep well that night. My sleeping bag etc. was dry, I just had a lot on my mind. I wound up waking up at 3:45 AM and walking down to the beach. The full moon was stunning and I sat and watched it shimmer on the Pacific for a while. Then went and had my breakfast before starting my last shift in food service. The night before Matt and Bud had offered to take me out on the road as the official water and ice mascot for the day and I jumped at the chance to get a good look at the route. Breakfast was a bit bittersweet. I was very much going to miss my teammates and seeing the determined riders fueling up for their day, but I wasn't going to miss the hours!!
After breakfast, I joined up with the water and ice team. They drive from rest stop to rest stop along the route and pick up the unused bottles of water and dispose of any left over ice. It's a great way to see the route and all the cyclists along the way. Today's ride in particular was quite beautiful, since the rain the day before had cleared all traces of smog out of the Southern California air! The sea was blue along the cliffs of Malibu. At one of the rest stops we saw a long line of like 10 guys showing off their Ferraris . . . and perhaps we were being jealous but there were many jokes about the probable annoying nature of the drivers of those cars. (Many of them revolving around the drivers being the cure for that "not so fresh feeling.")
Once we'd gathered up all the unused water we had lunch with the trash pick up team and then drove off to closing ceremonies. My ride was already there to pick me up so I couldn't stay for the closing ceremonies. As we drove away from the ride I was in a daze. I was happy to see my friends from LA who were picking me up, but I felt like the ride was over too soon at the same time it had seemed like a lifetime, not just a week since we'd left the Cow Palace in SF.
Day 6 started a hell of a lot earlier than usual, even for us. At around 2 ~ 2:30 in the morning I was awoken by the sound of rain pattering on the top of my tent. I didn't feel any raining coming in so I fell back asleep. When my alarm went off around 4:15, it was raining even harder. I started to suspect that my ALC tent wasn't all that waterproof since water was seeping in on all sides. I moved some of my stuff away from the bottom of my tent and on to my air mattress thinking, well if worse comes to worse, at least my air mattress would float! Off to work I went in the rain. People were milling about and getting ready despite the downpour. For those non-Californians reading this, rain in June is almost unheard of. Instead of 4 seasons in coastal Cali, we have 2, rainy and dry. Rainy usually runs from Halloween to Tax Day with random outlier rain storms in September and May. A full on downpour in June is . . . well it's just simply not done. You are entitled to write an angry letter to (insert name for higher deity of your choice) when it does happen. So consider this blog entry my epistle to Her.
Breakfast went more or less as normal. Some of the riders/roadies had rain ponchos, many had macgyvered rain gear made of garbage bags and the like. I overheard a few of the riders saying they were excited to ride in the rain for the first time . . . which set off alarm bells in my head. Riding in the rain is not fun nor easy. It's something best practiced on a much shorter ride to get the hang of it. Many other riders were deciding to SAG that day wisely due to their lack of experience. Near the end of breakfast it had mostly stopped raining and I went off to pack up my tent. Honestly at that point I almost wished my tent had been washed away so I wouldn't have to deal with it. I had my wallet and cellphone and clothes on my back, I could make it with just that for another day or two!! Well my tent was still there, and only half my stuff was soaked. Claire my neighbor and fellow food service teammate was there to help! She lent me a "shamwow" like towel to mop out the inside of my tent. I put my wet clothes in a plastic garbage bag I'd gotten from the catering folks and packed up the rest. There was much moaning and gnashing of teeth in the tent city, but lots and lots of folks were pitching in and helping one another out as well, an aspect of the ride I'd gotten used to by now.
I dropped off my stuff to the gear truck and went back to wait with the other food service roadies. As I usually do when I'm killing time I logged in to Facebook and Twitter on my phone, and it was from a Twitter friend on the East Coast that I first heard the rumor that they were going to cancel the ride for the day due to the rain and the overall conditions of the road. Twitter rumors were officially confirmed soon after. CHP had called off the ride that morning, due to bad road conditions, particularly the part of the ride that had to go on US 101 that day.
Once the cancellation was announced I really started to feel for the organizers of the ride. This is something that has never happened before. We were told to hang tight and they would keep us posted as to developments. Idle hands being the devil's work, I decided to entertain my fellow food service workers by seeing if I could get them to join me and unionize! Our hours were more than a little insane, and well our pay was actually non-existent! (OK as volunteers we couldn't really complain about pay, but those hours for sure!) Betsy, Sheriann, Mary, and David jumped on board right away. David even made an anonymous yes/no union vote card for us to fill out and came up with the name United Fruit Basket Workers, the good ol UFBW! While we were doing that ALC organizers were doing the impossible. Getting 3000+ people from Lompoc to Ventura. Yikes!!!
We waited around and they announced that we were going to help them serve lunch to the all the stranded riders with us in Lompoc. Great I thought, no rest for us. Breakfast, lunch, AND dinner! We needed our union more than ever. But there was nothing for it, might as well help out. Lunch arrived on a truck, and they asked us to unload. I was very annoyed since they didn't ask the riders lazing all around us to help unload. To the riders credit they saw us starting to unload and pushed many of us out of the way to do it for us. (By the time we'd gotten to Ventura the powers that be had gotten over their reluctance to ask the riders to help.) Lunch was served quickly.
Afterward the food service team got rides to Ventura from the sweep teams. I'd seen the sweep teams wearing their tshirts in camp and just assumed they were part of the cleanup team. Not so! They drive private cars with bike racks up and down the route and "sweep" up riders from the route who for whatever reason can't go on. Our drivers were Wilma and Tim from Hercules, CA. They were impressed that we'd actually heard of their town, but I'd driven through it a zillion times on my way in and out of the Bay Area on 80. Our drive to Ventura was particularly beautiful, though it was obvious this was also one of the most dangerous parts of the ride. US 101 and CA 1 join up and the riders would have been forced to ride along a busy 4 lane freeway in the rain, so it was for the best that it got cancelled.
The camp at Ventura was perfect! Right on the beach. I laid out my clothes and tent in the warm sun to dry them, and spent most of my afternoon trying to catch up on my blog. After a very easy going dinner (our last supper) it was time for the candlelight vigil. My friend Matt from the water and ice team joined me along with his co-captain Bud. We all went out to the beach in silence with our candles to remember why we were all on this ride to begin with. Bud made us grab a bunch of napkins since he predicted that he would get a bit weepy on the beach. I wasn't sure how I would react. On the way out to the beach Matt macgyvered a protector for his candle from a chocolate milk carton he'd just emptied. A wise move since it was next to impossible to keep a candle lit without one. On the beach, as he predicted, Bud needed his napkins; he and I both wound up clinging to Matt, who had consolidated his candle with Bud's inside the milk carton. Matt looked down and pointed out that the milk carton was starting to char from the 2 candles. I sensed that Bud needed something to break up his sadness so I quipped that Bud was burning the face off of some poor missing child on that milk carton. This was just the comic relief we all needed and the tears switched to laughter as it can sometimes do so easily. We may have gotten a few off looks from others on the beach, but at that point we all needed a giggle more than anything else! After the vigil we went to bed. Matt and Bud were princessing since their tents and gear were even more wet than mine was. (Princessing is when you opt to stay in local hotels instead of camping on the ride. There are a number of riders and roadies who do this, though few of them do it every night.)
When my alarm went off at 3:15 AM I REALLY didn't want to answer it. If it weren't that I didn't want to let down my fellow teammates I think I might have avoided it. As it was I straggled out of bed and got ready for Dress in Red Day, the 5th day of the ride. Gay men being gay men they turned Dress in Red Day into Red Dress Day and there was plenty of men and women in red dresses. The first crew to wow us with their fabulous red fashions was the food services team themselves. Once again they brought the crazy fashion. I was stunned by the costumes they managed to put on at 3 in the morning. Red dresses, fishnet hose, crazy makeup . . . and I'll I manged to do was pull on a red football jersey and stagger down to breakfast. Maybe next year I'll try to represent a bit better, check and see! Breakfast was much more festive affair with all the amazing fashion parading by! Words cannot describe some of the silly, horrific, and amazing costumes. (Pics coming soon.) The healing had most certainly begun!
After breakfast we were assigned to bus D(ivalicious). This time the bus maven was a large man wearing a bright red dress and heels. He'd hidden a tiara under one of the seats and it was up to us to find it, and whoever did was the honorary diva of the ride. Emily was the winner!
While we were packing up in Santa Maria I struck up a conversation with one of the chiropractic team members and asked her a little bit about what they did and if chiropractors in general could give me some help with some of the minor issues left over from my hip surgery. She encouraged me to stop by the chiro tent at 2 that day. I set up my tent and set my alarm for 1:45 and took a MUCH needed nap. I woke up refreshed and went over to the medical tent and signed up for a chiro appointment. They saw me almost right away. All of the chiro team were in red dresses. While I was laying on the exam table waiting for my chiropractor to come back with some tools I had a very surreal moment. I was watching a bunch of nurses and chiropractors of both genders milling around doing their jobs in red dresses. It was as if I'd entered some sort of strange parallel universe! I couldn't help it, I just started to laugh out loud. After a few minor adjustments to my leg I left feeling even better.
Dinner that night was easy going, and VERY yummy! In particular the Osso Bucco was amazing! The meat just fell right off the bone! After dinner I caught the end of the talent show, not as tragic as I'd hoped, with an amazing opera performance by one of the riders! I just sort of vaguely remember walking back to my tent and crashing almost immediately!
