Day 7: The end

So today began our last morning.

Last night we held a candle-light vigil on the beach in Ventura, which was gorgeous if nothing else - candles are always poignant and they hold so much...significance. What with all of the metaphors you can come up with for flames and burning brightly/burning out/burning low/burning strong (can you tell I'm in college? =), candles make some of the most meaningful symbols of life, death, and everything in between. So imagine the sight of over two thousand people on a dark beach with only a candle apiece. We lit up the night.

I don't personally know any single person who is HIV-positive. My ex-boyfriend's good friend died at 16 and there's a girl in the community that one of my college friends grew up in who was born with AIDS (and is now 12, I believe) so I've always told myself that I'm riding for them, but during the vigil last night I realized that I don't have anybody to cry for. And I know this sounds odd, but I want someone to cry for. Moral of the story: I need to start volunteering with HIV/AIDS organizations in SB.

We rode along PCH for almost all of today. Our last day is also, in my opinion, the most dagnerous day. We're all exhausted and in a hurry to get to the end of the road, and we're on this crazy beach highway on a Saturday morning/afternoon. It's not really anybody's fault, it's just a stressful stretch of road. We all made it out alive though, despite the police officer who decided t opull over in the middle of the bike lane and endanger at least 50 oncoming cyclists by pushing us out into traffic...(Me? Bitter? Noooo =)

And then we finally reached our destination: the VA Center in LA. It was amazing to ride in today - so many people were out to cheer us on, so many faces you start to recognize over the seven days; the viagra man, the 'norte california/sorte california' man, Ginger/Ric, Lorri, Mark, 'mom and dad'. All of these people have been with us on the road every day and have cheered us every mile of every route...and they're wonderful and deserve mucho kudos for their part in this whole affair.

My dad drove down from Seattle for closing ceremonies (because he's extremely awesome) and I have cousins in Santa Monica, so I met up with them after closing ceremonies. Angie's brother, sister, and niece were there t ocheer us in, which was exciting and fabulous in itself...but it was weird to go seperate ways. I don't think I've not been around her for more than ten minutes at a time (no joke) in the last seven days. And while we definitely get on each other's last nerves, I kinda feel like I'm forgetting to do something, like I need to say good night or something.

But that's the ALC life - you come, you make amazing memories and build a community that surpasses anything you will ever find anywhere else, and then you leave trying to believe that this kind of world is possible, even though we're not there yet. 

I don't know if anyone will read this post. The ride is over, we're all back with our families, our friends, our selves. We might be on the ride next year, we might not...it's always a gamble.

But...

-if you rode and you're reading this; I understand. We're missing something. We're frusterated that the world isn't what we've been experiencing in the last seven days. We haven't yet fallen back into the just-a-little-less-friendly world of reality. We're still used to saying good morning to random people and waving at everyone and being nice at 6 am when noone's even really awake yet.

-if you roadied and you're reading this; take a load off. You guys have been working just as hard if not harder than us for more than a week and getting about half as much credit from the public. You have cleaned up after us, cooked for us, and most of all, been nice to us when we're in "cranky bitch" mode. Thank you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.

-if you KNOW someone who just rode/roadied and you're reading this; give us time. We're reeling, we're confused, we're adjusting. We're trying to makes sense of the world we thought we knew and are now re-seeing.

Ugh. I didn't really want to do a sappy email. It seems so cliche; thank the people, yada yada. I like surprising people, not doing the 'normal' thing. Eh, too late for that.

I leave you with some of the words to the song that Lois? Elaine? (I can't remember her name for the life of me) sang at the talent show and got happily stuck in all of our heads:

One of the verses: Oy my rear! The skin is off...have to treat it like a bagel with a shmear.

The chorus: We will ride for others, lost friends and brothers, to be alive in twenty-fiiiive!

Here's hoping. For what, I don't konw exactly. But I'm in the mood to hope, so I think that's where I'll leave it.

The Barbie

So Angie calls Santa Barbara “The Land of Saints and Barbies”, or “The Barbie” for short. As in, "We're riding through the barbie today." It threw me off in the beginning but then I got used to it. Kind of like riding over 80 miles doesn't even faze me anymore.

I say this because today was bike-through-our-world day. We began in Lompoc and headed out around 7 am after I ALMOST sagged. I’d had horrible stomach cramps the night before but I thought that if I could sleep through it, I’d be fine. Well I slept through it, woke up the next morning and had about ten minutes of goodness before it started up again. I went to the medical tent to see if they had any advice – there have been cases of gastroenteritis (don’t have a clue how that’s spelled) going on, and I was worried that I’d become one of the unlucky ones.

The med tent was a little busy and the lady that I talked to said that it was up to me but if it was her she’d sag. Now, there was no way I was going to sag through Santa Barbara, but I might have skipped the first 15 miles and just swept to the first rest stop, except that I didn’t. I got on my bike to see how I felt while riding.

Miraculously, I felt better on the bike than I did walking. I then proceeded to down as much water as I could physically handle. It worked. Apparently I had dehydration cramps in my stomach. Who knew.

Moral of the story: DRINK WATER.

Anyhow. It wasn’t the best way to start a morning, but we got on all right. There was a bunch of nice gradual uphill and then this long steep downhill on CA-1 (I think) and a biker was down on the hill ahead of us. “Biker Down” means that someone’s hurt. Usually badly. This guy looked alive but pretty messed up, and everyone was much more careful with the brakes for awhile. Nothing like an accident to remind people that a piece ofmetal and two skinny wheels won’t protect you from much if you’re not careful. I do hope he's okay - I've been asking around but nobody really knows anything.

We got to Tucker Grove Park (near SB) for lunch and Rick (the boyfriend) came to say hi, which was fabulous. You forget you miss people from the real world because you’re trying so hard to not think about the real world. But it was really really good to see him, though he only stayed for about fifteen minutes, as he had to go “take care of some business” and we had to get downtown to meet up with ALL of Angie’s house, Sarah, Melanie, and assorted other fantastics. It was really exciting to see people from school, partly because it let them see this ride and partly because – again – it’s nice to be around your people once in awhile, regardless of how wonderful the ALC community is.

They had all made signs and were cheering on every single ALC rider that came by and acouple of them actually talked about maybe doing the ride at some point…it was just a good gesture. I’m really glad they were there. (Thanks guys!!)

Paradise Pit was another highlight of the day – ice cream and brownies and other assorted junkie-foods (that I LOVE) all sponsored by different groups in SB. It’s nice to be known for our ‘paradisey generosity’, even though the weather was not cooperating and thus our gorgeous city was June gloom central.

84 miles later, we have finished our sixth day. All that’s left is the 60-ish miles into L.A. and closing ceremonies. Everyone’s beginning their ALC withdrawal in advance, beginning to feel the pull back towards ‘real life’ while still trying to keep the ‘ALC life’. The withdrawal is ridiculous. On day 5, Angie and I stopped at a Subway in Lompoc near lunch because they were serving ham and swiss sandwiches and I’m Jewish. We walked into the Subway in our lingerie attire, completely forgetting that we weren’t in the non-judgmental safety net of the ride. The experience was less than fabulous and we left without eating, opting instead to bring our sandwiches to the area where ALC was doing lunch so we could be around ‘our people’ again.

Sigh. The real world.

The ALC crush

I rode 43.something miles today in a red lingerie swim-suit style laceandsilk number and I loved every single minute of it.
And I wasn't even half as outrageously dressed as some of the folks; in our fashion show that is day five, we had a riding kissing booth (yes, a guy was riding with a kissing booth attached to himself), a flock of Minnie Mouses (Mice?), Ginger in an AIDS skirt/tutu thing, a belly dancing fool, and general Red Dress Day Fabulousness.

The day began with a 6 am wake-up, which was sleeping in for miss Angie and me (isn't that ridiculous!!?) and continued with french toast and apple compote (mmmmmm). Then we headed out. It was a nice short day so everyone was taking their time and enjoying each rest stop, which made the route a bit more crowded but just as fantastic. It was also the most hilly day of the ride - we climbed a couple of 1.4-mile hills and at least three or four other smaller ups.

Today is the one day where the 'normal' people get to be the minority. The amount of people in normal cycling spandex gets completely trumped by the dresses, tutus, lace, chiffon, silk, and other assorted accessories that the majority of ALC is wearing. If you rode down the road today in black shorts and a yellow jersey, I'll bet you three ounces of butt butter you wished you'd had the balls to try out a tutu.

Random notes:
-You know you're sick and twisted when you're relieved because you're only riding 43.7 miles. That's still a really long ride! Oy.
-Every ALC (haha, meaning last year and this year) I have an ALC crush (just a crush, Rick, never fear - they're all questionable and mostly gay) and this year is no exception. AIDS/Lifecycle is the best breeding ground for crushes ever - everyone is in their nicest mode, nobody cares who looks like what, and muscles are bulging everywhere. I'm not going to tell you WHO I have a crush on this time, just letting all you future ALCers know that crushing is a definite possibility.

Tonight's the talent show and I MIGHT blog about it later tonight if possible because the talent show is always an amazing experience.
Tomorrow we ride through Santa Barbara and into Ventura!
YAY!

Day 4

SO today. Was long. 95 miles, to be exact. And though it is comforting to know that the worst is basically over and we’re into the last less-than-half part of our ride…today was mildly excruciating for Angie and me. It all started with us getting out of camp late due to longer breakfast lines than usual and three prior days of riding. The first miles were normal and rolling, and then after Rest Stop 1, the Evil Twins began. Angie and I have been wearing different matching signs on our backs for each day, and today was the Evil Twins themed day . As we were climbing, one guy passed us, chuckled, and asked which one was the bigger bitch. I immediately raised my hand =)
The hills weren’t actually as horrible as they’re hyped up to be, and as we finished the top one, a guy in electric blue shorts shot by me, saying “I’ve always wanted to do twins!”

Then came the Halfway to L.A. sign, which was exciting because I actually managed to get my bike over my head this year for the picture.

After that it all kind of becomes a blur. My knee hurt for a bit, there was a point where a man kept jumping over a piece of tape on the pavement yelling “Northern California, Southern California” (he was marking the point in the route where we switched into SoCal), Angie and I spent a lot of time wishing we were already in camp, and my butt, which I am proud to say is in a LOT of pain, almost became unbearable. Almost.

Camp really brought most of today’s excitement – I’d brought some Tiger Balm on the ride on a whim, and Angie, Megan (our new friend, she’s fabulous!), and I tried it out on our knees. Wow. We used a little much. That stuff is amazingly strong. But my knees feel much much better.

We also did a little bit of Thai massage. Yes, you heard me, Thai massage. Cesan (SO could be spelling that wrong), another one of Angie and my newfound buddies, invited us to a stretching session that turned into a lesson on massage, Thai style. It was, in a word, wonderful. I won’t even try to describe Thai massage, but suffice to say, Angie made a lot of fun of me trying to stretch out/massage Mr. Cesan (he’s a good foot taller than me and, well, has real muscles).

Did anything else happen? Probably. These days are so long that the morning feels like a completely different day than the afternoon, which also separates itself from the evening.

That’s how it goes.

Tomorrow brings Day 5, red dresses (lingerie for me), and a long restful afternoon and evening in camp.

Maybe I’ll even write a coherent blog tomorrow!

P.S. Here’s what my helmet looks like. Blue and yellow ribbons to rep UCSB and the names are all my donors so they’re with me when I ride.

Pictures!

Okay, gotta be quick - but here are three fabulous pictures from the first two days - more to come.

...Here is the horses for rent sign at Rest Stop 1 on the first day. I think if you click on the pictures, they get bigger?\

And that's me with the ever-fashion-savvy Ginger Brewlay! (Sadly, our coloring doesn't quite make it...)

Haha. On Day 2, Lunch was at a park, and some of the riders decided to pretend they were five and eat on the play structures (Angie and I ate in a "car". It actually blocked the wind relatively well!)

More tomorrow, time to let everyone else get their posts in.

P.S. Shout out to Angie's family, who has sent me more messages than MY family! (Still love ya, mom =)

Day 3:

So first of all, I've just gotta tell you a quick story about exactly how much the community of this ride carries on into the next year and the next year. Last night, I was finishing up my post (I had exactly 12 minutes to write and save the log), and as I was leaving the Media Relations tent, I was chatting with the staff-people and one of the guys asked me about my beanie, which has the Tel-Aviv soccer team logo on it (it's how I find all my fellow Jews =)
Anyhow, we got talking, and he pulled up his sleeve and showed me his Jewish star tattoo at which point I recognized him: this guy (Brian) practically scraped me off the road in the very same camp last year - my tentmate was nowhere to be found (she'd torn her miniscus but I didn't know that yet - poor Jen) and I'd just finished the longest ride I'd ever attempted and I was incredibly upset and Brian walked me over to the gear trucks, carried my bag for me, helped me set up my tent, and basically made my day.
Go community.

But. Back to business.
Day 3.
HOT. HOTHOTHOT. So hot that I'm sitting here trying to remember ANYthing that happened over the day and I just...can't. I can't think of anything!

I suppose I'll just give you all the rundown of how we cyclists prepare for the day, give you an idea about what all this requires.
1. Wake up: 5:45 am (though I'm usually up a bit before from other people moving around or another person's alarm)
2. Change into bike clothes, put on my sweats over them, pack-ish my bag and head to breakfast. Breakfast is a slient affair; Ang and I love each other dearly (haha, I think we've confused some people here =) but 6 am is a little too early to be nice to anyone you know too well.
3. Eventually we start speakjing, head back to take the tent down, drag our bags to the gear truck, and stretch.
4.We've been getting out on the road somewhere between 7-7:15 am.

It makes for some long days.

Okay. Now I'm finally remembering random things about today.
-This day has THE worst pavement in the WORLD. I think Tutugirl described it a couple of years ago as feeling like "using a belt sander as a vibrator". Little bit graphic, but mostly true. There is nothing more jarring than riding mile after mile over bumpy pavement. It jiggles your wrists and your knees and...other things.
-Quadbuster happened and wasn't quite as hellish as I remembered it being. I got a little push from some fabulous man at the halfway stop and made it all the way up in one shot (which is more than I can say for myself last year). Ginger was in a nice little black cocktail dress and three-inch heels on a SCOOTER scooting back and forth across the street to cheer riders up the hill.
-Ang and I took turns being way tired and way hot but really, Ang pulled me through this day...I was majorly tired and mostly just kept up with her (yay Angie =)

Oh. And I think I drank two gallons of water. And it STILL wasn't enough (I mean I'm not dehydrated, but I was drinking about every three minutes because I NEEDED to.)

What else. Oh. Shout out to my aunt Sue and Steve, who fed Angie and I in Santa Cruz on the first night. Everyone rocks.

And now I will bring this post to a close and go eat dinner, or Angie will - and I quote "Eat my post for me."

Day two: Snakes are good.

I only have seven minutes to type and it’s 9:22 pm and I just biked 105.4 miles, so this post will be a little abbreviated…here are a couple of things I learned:

1. Native Americans believe that snakes are a sign of good luck, so if you see one – you’re gonna have good luck. Somehow I don’t believe them…about an hour after seeing the snake on the side of the road, I fell into a pile of gravel and then got a flat tire less than a mile from Rest Stop 2.
2. After beginning to worry about whether or not we were actually going to make it into camp on time, we were stopped at lunch and Angie came back from the port-o-potty line with some more advice. “A man in line told me two important things – number one, we have hella tailwind taking us the rest of the way, and number two, you HAVE to put mayo on your sandwich.” – the man was right. Mayo was necessary.

My favorite experience of the day: going down to the skinny-dipping area between the water stop at mile 75 and fourth rest stop at mile 90. It’s such a fabulous mark of the community here that anyone (ANYONE) can just strip down, feel totally comfortable, and make new friends with their junk hanging out (no mom, I did not skinny dip…spandex does not go back onto wet slippery bodies very well). Angie dipped her feet in.

There will be more tomorrow, as I will be able to see (there’s a lot of dirt in my contacts in my eyes) and move (again – my first century ride was today. I biked 105.4 miles. Oy.)

Ttthhhhhh-that’s all folks.

P.S. Almost forgot. Today was Absolutely gorgeous. Bee-yoot-iful.

Day 1: The barnyard phenomenon

Okay, so here's my theory: We left from the Cow Palace. Rest Stop 1 had "Horses for Rent" (no joke, there were horses on the property). There is a team of riders dressed like pigs and a rider named the Chicken Lady...I think they're trying to tell us something here.

...Not sure what though, since I'm having trouble thinking. It's hard to be articulate after 6+ hours of ride time. Nevertheless, I can definitely brief you all on the day.

Highlights (in no particular order - remember, I'm not really thinking properly yet =):

-Ginger Brewley in ALL of her glory standing at the top of the highest hill of the day in the highest (bright orange!) platforms I've ever seen. And a tiger print skirt. Go Ginger, you rock my world.

-The tens of people who came out to cheer us on - from the random 'stopped on the side of the road and waved for a couple of hours' to the people handing out red vines (red vines are a favorite...they don't melt, they're easy to grab while riding by, and they're oh so tasty) along the side of the road to Team Pie's unofficial pie rest stop (yes, of course I stopped! They had pumpkin pie, for crying out loud!), the people that support the people on this ride are fantastic. And I really hope they know that. They deserve lots of big hugs and nice tans and...free gas? I can't think of anything else...

-"I'm a kitty, you're a kitty." If you don't know what that means, ask any rider you know and they will tell the story much much better than I will.

-Watching a mass of riders with uniformly red helmet covers disappear into the morning fog while riding through the hills of SanFran.

-I found my favorite kind of ClifBar at Rest Stop 3 (Mint Chocolate Chip...it's the best, I swear).

-Riding with Ang has been amazing. Doing this ride on your own is definitely an experience (did that last year) but it's just so nice to be able to share this with someone. And to have another bike to lean yours against so that neither of them get dirty. And to have someone to remind you to hydrate, someone to keep up with when there's still ten miles to the rest stop and you just wanna stop for the hell of it. Go Ang, you rock my f-ing world.

-Tailwinds were AMAZING today. For those of you who aren't cyclists, bikers, or otherwise wind-obsessed people, having a tailwind means that the wind is going in the same direction as we are, which means that in essence, the wind is pushing us. We made it into camp at 3:30 pm. That's way early for me, and a really quite respectable time for doing 80 miles (starting at seven-ish am...yah. With rest stops and everything. I like tailwinds.)

And the last highlight of the day is the highlight that reminds me why I'm doing this ride. Every time I looked up each hill today (they look bigger as it gets later in the day...wonder why =), I saw the little orange flag of a Positive Pedaler just making it to the top. Positive Pedalers are HIV-positive riders, and they all have little flags on the back of their bikes that lets us all know who they are and lets them tell the world who they are. And every time I see one of them I remember that no matter how hard this gets, no matter how tired I am, no matter how long the hill is, it's worth it if it means that HIV and AIDS can become, as someone during Opening Ceremonies said, something that we talk about in history class, not in science.

'Til tomorrow,
-Me.

It's almost here!!!

Well, I'm about to (try) and get some sleep before tomorrow...because bright and early (4:30 AM!!!), I'll be heading on down to the Cow Palace for Opening Ceremonies and then...Day 1 begins.

Orientation Day was quicker than expected...last year each line took over an hour, and this year I don't think any of the lines took even a half an hour.
It was so fabulous to be back in the ALC community. It seems so silly to say that - I mean, the "ALC Community" only technically exists for a week...but it's so...the way the world should be.
Last year, near the end of the ride, people began saying "almost time to go back to the real world", and I think that's exactly what I mean. There is a marked difference between the 'real world' and the 'ALC world'. The group of people that decide to participate in this ride create this fantastic atmosphere. Anything goes, anything is accepted, everybody is respected. And it's still fun. You just want to say hi to everyone and bust into people's conversations while you're waiting in line.

 
I'm so so so excited for tomorrow.
 

Orientation Day, here I come!

10:08 am in sunny San Francisco and I'm heading off to Day zero in a couple of minutes! The last two days have been rather whirl-windy - took  my Hebrew final and put some last minute touches on my final report for the research I've been working on this past year, held a last-minute fundraising  BBQ/say goodbye to friends thing, went to Miss Angie's for our  'yay good luck have fun' party, packed yesterday morning,  met with the professor I've been working with on this paper, did more packing, finally left Santa Barbara around two p.m. and after all stops arrived in one piece to the Commodore Hotel at 8:00-ish. Dinner and hang-out time with the boyfriend and  and now it's time to brave the traffic out to the Cow Palace, leave my baby (bike) in the care of the fabulous ALC people, get  checked in, and get a good night's sleep before waking up REALLY REALLY EARLY tomorrow morning for day 1.


So excited.