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.

Comments

[Laurie Mendivil]

Dusty,

I have looked forward to reading your blog everyday while my husband rode. You and the other blogers have been my connection to what's been happening with the ride. Although, he called everynight to say a quick "I'm not dead, I love you, goodnight"...it was always late and he was very ready for sleep. So, thank you.

[Mary]

Hey Dusty,

Welcome back to SB. Glad that you enjoyed "The Pit". Thanks for the 'shout out'. Sorry for the negative reception in Lompoc.

Hope you are able to easily aclimate back to 'real life'.

[Mikl]

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