Day 7 - Ventura to LA

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 - Lompoc to Ventura

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.)

Day 5 - Santa Maria to Lompoc

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!

Day 4 - Paso Robles to Santa Maria

Today was my first time on first shift. That means waking up at 3 AM and starting work at 3:45, and let me tell you even for a morning person like moi . . . that's hard!! Even for me if I'm up at 3 AM on a Wednesday it's usually because I had a REALLY good night on Tuesday. Breakfast was extra complicated so it took all of our staff to get it going. When I finally got my break to eat around 6 AM I was shocked to see the breakfast line was HUGE! I was very glad to know that I could just go up and have a plate made for me. I'm starting to get to know some of my fellow food service workers better. Matty from LA is hilarious. Abby from San Francisco has the best costumes. Though Mary and her husband David really knocked my socks off with their matching Dark Side of the Moon jammies!!! AMAZING! (Pic coming soon!) The camp in Paso Robles is very well situated by that I mean Starbucks is just a 5 minute walk away! (Just FYI, I'm not some crazy Starbuck's supporter, but they are nationwide and pretty much universally have good coffee. PLUS their labor practices are actually quite enlightened, health care and dental care for their employees.)

That night we wound up in Santa Maria, which had a particularly beautiful camp location. Complete with jungle gyms and a mini pirate ship next to a dry man-made pond. Once we got in to camp I ate a bit and decided it was time for a workout. Unlike the riders who are burning up to thousands of calories a day, food service roadies are relatively sedentary, so a workout was in order. After my workout Sergey was once again giving a yoga training. This time we were working on sun salutation A. I really need to add yoga to my workout schedule. (Thanks Sergey!!)

By the time my dinner shift rolled around I was completely exhausted. This was not a good sign, but I couldn't let my fellow food service roadies down by any means. So I trudged off to serve dinner. This time it was fish tacos and steak fajitas, which as usual were delish! As I started to work on the line I was really dragging and feeling more and more crabby. Every once in a while a rider would express his/her gratitude which would temporarily take some of the crankiness out of me. However as the night wore on and the food line got really long the riders started to get very cranky and hungry themselves which meant there was trouble brewing. After a short stint handing out the tortillas, they decided to put me on plates and wristband check, since I'm such a stickler for checking the wristbands. As usual the VAST majority of the riders either already had their wristbands visible or were only to happy to hike up their sleeves to show me their "wrist bling" as I'd taken to calling it. There were the usual rare kvetchers who found pulling up their sleeves too much to do and let me know how stupid I/we were for even requiring such a thing. I'd grown used to it and had a few standard replies to diffuse the situation. Usually along the lines of, yeah I know it seems silly, but it's what they tell me I have to do. Tonight though I was having none of it . . . I was hungry, I was tired, I'd been up since 3 AM. My blood sugar was crashed. They say the riders have a breakdown on the 3rd day and that roadies have their breakdown on the 4th day. Well here I was right on time on the night of the 4th day. One particular rider was really giving me a hard time about the wrist check and the fact that I wouldn't let her reuse her plate. (It's California health code, when going through a food line you are required to take a new plate . . . it's to prevent cross contamination.) After a very heated exchange I found myself contemplating cutting her with one of the biodegradable knives which we hand out as silverware. At that moment Betsy, a fellow food service roadie, came up behind me and offered to relieve me and give me a break. "No I don't need one," I snarled. At that moment the Karen working next to me in line looked at me and said: "I think you really do." And I realized she was right. I let Betsy take over, got myself a snack and sat down and rested. Whew! If it weren't for my fellow roadies I might have said something I regretted!

Honestly when I was warned that we would have breakdowns, I didn't really think that much of it. Generally I'm an even keel kind of person, but this experience is asking a lot of me physically and mentally. I'm not saying this in a bad way, because it's not. I'm having without a doubt the time of my life! By the time I'd staggered off to my tent that night I'd already felt bad about the exchange with the rider. As much as I was tired and exhausted, so was she, so were we all. I was told the 5th day of the ride would be a healing day, and we would all be more bonded happier in our exhaustion, and I fell asleep that night thinking it was most likely true!

Day 3 - King City to Paso Robles

Tuesday morning I woke up before my alarm and decided to head over to eat before my 5 AM shift (that's the LATE shift by the way, early shift starts at 3:45). Once again breakfast was a hectic affair which seems like it's going to be from here on out. Riders will eat dinner at various times, but they all want to get out on the road at around the same time. For whatever reason I was extra chipper this morning and think I shocked some of the more groggy and tired riders as they came up to the line. What can I do . . . I am one of those horrible freaks of nature "a morning person."

After breakfast food service got split up and some of us wound up on the SAG bus (SAG's are riders who for various reasons aren't riding that day.) Talk about a different bus . . . there were bandages and slings and many many long faces. (I opted not to take any photos . . .) We rode along in silence and drove directly to Paso Robles.  Once in Paso Robles I stashed my backpack and wondered over to the info tent to get my bearings. While I was there I met one of the SAG'ed riders Raghu from the South Bay. I was planning on walking in to town to hit the Starbuck's and see what else there was to see in Paso Robles; Raghu was game to come along. We exchanged the "What do you do's and the where do you lives?" quickly. Like me he was a tech worker, but he lived down in Silicon Valley. Raghu was on the ride with a group of his fellow tech worker South Asian friends. While he was sad to be SAG'ed, he was actually quite pleased to see the behind the scenes roadie work as well as meet lots of new people.

Our conversation turned to relationships. Raghu said while he liked the idea of a "love marriage" (his term), if he didn't allow his parents to arrange his marriage they would be very sad and upset. I joked with him that he should send home a picture of a blond American girl and tell his parents he was engaged. He laughed nervously and said that would kill his mother. His parents had just arranged for his brother to marry in October so he knew after that he was up next. The American in me kept wanting to urge him to rebel against it, and meet the right girl here in the States. He was so calm and serene about it though, I couldn't bring myself to say anything. When I thought further about it as we got lost and then eventually found the Starbuck's I realized I don't know what the divorce rate in India is, but I doubt it's worse than ours. Who was I to say what's best for him or his potential wife to be. Before we parted ways I promised Raghu that I would fill his plate with eggs the next morning since his biggest downfall the day before seems to have been skipping breakfast.

By the evening during dinner service I had come to realize that the event I thought I was attending wasn't what it actually is. Honestly I thought it was going to be crazy gay camping with athletic queens biking around everywhere causing mayhem. And yes it's definitely some of that, but there are so many more people of so many different backgrounds here it's hard to pinpoint the scene or crowd. My amazing time spent with Raghu was just one clue; my fellow food service roadies were another big clue. Then when I took my dinner break and joined the riders in the dining hall I met an really nice straight couple from the Marina. Then they left and were replaced by two straight women from Concord. Now dear readers you may not know this, but in the past I've had the bad habit of looking down on Marina-ites and Contra Costa County residents as hopelessly over-privileged and scaredy-cat suburbanites respectively. Both of my interactions with these wonderful people went completely against my stereotypes, and in a way it left me a bit reeling. (Perhaps not the biggest epiphany in the world: "stereotypes are often wrong" but when it comes at you bam bam bam in a row like on Day 3, you really take notice!) The moral of this story is straight people are cool! I'm glad they are in the world. NOT what I was expecting to learn on this ride.

Dinner's theme was Gilligan's Island/Tropical (pics coming soon!)

Day 2 - Santa Cruz to King City

Wow! Breakfast is a lot more intense than dinner. Everyone wants to get up and get on the road. The riders are hungry and a bit aprehensive about their ride. As a result it was down to business in the breakfast line. No time for jokes or funny comments. Just give with the oatmeal as fast as you possibily can!

Again the rules we have to live by in food service were a source of annoyance for the riders. We have to check wristbands for everyone before we can let them into the food lines. It did seem a little silly at times to demand a wristband from a spandex clad rider in clackity clackity bike shoes . . . but rulez is rulez.

After breakfast we all piled on the bus. The bus maven cooked up a plan to go in to Santa Cruz to stop at Peet's Coffee and Trader Joe's. We had it all worked out when the bus manager got on the bus and said we will be stopping at the Walmart/Starbuck's in Salinas. Boo to the hiss!!! But by the time we got there I was happy enough to pee and drink my "grande drip room for cream."

Camp at King City was interesting. Part outdoor agricultural museum part old timey train depot. The big issue at King City is the wind, it gusted pretty constantly after 3 PM. At times during dinner that night I was fairly certain the tent surrounding us was going to make like Dorothy's house and take off completely.

Before dinner though one of our fellow food service roadies Sergey offered to give some of us a yoga lesson. I decided at the last minute to join in, but because the gear truck hadn't arrived yet, I had to do yoga in my jeans and suspenders . . . eventually losing the suspenders which made the jeans almost fall a few times during the downward dog. Sergey was a patient and attentive teacher. I'd forgotten how much I like yoga, though I tend to prefer its meaner cousin Pilates.

Dinner that night was soooo much better than the night before (apologies to the caterers . . . but it's true!). Grilled steak and chicken with raspberry demi-glase and BBQ sauce respectively. Corn on the cob and baked potatoes finished things out quite nicely! Due to the very long day the riders had on Monday, they tended to straggle in to dinner so there was no huge rush, just a constant stream. The riders who came end near the end of the night were borderline catatonic, some of them just stared blankly when we asked them if they wanted sauce on their meat. (Of course plenty more had ribald comebacks to the meat/sauce question as well!)

Once dinner was over I tried to go and update this blog a little, but there was next to no internet, so I made do with my phone. After such a long day I was in bed and sleeping by 10. During our first breakfast service one of my fellow roadies said having done the ride as a cyclist and as a food service roadie, he wasn't sure which was harder. At the time I said no way, but now I'm starting to wonder!

Day 1 SF to Santa Cruz

You know I just sort of naturally wake up @ 5 AM if left to my own devices. That fact helped a lot when I set my alarm for 3:30 AM -- though I realized the food service the early shift would require me to get up even earlier than that!

Opening ceremonies were brief and inspiring. It was really amazing to watch all the riders head out. So many funny costumes and getups . . . though the practical midwesternerner in me kept thinking wow that boa or all those feathers are going to cause too much drag. Maybe they ditch all the finery when they get to the first big hill!

Something unexpected and very charming is all the parent roadies. Lots of riders have their parents along as roadies. I witnessed one of my fellow food service roadies Mary warmly greet her rider son Geoff when he made it to camp. Even cranky ol' moi was touched.

Dinner was an interesting affair. I had a later shift so things were already in full swing by the time I got there. Penne pasta, meatballs, chicken parm. We have been told to carefully control the portions we hand out which becomes the main source of conflict with the riders. They are allowed to go through the line as much as they want but only get 2 meatballs and one big or 2 small chickens pieces at a time. Despite these minor conflicts dinner was great. I collapsed into my tent almost right after!

Dinner Theme Pix: 1st night's theme Funny Hats Here's a pic of my fav hat, the chicken hat!

 

And here's one of our fearless leaders Randy looking quite chic in his hat:

Here is our other fearless leader Claire and a few more funny hats. (Yours truly just wore his Belgian soccer hat)

Day 0 Orientation

Day 0 Orientation

After a mad dash visit to the Maker's Fair with the kids (it was interesting . . . Sort of a steampunk renaissance faire) I got to the Cow Palace 'round 1. I'd been told to get there earlier but was double booked as usual. I'll admit to being more than a little crankypantz having had to rush up from San Mateo.

Registration was a total breeze. Very well managed! I was whoshed into the safety video then got my dog tags and was at the roadie meeting by 2! Great job registration volunteers and staff! I know it's not easy herding thousands of lost riders and roadies . . . Especially with some of their pantz in a cranky state!

Left the roadie meeting feeling very excited 'bout the experience. Our team captains were very cool and organized! They even made us goodie bags with a flashlights and Emergen-C and most importantly several pieces of chocolate. The chocolate did NOT last long since we were all starving after the roadie meeting.

At the end of the meeting they told us some of the things we could expect on the ride. According to the organizers the riders were all going to have their breakdowns on the 3rd day and us roadies were due for ours the following day. I'm personally interested in watching how the very supportive and affirming atmosphere of the orientation will deal with the breakdowns. More to come on that fo sho! Also on the way out got interviewed by one of the cute AV guys named Richie, I'm sure I was brilliant on the video! If not, I'm sure it's due to editing.

Drew

When I got laid off at the start of April, my friend Matt suggested I should join him as a roadie on the AIDS Lifecycle, and I jumped at the idea! I'd recently re-energized my direct (as compared to just financial support) in HIV prevention, and taking part in the Lifecycle seemed like an ideal way to make the best of unexpected time off. There are multiple reasons and inspirations for me to take part in the ride, but the first that comes to mind is my friend Tim Dravis. I met Tim in the last year of his life in 1992 and moved to San Francisco just a few months before he died. I'll never forget the time we got to spend together in that hospice out on Geary, and committed myself then to helping prevent and fight the disease that took him from the world. Of course if you ask my friends they'll say sure it's for that, PLUS he's really is looking forward to impersonating Lunch Lady Doris for a week.