GMR 8/31/13

A pretty heated ride up GMR. Had to be the humidity cause the temp on my Garmin only said 81.5. I've done other GMR summer rides with higher temps and a lot less sweat. By the time we reached the 2 mile point, the top of my jersey was soaked in sweat. And BUGS! Oh my garsh! As soon as we arrived at the dirt lot the bugs attacked me. Getting the bikes off the rack I had a swarm of 10 bugs circling my face the entire time. Gina and I both sprayed lots of bug spray but yet we were targets the entire time on the climb. At about 3 miles up Gina asked me to check the back of her arm as she felt a stinging. It was a huge flea looking bug. I brushed it off then looked down at her leg only to see blood dripping from near her hem. Hmm, she did 't feel that but she felt the flea ha ha! I can't imagine what the ride would have been like without bug spray.

As we were suiting up JohnR rode by with a group. He hung back with us for a bit to catch up on the times. He's way too fast for us anyway so I got what footage I could. Not long after he split I stopped to wait for Gina who had fallen a bit behind. Uh oh! Gina was really struggling with the heat today and said she had doubts about the climb today. Of course I gave her the ole "relax and take your time" speech. Works every time but honestly today I was pretty unsure of it's value on this ride. 4 miles up she was still having doubts. Hmm, time for the "Baby, you've been here a hundred times, you know how it goes". Thank goodness she's been up there quite a few times cause this one worked. I was actually willing to head down early knowing how she suffers in the heat but she managed to tough it out. Like I have said many times before, the riders up there are so encouraging! I can't count the "good job!" comments she got from other riders. I'm willing to bet that helped her up today knowing how she was feeling at the start of the climb. We did see Pinoybntr Ron again, man that due is everywhere ha ha!

We only stuck around at the shack for a very very short while because of all the stinking bugs. Good decision because the descent is much cooler than just sitting around. Up there we ran into Bill (GMR blogger's hubby). He headed off a few seconds after we did but he managed to slip by me on the climb of the descent. HEY wiseguy! It's OK, gave me a chance to get some Bill footage ha ha!

On the descent I stopped at Newman's Point to get some Gina descent footage. As she rolled by another female rider was heading up around the turn. As she rolled by (in the video) she said, "hey Mr. Beanz!". Well what do you know, it's Maria (Magda00?). A few seconds later her fiance Carey rolls up and stops with her. She introduces us then we get to talking. You know, I never like the fiance guys, they always have this wiener head look on their face. Btu Carey got to talking and he's a pretty cool guy! Very important to me, a good sense of humor! If you can't laugh, then I really don't like you ha ha! But Carey was COOL!

Poor Gina, she didn't realize that I never remounted the bike so she kept going figuring I'd catch her. But when I didn't she stopped to wait. By this time she's about 3 miles from the bottom. She gets worried when another rider stops to ask her if she's OK then mentions that there had been a crash up the road. So she starts to climb GMR once again. I had a pretty good visit with Maria and Carey so poor Gina got in an extra mile of climbing ha ha!

Luckily it wasn't me but I did get a scare on the way down. I'm always worried about Gina on the descent so I encourage her to take her time even if it means my holding back a bit. She has gotten pretty good on the descent but you never know.

So I'm thinking I don't have time to catch Gina but as I am rounding a blind turn, the sun makes it so I can only see a shadow of the images in the road ahead. Looks like 3 guys in the middle of the road tending to a downed rider in pink! My gut drops but as I get close, it's an Asian dude in red. Whoah! thank goodness I'm not married to an Asian dude in red or I'd probably be at the hospital all night.

The dude seemed to be OK from what I saw, sitting up and holding his head. I've seen worse but there were maybe 10 rescue vehicles on the way up. Either the due is related to the president or he was seriously injured, I Hope it wasn't too serious!








                                                  Had some good chat with John R for a bit

                                                    Gina climbing! Climbing! Climbing!

                                                          .........and more climbing!

                                        Gina about to catch and pass this guy! OK not really! ;-)

                           Ynaw ha ha ha! Leather wrist strap as a tether, no more tumbling Go Pro

                                                           .........and more climbing!

                            Break at Newman's Point. Best she could do as far as a smile at this point.

                                                 Mr. GlendoraMtnRoad blogger dude (Bill)

                                                         Maria and her fiance Carey

Guy went down, ouch!

Gina proud of her sweat. OK, if she gives me a chance to take 

a pic of her boobs, who am I to pass on the deal? ;-)

Saturday SART 8/24/13

Well we were off the bikes last weekend so we figured a few more miles ought to do us good. Not bad, Gina did very well on the 47 miler. Very breezy with a big headwind but still managed a 15.8 average for the ride. Se did run into Ron on his recumbent. Haven't seen him much over the last couple of years. I guess he works out of town so there are other more important things to do with his weekends. Had a chance to meet one of the River Velo guys at an actual stop for once. His name is Dope. I'm not sure if that is the correct spelling but that is how it is pronounced. Cool friendly guy but I bet it was rough growing up with a name like that! Heck, they ought to make a Johnny Cash song out of it ha ha! I really wanted to do GMR this weekend but Gina's ankle is still a bit tender so I couldn't argue. So it was Gina , Jose, and me on a 47 miler.

Ron rolling on his bent

                                    It was pretty cool at the coast but there were still a few bikinis

                                                   Jose posing for his usual blog pic ha ha!

SART 8/11/13

Nice 42 miler with Gina and Jose. After all the GMR rides the trail feels much nicer like a recovery ride. I figure Gina would be tired after a good climb the previous day but she's actually looking better and feeling better on the trail after every GMR ride.  Except that she's had a bad leg weekend ha ha! Something bit her on the ankle yesterday while sitting at the shack. She had a little bump but she says it hurt and swore it was a Brown Recluse spider. A little dramatic but I think she's just wanting some attention like I had when my face was all FUBAR ha ha!

Today we stopped at the little landing across from Edna Park because I wanted to check something on my bike. She pulled up onto the wood deck, placed her foot down then lost traction and fell over landing flat on her back. Yeah I am a bad guy now cause I shouted "save the bike!". Well she has a small bruise on her ankle but said she could finish the ride after a short break. By the time we got to the coast she swore it was the size of a basketball. I had to agree to make up for saving the bike but I did get a picture of the bruise on her ankle. Wow, look at the size of that thing, I hope they don't have to amputate ha ha! ;-P

                                   We did run into Ron and Dixie. Always nice to chat with them.

                                Look at the basketball sized bruise on her ankle. That little blue thing,
                                                            right there, look real close.

                                               Nice day at the coast, the runners were out!

                                        Look at the basketball sized, err Oops wrong picture!
                                                 She looks sad, somebody cheer her up!

                                                 OK, I'm not gonna lie, she had a nice tan!

                           Gina suffering through the pain of the Brown Recluse and broken ankle!

SART 8/4/13

                                                                 Pics for now, video later

       

GMR 8/3/13

A beautiful day on GMR!  One of the nicest ever IMO. Not hot, sunny but a cool breeze made for some nice climbing. Gina did much better this week than last week and I was happy I didn't get my face chewed up by the bees again ha ha! At the start of the ride I saw Jason of BicycleFriends.com (blog) roll by with a shout out. Another dude, I believe from Adobo Velo rolled by and said "hey, you're the dude with the GoPro". I guess he recognized me from last week. But today wow, what a nice day and not very many riders on the road. But once again, the riders that were there all had something encouraging to shout as usual.

We ran into Lesper4 at the shack. He was on another one of his long climbing rides. Had a brief chat and rundown of his recent rides then off we went. Didn't spend much time hanging out as we had plans to meet the family for lunch. On the way down was nice and easy and NO BEES!

I have to say I am pretty disappointed with the behavior of a couple of vehicles up there. On the way up we saw some MTB dude getting off the dirt trail in a switchback about 2 mile up (?). He had what seemed to be his mother and father with him. as we rolled by I shouted hello to his Pops. All as cool till Gina and I were another couple miles up. I hear a truck coming form behind and next thing I know this orange truck is buzzing me. I look ahead as Gina is about 40 yards ahead and yeah, this asshat buzzes her too! We stop at he flat section at the 4 mile point and she asks, "did you see that guy buzz me?". Yeah, what a dumbass! Of course the point where he buzzed us was on the straight section and the dude had plenty of room to inch over a foot or two, maybe three! OK, so we are stopped on the side of the road taking a breather when another truck rolls by,  well flies by! A big 4X4 grey truck. We're standing on the white line and he has both lanes and a clear view to pass safely. So he revs up his engine and steps on the gas. He's heading directly toward us as if he wants to play chicken. I just glared into his windshield even though I could not clearly see the driver. If you want to "F" around and hit me, you better freakin' kill me!

So the ass hat redirects his truck as he gets closer. Yeah, that's what I thought! So anyway, this ass hat also has a couple of MTB bikes in the back of his truck too. I don't understand this. Very few drivers today and only a handful of crotch rockets. Honestly I never have problems with them but often read about other that do. So other riders are worried about getting killed by drivers but the only ass hats I have to worry about are carrying bikes in the back of their trucks, amazing!

So at the end of our ride I see the guy in the grey truck pull up. As we're loading bikes up, he's looking over our direction. Not sure if he's looking at me or looking for his descending riders to arrive. I look at the guy and he's an older mature "looking" guy. I can't say that he's mature the way this ass hat was driving. I'm tempted to go tell the guy what an ass hat he is but Gina says don't bother. Yeah you are right.

But alter as I get home and watch the video, I remember last weekend on GMR, I saw the same truck hauling ass up the mountain with bikes in the back. Big 4X4 tires screeching around the turns. I remember thinking this idiot is going to flip his truck. I thought it was a young stupid guy driving but today I realized and old stupid guy driving.

Man, I sure hope these ass hats realize what kind of dipsticks they are before they end up killing a few riders on GMR, pretty sad, riders killed by other riders who should have some kind of idea!

Anyway, I posted pictures of the trucks. If you see them, GTF outta the way, your life may depend on it!

Gina heading up the road

                                                     A little sweaty rest at Newman's point

                                                              Lesper4 on a long ride

                                             The orange truck. I couldn't make out the driver
                                        so I don't know if it was the old man or the young dude.

                                         The grey truck with the supposedly mature dude driving