We started the ride into a monster headwind heading toward Imperial. Somewhere along the line, Taft Ave maybe, I noticed some dude on Gina's wheel. Oh well, I figured he would go around sooner or later but never did. I started to think maybe it was someone we knew playing mind games with me. It was, The Legend Greg caught us from behind and played possum ha ha! I couldn't look back long enough to see who it was as it was "hold the bars or die!" riding into this wind ha ha! Once we hit Imperial and stopped at our turnaround point, he rolled up and then I knew who it was ha ha! Had a pretty good chat then we headed back together with a big tailwind!
At the coast we ran into Mark, then later Ron and Dixie rolled up into the rest stop. They headed off on PCH for a bit as Ron was concerned about reaching his weekly mileage goal. at first Dixie passed on the offer but once she saw the broken heart look on Ron's face, she gave in! Now is that true love or what?! :-P
We headed back with Mark hoping we would have some kind of tailwind back. Somewhat of a tailwind, better and longer than Saturday but once we did hit the headwind, it totally killed Gina on the little uppities. At one point, she just pulled over and stopped. Took a short 2 minute break then got back on. seemed to be doing OK but then another couple miles later, I heard her shout, "that's it!". She fell off the pace but I backed off so she easily hopped back on for a while. Then after that, she fell back and told Mark to go ahead. It seemed he held back for her and let her take his wheel. Wow that was a first. Usually if Gina falls off my wheel, the other riders just sit behind her. But Mark pulled her back up and really helped her to get back on. That was cool!
After the ride, Mark gave me a hat he said he had been meaning to give me for a while. Nice cycling hat, mesh upper, great for after the ride. My current cap leaves my head hot so this should be nice! Plus a few water bottles he figures I can use. Thank Mark and to all you others, Yes, Mr. Beanz does accept gifts ha ha! Just kidding, but there have been some cool people out there who gave me some nice things. Hats, cycling coins, red blinkies from races, fish, yes fish, and a little packet for a camera that GMR gave me when she saw that my case had broken. I still use that thing too!But as a pouch for my Garmin during transport, which is every weekend! :-)
But I think Gina was pretty toasted after that but we only had a couple miles left so she survived! Just needs a bit more saddle time and a day that is not so WIND tough!
After the ride, we stopped at Burger Town USA, the only place I will eat a hamburger. I don't eat fast food at all other than this place since it seems really fresh. Reminds me of the good ol burger joints back in the with the real fresh produce and beautiful tomatoes. OK, I will say the old Greek burger joints. I didn't want to go there cause some dope will start complaining that I am a racist ha ha! But that pretty much describes the goodness of these burgers.
While there, a couple kept looking at us funny. As they were done, they walked by and asked it that was our truck with the bikes in the back. Yup, that's us! We had a short but good chat as they were cyclists. They had a tandem and had drove down from the high desert to ride the San Gabriel trail. They said it had the best wind forecast of all places ha ha!
I was real shocked, well both Gina and I as the lady said, you guys eat the healthy stuff (burger combo, substitute the salad instead of fries, free of charge at BT USA). She they were bad and ate the fried stuff. Then she smiled and said,"well you guys look like cyclists!".
What ?! Ha ha ha! Must have been the dried salt sweat lines on Gina's face, the dried up sunblock caked on my ears, or the smell of salty sweat that made her say that ha ha! In our 20+ years of cycling, that is the first time anybody has ever said we looked like cyclists. But we'll take it ha ha!
This was the wind as we arrived at the start.
The Legend sneaking up on us while fighting a fierce headwind!
Heading back, safely space as the tailwinds blow us at 20 MPH without much effort!
This was before the windy return leg when Gina was still smiling!
I was a bit tired today so I did let her pull me to the coast for a while!
Winter in SoCal
The cool people!
Mark.
The Hat! No, not the burger place!
Hey Beanz I just wanted to thank you for the photos and the enjoyment I get from our rides and your blog a videos.
ReplyDeleteThanks M.L.. Keeps it interesting and fun for me! ;-)
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