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California AIDS Ride 8
Day Two -- June 4th, 2001
Santa Cruz to King City
102.84 miles -- 5 hours, 54 minutes, 59 seconds
Coffee! Must have coffee. Even though I get up every morning at 5:30am, there's something unnatural about rising at 5:00am at camp and not having instant access to coffee. By the time we dressed, brushed our teeth, and washed our faces, it must've been at least 6:00. And at 6:00, the line for Peet's Coffee is really long. Finally! Then, into the breakfast line. Damn! Where's the time going? By the time we packed up our tent and our gear & left camp, it was almost 8:00!

free coffee at the Ugly Mug! Riding out of Santa Cruz is a slow proposition -- lots of riders, lots of stop signs, lots of red lights. But I was still thinking about coffee. I remembered this place in Solano called the Ugly Mug. Last year they had free coffee for AIDS Riders. And last year I didn't stop. Well, I didn't make the same mistake this year. Thank you Ugly Mug, for starting my day right!

Today began the theme of my AIDS Ride with Tom -- flat tires! I had my first one shortly after stopping in Solano (in all, I had four and Tom had five, all within a 48 hour period). But no worries. Even though this is the longest day of the Ride, I also think it's the easiest. Nice & flat with tailwinds most of the way.

Riding through the Central Valley is beautiful, but it can be monotonous. Farms and fields! The air was alternately filled with the aroma of whatever was planted in a given field -- strawberries, celery, cilantro, garlic. Oh, and the ever-present smell of organic fertilizer (affectionately known as manure). And it was starting to get hot since we were no longer riding on the coast. I love the heat, but lots of riders were struggling. Lorri rides through the central valley

we went skinny dipping under this bridge At about 80 miles, we crossed a really cool bridge over a creek (or maybe a river). Glancing down, we saw riders swimming. Well, it was getting late, since we'd had flats & coffee & play time, but we decided to go swimming anyways. Afterall, who needs a bathing suit to swim in a river?

Tonight, Tom & I started the first of our nightly "process management" sessions. We decided that there had to be a better way to plan our morning so we could get out of camp earlier and also get into evening camp earlier. Roger Schefers and Mike Schmitt (in the tent next door) thought it was very humorous listening to us plan our morning. Glad we could provide some joy in your lives, boys......

See all my photos from Day Two (in real size!)
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Created on June 30th, 2001 by Lorri Lee Lown
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