Food for Thought: How to Get A Head.
Entering the last week of this journey to help Kids with Cancer! Not too late to donate! Click HERE
Total Distance Ridden: 1342 miles
Cumulative Elevation: 78,111 feet
Today's Route Profile: Click HERE
Day 25 Vlog: Click HERE
As I have ridden on this trip, I really feel as if I have had two different rides. There is the one side of me that has enjoyed looking around and taking in everything that is new to me. The other side is the one that is constantly looking in my mirror at Katelyn and trying to see things through her lens as well. I find myself worrying a lot about how she is doing--many times when maybe I shouldn't. For example, whenever the road begins to climb, Katelyn ultimately falls back a bit--I go uphill quite a bit faster than she does. When I get to the top, I turn and watch her as she finishes the climb. As she does it, I'm thinking, "Is she struggling? Is this the one that is finally too much for her? Will she ever want to touch a bike again after this hill?" But then, she gets to the top and in a completely normal voice will say something like, "I just thought up a new song" or "I just realized what I want for Christmas." My worries kind of slip away as I realize that she does the same thing I do on climbs many times: just get lost in her thoughts.
Yesterday's leg tricked me. After the first part of the ride--overcast, headwinds, narrow agriculture roads with bad conditions and no shoulder--I was ready to title the posting today, "Today's Blah-g." It is usually about halfway through the ride when I come up with what I want to talk about or at least what I want to title the blog post for that day. But I just couldn't think of anything I wanted to really report on. Then the conditions changed. Highway 1 sort of intersected with a mountain range and made a sharp left--straight downwind. The shoulder on the road improved as well as the road surface. Now we were in business.
We spent pretty much the entire ride in farmland. The experience of seeing different crops grow has been educational. For example, when riding past a field with a whole bunch of leafy stuff, I would always assume that those leaves were what they would cut and put in the grocery store. On bikes, we could actually stop, inspect the plant and realize that hidden in those leaves was a giant cauliflower waiting to be picked. At one point, we pulled over at a field that looked almost like it had been trampled. The plants all looked like they were starting to die. Then, looking closer, we realized that what was left were the perfectly good heads of lettuce. We found a farm worker and asked if Katelyn could pick a head and he whipped out his knife to help her out. These farm workers have all been really nice people to talk to. So we ended up with a head of lettuce to carry with us to Lompoc! A little earlier we had also grabbed a bag of cherries from a roadside stand so Katelyn's "lighter" bike bags were now filled with produce--right before the substantial climb to get over to Lompoc.
After a tough climb (really hot, long, and lots of cars to contend with), we summited and saw Lompoc down below. The descent was fun--super windy, technical, and, with the wind now blowing on us, COOL! Katelyn commented at the bottom that she wants cold weather for all of her climbs but hot weather for all of her descents. I sure wish we always got our way!
In Lompoc we had a room waiting for us at the Lompoc Valley Inn & Suites. They provided a complimentary room to help us on our trip to help fight cancer in kids and we are super grateful for that. If you find yourself in Lompoc, they have an awesome place--definitely give them a stay over! Also, they were super near lots of places to eat and shop so, after checking in, Katelyn and I walked a couple blocks down and got some dinner. Then we came back to the room and cleaned off the bag of cherries and had some lettuce. It was definitely not a blah type of day.
As for today: we will cycle down to Santa Barbara--the gateway to So Cal. We have another Cat 2 climb (I told Katelyn there were only 2 of them on this entire trip but I was wrong. There's 3 of them...) but then we rejoin the ocean and stay flat the rest of the day. Happy Saturday!
Total Distance Ridden: 1342 miles
Cumulative Elevation: 78,111 feet
Today's Route Profile: Click HERE
Day 25 Vlog: Click HERE
As I have ridden on this trip, I really feel as if I have had two different rides. There is the one side of me that has enjoyed looking around and taking in everything that is new to me. The other side is the one that is constantly looking in my mirror at Katelyn and trying to see things through her lens as well. I find myself worrying a lot about how she is doing--many times when maybe I shouldn't. For example, whenever the road begins to climb, Katelyn ultimately falls back a bit--I go uphill quite a bit faster than she does. When I get to the top, I turn and watch her as she finishes the climb. As she does it, I'm thinking, "Is she struggling? Is this the one that is finally too much for her? Will she ever want to touch a bike again after this hill?" But then, she gets to the top and in a completely normal voice will say something like, "I just thought up a new song" or "I just realized what I want for Christmas." My worries kind of slip away as I realize that she does the same thing I do on climbs many times: just get lost in her thoughts.
Yesterday's leg tricked me. After the first part of the ride--overcast, headwinds, narrow agriculture roads with bad conditions and no shoulder--I was ready to title the posting today, "Today's Blah-g." It is usually about halfway through the ride when I come up with what I want to talk about or at least what I want to title the blog post for that day. But I just couldn't think of anything I wanted to really report on. Then the conditions changed. Highway 1 sort of intersected with a mountain range and made a sharp left--straight downwind. The shoulder on the road improved as well as the road surface. Now we were in business.
We spent pretty much the entire ride in farmland. The experience of seeing different crops grow has been educational. For example, when riding past a field with a whole bunch of leafy stuff, I would always assume that those leaves were what they would cut and put in the grocery store. On bikes, we could actually stop, inspect the plant and realize that hidden in those leaves was a giant cauliflower waiting to be picked. At one point, we pulled over at a field that looked almost like it had been trampled. The plants all looked like they were starting to die. Then, looking closer, we realized that what was left were the perfectly good heads of lettuce. We found a farm worker and asked if Katelyn could pick a head and he whipped out his knife to help her out. These farm workers have all been really nice people to talk to. So we ended up with a head of lettuce to carry with us to Lompoc! A little earlier we had also grabbed a bag of cherries from a roadside stand so Katelyn's "lighter" bike bags were now filled with produce--right before the substantial climb to get over to Lompoc.
After a tough climb (really hot, long, and lots of cars to contend with), we summited and saw Lompoc down below. The descent was fun--super windy, technical, and, with the wind now blowing on us, COOL! Katelyn commented at the bottom that she wants cold weather for all of her climbs but hot weather for all of her descents. I sure wish we always got our way!
In Lompoc we had a room waiting for us at the Lompoc Valley Inn & Suites. They provided a complimentary room to help us on our trip to help fight cancer in kids and we are super grateful for that. If you find yourself in Lompoc, they have an awesome place--definitely give them a stay over! Also, they were super near lots of places to eat and shop so, after checking in, Katelyn and I walked a couple blocks down and got some dinner. Then we came back to the room and cleaned off the bag of cherries and had some lettuce. It was definitely not a blah type of day.
As for today: we will cycle down to Santa Barbara--the gateway to So Cal. We have another Cat 2 climb (I told Katelyn there were only 2 of them on this entire trip but I was wrong. There's 3 of them...) but then we rejoin the ocean and stay flat the rest of the day. Happy Saturday!
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| We are hitting Lompoc during their Flower Festival. There is a parade today that we will watch on our way out of town. |
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| We have decided that if you have to have a large climb on a hot day, it is always best to do it when your destination for the day is at the bottom of the other side. Here's Katelyn with Lompoc in the background way below us! |
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| I picked up a little friend along the way... |
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| Speaking of picking, Katelyn got to see how a field of lettuce looks and even was allowed to pick a head herself! |
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| I'm including a couple pictures today to show the differences in roads that we had to travel today. This isn't anything new for us; when the road gets narrow, we just scoot far to the right and hope for the best! |
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| Wish they were all like this. Great time to ride together and talk. |
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| Target practice in Arroyo Grande with the air rifle. I didn't think that superheroes ever used guns? |
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