I was again a support person for Tom for his 545 mile, seven day bicycle ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Here are some shots from the week
A gallery for Sunday, day one
And day 5, Lompoc to Santa Maria — Red Dress Day. Carol Preston and I drove up to see the festivities and find Tom
And day 6 in Santa Barbara as Tom came by
On the way home Sunday from our Joshua Tree weekend we stopped at the Whitewater Preserve. Carol’s friend Randy had suggested it. Click here to jump to the Whitewater Preserve website.
Carol and I got an Airbnb place in Sunfair near the National Park and had two wonderful days of hiking and poking around within the park. Two galleries below. Shots with people, shots of plants and the terrain. People first
Now sans people
I rode down to Ventura for lunch then, on the way home, decided to take the time to explore an old tunnel crossing under the freeway. The tunnel is about a mile and a half south of Mussel Shoals, near the southern termination of the new bikeway. As you can see from the images the tunnel crossing was not what I expected. Click on any image for a larger version complete with commentary.
Niece Erin and I crossed paths with this amazing fellow at the end of a nice walk along the Sammamish River Trail.
He had broken his collar bone in four places in mid January while riding into an area of possible ice and remembers nothing of his accident wherein a bystander stood over him so he would not be run over while awaiting the ambulance. He was next conscious and aware in the hospital. He has a titanium plate holding his collar bone together and is riding today only six weeks after his accident.
Today he had ridden down to the Bainbridge Island Ferry in the early AM to ferry over to the Cascade Bicycle Club’s Chilly Hilly 33 mile ride then back to Seattle and on back to Woodinville where we met him at his mile 80 for the day. He rode over 10,000 miles last year that included 30 century rides.
He’s riding his brand new Rodriguez cycle that he has set up as his dream machine. It includes a Rohloff rear hub with 14 ratios (which can shift while stopped) thereby needing no multiple chainrings in front allowing for a very cool belt drive system, S & S couplers, a Son generator front hub that not only feeds his lighting system but also powers a USB port inside his handlebar bag, a Pletscher double leg kickstand, a new high tech Brooks C17 Cambium saddle, Marathon Plus tires, and an array of electronics. Quite the dream,
After I inserted all the above I went browsing on the Rodriguez site and found that he had posted these ten shots of our fellow’s cycle. Lots of interesting closeups of the many fascinating parts he chose. One question I wished I’d asked him was why he chose cantilevers instead of disc brakes. Click on any of the images for a larger version.
Tom included me on the last third of his training ride today. He, Jill, and another friend Tom started off at 8:00AM from Carpinteria Avenue and Casitas Pass Road and rode clockwise around Lake Casitas (see below for the maps and details). I rode straight down the coast route from home and met them at the downtown Ventura Habit for lunch and a nice visit after which we all rode back up the coast.
I took the upper left photo below on my way south. It is a memorial to the wonderful Bill Connell, aka “The Hot Dog Man”, and is the site where he parked his Surf Dog trailer. It was always a fun, off beat place to stop or just ride by. I clipped a few shots off the internet that I included below. Click on any to see a larger size and description.
I took the bus out to the Costco environs then rode over to Coal Oil Point. It was a beautiful day so I played around there and near there with my camera, had some fun, and learned a few things. Click on any of the images below for a larger size and a description.
Since the opening of the new ocean side bikeway from the Rincon to 1/2 mile south of Mussel Shoals there have been signs on the old road/bikeway discouraging our riding there (see the last image below). Driving by in the last week I noticed a large new parking lot at the end of the old road and figured there must be a tunnel somewhere near it or why all the parking?
So on this morning’s ride to Ventura I poked around and found the tunnel. It is just below the first beach access point south of Mussel Shoals off the bikeway. As I was thinking, there were no signs of discouragement on the route I had chosen. You can see a visual story of my fun exploring with commentary by clicking on any of these photos then “sliding” through them.
Tom and I finished off the day of driving to Los Angeles for a Natural History Museum visit with Carol Bornstein and his semi annual eye checkup at UCLA by meeting friend Lynn at the Rincon Brewery for dinner, nice. Click on any image for a closer look.
Today was Phyllis’ birthday. Thanks to daughter Carol a very nice party took place in the afternoon. Here are a few images from the party (click on any to view a larger size) followed by two nice videos. There are more images if you’d like. Click here to view them.
Here Phyllis and Gem sing Phyllis’ favorite, Always:
And Gem leads the party in Happy Birthday:
Phyllis blowing out birthday candles for the 105th time.