Day 16 & 17: San Fran-Santa Cruz-Seaside
The Ride from San Fran to Santa Cruz on Saturday, June 16th.......
Miles on the road: 84 ( a few more than we expected because riding through downtown San Franny took a LONG LONG time.)
Weather: It started out in the 50's and it was foggy--no surprise there. It warmed up though to around 70 or so and it was sunny by the end of the day.
Wind: We had a killer tailwind, especially towards the latter part of the day.
FUNNIEST MOMENT OF THE DAY: Without question, today's "funny" was brought to us by Marcy McGovern as she wiped out on her bicycle while passing through an intersection in downtown San Francisco. Yes, yes, yes.....we did make sure that she was alright immediately after the fall occurred......but we all then fell off our bikes, busting a guy in laughter over the event. It was pretty epic. Thanks, Marcy. That was awesome.
TEAM DENVER'S THOUGHTS ON STAYING IN A "BUNGALOW?"
Well, the morning of I will say that knowing we were to be staying in a "bungalow" over in Castonoa near the Nueve Ano Reserve definitely had us prety jacked up for the ride. In fact, we even nicknamed the bungalo the "Fungalo." We were no doubt ecstatic. However, as things turned out, it's probably an understatement to say that it was a major buzz kill when we first laid our eyes upon our accommodations. We basically paid top coin to stay in a glorified tent. (see pic) But, unlike the majority of those in this country, we can now say that we stayed in a bungalo.
The ride from Santa Cruz to Seaside.......
Miles on the Road: 56
# of Hours on the Road: 8
Weather: Pleasant. High of 70 and sunny.
Wind: We actually had a fairly strong cross/headwind for awhile.
Coolest Thing we saw today: (other than the beautiful views of the coast): There was a guy on a ten-speed with a boombox on the handlebars.....and he was wearing white jeans and no shirt. Man, that rules. That was so cool. The only thing that would have been better is if he had his white jean jacket wrapped around his waist or something. I told him (as we rode by) that 1987 just called, and they want their clothes back.
Quote of the Day: "We're closed right now, but there's a gas station right over there that has really good ice cream, although they don't have 31 flavors."
-The punk high school kid that works at Baskin Robbeins in Seaside,CA. As is tradition of the 2007 Hunger Ride, we eat ice cream EVERY night. We showed up at 10:00pm (and 32 seconds) and we were too late for B. Robbins....they had already closed. The kid said "the register was closed." Fortunatly, we were blessed to have this guy's reccommendation of a gas station for some good ice cream. Maybe it's because we were slightly dillusional from the time spent on the road today, but we got a pretty good laugh of this guy's comment. Gas Station? Good ice cream? Please, please, do us all a favor and stop smoking.
THE SUMMARY OF TODAY'S RIDE........
Words I would use to describe today. Hmmmmm. Let me think....how about Tumultuous? Punishing? A Beatdown?
Slightly DisOrganized? (Who planned this Hunger Ride trip anyways???)
Long story short, we got seriously lost several times today. It wasn't pretty. Fortunately though, when you're with friends you can laugh about it. And we'll definitely be doing this for a long time. Too bad the boys from HBO were not around to film a nice documentary on "How not to read a map and do a really really good job at that." yeah, so you do the math......56 miles in just under 8 hours? That's pedestrian. That's a snail's pace. At one point today while riding on the paved bike path on the boardwalk in Seaside, we actually got passed by a 275 pound man on a mountain bike.
Well, if you take a look at how many miles we rode and how long it took us to do it, you can see that we had a pretty tough ride out on the speedway. In fact, it was downright pittiful. We had two flat tires, and we got seriously lost trying to manuver around Santa Cruz/Aptos/Capitola. It always helps to have a map......usually. Thanks to Tommy Tripmaker, we didn't for the first 15 miles. Ironically, we did worse WITH the map for the for the rest of the day.
As I said before though....it's GREAT to have my pals from Denver,Co out for the ride. It's definitely non-stop laughs and good times out here on the West Coast.
TOMORROW'S RIDE.....
We got some ground to make up.....so we're going to step it up and go for 125miles from Seaside,Ca to Morro Bay,CA.
posted by The Hunger Ride at 6/17/2007
7 Comments:
I'm glad your precious Team Denver made it in safely and that Marcy wasn't injured in her fall. I continue to pray that the Lord bless your faithfulness and give you mercies abundant and sure. I also pray that you continue to enjoy your time together and that the joy be abundant and full and the laughter a deep well.
I like the fact that you're growing you beard out Tom...It makes you look like Apple Computer co-founder Steve Wozniak.
Slappy
Go Team Denver! I love the blog. I am laughing with you at Marcy's fall :) Glad you are alright, Marcy, but you can no longer tease Holly about her fall in HR! My thoughts and prayers are with you all! - Kelly Cronley
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Rand,
My computer stinks. I twice tried to post only to lose my internet connection when I try to send. Now that I'm back at the office for the next couple of weeks, I will try to pattern my behavior like Lou Piniella. Fairly stable, but with unexpected outbursts that make the highlight reel.
Did you try to prepare Lyle and the rest of San Francisco for the Big Orange Tsunami that is predicted to hit in early September?
tom! sweet friend! with classes over, i had forgotten that i have a computer! when a friend *delicately* reminded me, i immediately tried to track you down - and found you in san fran! did you see the bush-man?? please tell me you did! even tho i've been offline (and that's the way i like it) i HAVE been praying for your trip and thinking about you and your ride everyday! i can't wait to hear more and am now caught up on your stories so far via technology. i'm not exactly sure what i'm doing here - will this message show up everywhere? - but hope you get it! keep having a great time - and eat some ice cream for me!
<><, twedt
Here's an awful attempt at a poem about Tom Rand,
The guy whose butt is numb from riding for children of the African land
Work is boring and I have a lot to say,
Especially when I see those pictures in spandex that look so heterosexual
Tom's been a great friend since our days at UT,
We agree on most things except he prefers the Cubbies over Cincy
One special memory of Tom revolves around a glove,
And a Christmas gift sent to a college girl from her mother with love
A cold winter's eve, Tom decided to go for a run,
Downed a bowl full of chili and that's when it all begun
The glove started the color of the snow on the ground,
But by the end of the jog, it had turned brown
On another trip I was with Tom on Spring Break,
Enough food and water for two days is what we decided to take
The map made it seem like such a simple hike,
Not nearly as daunting as Canada to Mexico from the seat of a bike
We were so excited to finally arrive at the Rio Grande,
Tom swam over to Mexico and took a duece in the sand
But our excitement was shortened by some unfortunate news,
We were lost in the desert with out any water or booze
So we had to drink the poopy water now it would seem,
Not only from Tom but also the cattle a few miles upstream
Most memories of Tom involve something stinky or smelly,
Worse than the dirty exhaust from a rusted out Chevy
For his sake I hope that Stephen has learned,
To ride in front of Rand, lest his nose hairs be burned
Guys, enjoy the last part of this memorable ride,
And remember to rub your legs with Vasoline on the inside
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