Yesterday and Today

For our followers on the East Coast I know this is a little late for you to read tonight but just think you can read it first thing in the morning. Yesterday started with the 3 of us driving to Paso Robles to pick up Thom's wheel. We took the opportunity to drive the Day 1 route. That meant 110 miles of back roads mostly from Seaside to San Miguel. It was a good thing we did because Thom pick up a spot on the portion of the 101 that we were supposed to ride on that didn't have shoulder. It would have been real dangerous to ride that stretch so we selected an alternative for today. As with anything to do with the wheel it was a little more complicated than we thought but the people from Cambria Bicycle Outfitters in Paso Robles resolved the issue. Thank You. Then we drove to Rooster Wheels and Bikes to pick up my new Garmin 1030+ bike computer/GPS. Then we did the Prologue ride to the beach and back for the traditional dip of our tires in the Pacific Ocean/ Monterey Bay. Then we started to pack the car. That wasn't an easy task. Every article I have read about a cross country trip says you will take too much. I'm sure we did and the car is full with not only biking supplies but Claudia and my leaving California stuff. After dinner, I tried to learn my new Garmin which resulted in finding out that my harddrive is full on my computer. Yikes. Most people who know me will understand how frustrated I was and still am. I hoping someone in the blogospehere will help me on that problem. I did have success in loading all of the routes for the trip onto my new Garmin. Needless to say, I really didn't get a good night's sleep.

 

That was yesterday's ride on Strava.  

Here are Thom and I at Cambria Bicycle Outfitters and with William from Rooster Bicycle.

Today started out well. Thom and I had breakfast and did some last minute planning and then we got on our bikes. The first thing we found out was that in setting up my new Garmin I had added Thom's lights to my network. That meant when I started my Garmin, Thom's lights turned on. When Thom turned on his Garmin, his lights went out. Most of the day, Thom's rear light worked but neither of my lights performed well today. As soon as we started riding we could forget about whether we had packed everything and what else needed to be done and concentrate on riding. Meanwhile Claudia was left with the final steps on what we call the Leaving Seaside list. It was not an easy task.

Here we are leaving Seaside.

The day started out cloudy in the low 50's. It was great biking weather. After about 12 miles we started heading south. I couldn't believe how fast we were going. I'm sure it was our strong legs and had nothing to do with the 20 MPH tailwind. We had a great ride through the Santa Lucia Highlands and rode past some of Claudia and my favorite vineyards. At about mile 80 we turned onto to the 101. Yikes was it bumpy and the shoulder was not really designed for bikes even though it was legal to ride there. The only good thing about the poor condition of the shoulders was that we didn't even think about the trucks going past us at 70 MPH. Despite all of that and some rough roads in Bradley we hit San Miguel and 110 miles at an average speed of 15.8 MPH (Thom averaged 16.1 MPH).  It definitely was the legs and not the wind. We decided to push on to Paso Robles where Claudia was and not have her come and pick us up. That was only an extra 10 miles. 

The wind shifted and by the time we reached Claudia our average speed had dropped to 15.2 MPH. It definitely was the head wind and not our legs even though that is the furthest that Thom or I had ever ridden in a day.

Here is the ride on Strava.

Also here are some pictures from today. The picture of the 2 guys harvesting grapes is because someone said to take pictures of people not things.

Finally while I drinking my recovery drink in our hotel room I saw something shiny on my bike tire. 

It's a good thing I went with Gatorskin Hardshells.

Tomorrow we are off to the Bakersfield area. Let's hope our legs and the wind cooperate.