I had to assemble my bicycle on Friday morning. Terry and Robin’s bicycle we already assembled (of course) and Dave drove his two bikes out from Colorado. No surprises – yeah! But, of course, I did see a nice greeting card from the TSA. What else…We still hadn’t seen Terry….
We assembled the bike rack. This rack has seen more miles than most vehicles in the world. But it is weathering the various trips with gusto…
After the rack was assembled and attached to the roof, Dick and I took a trip down to the bike shop; we really didn’t need anything, it just seemed appropriate and part of our ritual. I purchased some CO2 cartridges for filling tires.
Finally, about 1 pm Terry shows up and he, Dick, Dave, and I saddle up for our ritual prologue. Just returned from Japan? Terry seems his ol’ nonchalant self. The route takes us up (er, northwest) Foothill Expressway, through Arastradero Preserve, around Portola Rd and up into the hills via La Honda Rd. We ride the top of the ridge on Skyline Rd, then return to civilization via a wonderful descent on Page Mill and Moody Roads.
It happens every time the group of us get together for a bicycle trip. I completely forget how much fun descending a nice loooong mountain road can be. We flew down the 6 miles back to Foothill Expressway.
When we returned from the prologue, we decided to pack up and leave that evening vs leaving the next day. Since the first day was a long day in the saddle and it was through wine country, we decided we didn’t want to be riding through the back roads of Sonoma Cty late in the afternoon after all of the tourists had drank their fill of wine.
We mounted the bikes on the rack, took showers, drank some beer and ate a wonderful meal prepared by Terry’s wife Donna and Dave’s wife Pattie. We finally got on the road about 8:30. We also had to pick up Robin from his work as he had worked all day. The drive up to Santa Rosa through San Francisco was fast and uneventful and we arrive about 10:30. No sitting up and drinking for us – off to bed.
Day details:
Start: Terry’s house
End: Terry’s house
Distance: 39 miles
Climbs: La Honda Rd
Total gain: 2890 ft