Day 22: Riding above the clouds
(Pfeiffer-Big Sur SP to San Simeon SP)
date: Monday August 26, 2002
daily miles: 83 miles (134 km)
total miles: 1,679 miles (2,702 km)
scenery like this all morning
Up and at 'em. That was my attitude this morning. Got rolling out of the campground feeling good and then spent the next forty minutes in my 24x32 (granny gear!) crawling up a hill. I was soaked with sweat by the top. Started descending and started shaking from the cold...
Many miles today of more climbing, climbing, and more climbing.... followed by descent, descent, and more high speed descent... but I rode everything without stopping. (OK -- breaks at stores for Gatorade or Coke doesn't really count does it??)
I'm curious as to who is doing all the writing along the road for the bicyclists?? Seeing a lot of "3 Amigos 2002" ride (as well as "3 Amigos 2001") over the past two days. Did see a "3 Amigos (-1) 2002" marking today before the "uno mas" writing just before the last big hill of the day. If anyone knows the story or the details, I'd be curious in hearing the story.
riding with the fog fluttering beside me
I was truly irked and disappointed by society for a while today. While riding along, I saw this “dropout" (someone looking for freebies) on the side of the road thumbing for a ride with his Samsonite suitcase and a backpack. Seemed weird to me but didn't want to ask or really know -- so I kept riding. Later when I was in Lucia on a Gatorade break, this same "dropout" gets dropped off by someone who heads into the store for food. It wasn’t a very long ride that this guy got.
I figure that's strange. Pickup a hitchhiker but drop him off at the first place that you can?? Mr. Dropout (what I'll call him) comes over to me and says "thanks". I'm like for what?? He says the American flag thing buddy! "I saw yours and it's flying proudly and can't be missed -- so I took a small one he had and started waving it to get a ride..."
I then gave Mr. Dropout a piece of my mind then. Yes, I'm flying the U.S. flag partly for visibility, but I'm also flying it because I'm proud to be an American and don't mind letting everyone know that. I told him I was embarrassed that he was using the U.S. flag just so it was easier for him to hitchhike and get down the road -- not exactly an honorable cause in my opinion to “use” the flag. But to be honest, I don't think he really got the point of my message. Hopefully nobody picks him up and he is still sitting on the side of the road in Lucia.
Only saw the Pacific Ocean at the end of the day. Fog at the water, fog in the hills, but at times I was above the fog layer itself and it sure felt like I was riding on a surreal cloud. You don't notice this in a car as much -- but you sure do on a bicycle as you have a lot of temperature changes occurring around you as you are under, in and then over the cloud layer every few minutes.
Mexican takeout for dinner tonight!! It was good but I'm still famished...
Tomorrow is hopefully a casual day. My legs are still full of lactic acid after the hills today, even though the last ten miles were just rollers with a strong tailwind (I love the tailwind part!).
Time to finish my book and get some sleep.
Mark
