Summer 1997 - Yukon to California
Journals - 1 September 1997
Day 53
1 September 1997 (cloudy; mostly sunny; mileage = 31.5; Half Moon Bay SB)
-- A - We all managed to get up soon after the alarm went off at 7:00! I
had a really hard time sleeping, possibly because of the Pepsi or possibly
because of being rather annoyed by the person next to me. The lack of sleep
didn't seem to make it hard to get up this morning, though. I (and Chris)
was anxious to get moving. We had breakfast and chatted a while and finally
everyone was ready to go. We went through the park to the ocean and then
south. Somewhere around Pacifica, we had to change course because we
weren't allowed on Highway 1. The detour wasn't too horrible, although I
think we had to do an extra hill. There weren't any really bad hills today,
but they all seemed very long because we were going so slow. I was actually
impressed at how well Nancy rode, but I guess Chris was right about how
much I've improved, because she did seem incredibly slow on hills. It was
an enlightening experience. I realized what it's been like for Chris to go
slower than he needs to for me. I have to admit it was a great feeling to
wait at the top of a hill because someone was slower than me! I would very
much like to go back to the Swiss-style of riding where we just met at the
campground. We could have been here by noon and instead we got here at 4:00
AND Nancy wasn't too happy today. I think she's afraid of what she's gotten
herself into. We'll see. We had a yummy grilled cheese dinner and as the
sun set, the clouds were a surreal pink purple and looked like a Maxfield
Parrish painting. Very neat! Oh. We stopped at a beach overlook for lunch
and watched bad surfers and stupid swimmers. X - There were two climbs
today that, by our standards, were really light and should have gone fast
and smooth. But our L.C.D. was dragging it out for us, which is OK and
understandable, but we were getting antsy crawling up the major climbs,
since the traffic was REALLY heavy and there was zero shoulder. Quite
frightening really. I felt that our big peleton was making more trouble than it
was worth. When a guy on a racing bike flashed by, I jumped the pack and
gave chase. I didn't catch him, but it was fun and I waited a long time for
April and then we waited a long time. Tough call, but it was best to leave
them. Nancy's doing great, but we're just distractions, not facilitators.
We had "Dave Scott Syndrome" today -- "Gee, it must be tough to climb a
hill like that for so long."
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