Total Mileage: 3983.6 miles
This morning the six pack was going to head out together for our penultimate ride with Arden subbing in for Susan. We had a great ride riding two by two, chatting about random things and talking about plans post Bike and Build.
Unfortunately the cue sheet was a little off and instead of turning right, the sheet it told us to turn left. It Added about four extra miles to our ride, but we were able to stop at this BOMB bakery which helped to supplement our breakfast.
We had gotten a bit further down the road when Jay discovered he had a flat. What we did not realize was that the entire shoulder was covered with burs and as soon as we put our bikes down tires started blowing. I lost both my front and back tires in one foul swoop. After we changed them and got back on the road I lost another one. Half way through changing that one Nate lost a tire and then Arden lost one. I, however, cannot feel too badly about her losing her front wheel because it still had the original tube from Florida in it. I think that all in all the flats took us at least 90 minutes to fix and it all happened within 50 feet - a new record for sure.
The temperature was starting to pick up as we biked towards mile 80 where we would find second lunch. Not only were things warmer, but we were tackling some hills. They were definitely much smaller than things we had seen over the past few days, but because of overuse, the slight headwind and the bumps it was hard to get any real momentum going. When we pulled over for Marcus to change a flat, a local stopped by and mentioned that there was a bar at the end of the road where we would be able to get water and ice; this turned out to be the place where second lunch was set up.
The bar was an oasis in the middle of no where. Despite being SUPER behind at first lunch, we had caught up with a good number of people at the bar. How great is that picture.
Sandwiches and sodas were consumed by all before we headed back into a HUGE headwind to conquer the last 40 miles of the trip. The scenery was great and reminded us a lot of the ride out of Yosemite.
One of the last things on my bucket list was to climb a windmill. Sadly I do not have the picture from said windmill as it is on Marcus' camera, but you can see it in the background of our last major summit (not too bad, especially in comparison to Tioga).
The last part of the ride was pretty cool and off in the distance we could see a huge fog bank rolling in; just another sign that we were getting closer to the Pacific Ocean. Despite the extra miles and slow start we got because of all the flats, we arrived in the middle of the pack and not too far behind the first groups to arrive (apparently their headwind was much worst than ours was). It was pretty much the perfect Bike and Build Day: great scenery, wrong cue sheet, getting lost and then found again, two oasis pit stops and laughing to the point where you could pee your pants multiple times.
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