Potato Chips, Oatmeal and Flat Tires, Continued

I would be remiss if for my Day Two post I did not mention the Ugly Mug in Soquel. Every year, they give free coffee and tea to the riders. Jerry and I had never stopped, but this year we were on the road early enough for there not to be a crowd. I had three cups of their wonderful French Roast, which is part of why the day, until the dreaded flat, was going so well. Thank you, Ugly Mug!!!

Day Three

Oh, the more time from the ride, the harder it is to remember. But what I do remember is, that Day 3 is relatively short. It is the day of Quadbuster, the infamous hill that in reality, is a chance to get your photo taken by Brian Hodes. Brian is a cyclist, but on this ride he uses his skills as a professional photographer. He shot God knows how many thousands of photos on the ride. He then sells them with the profits going to ALC. I worked with Brian on World AIDS Day, helping him with publicity, particularly for his 24-hour bike ride. Yup, that's the kind of guy he is.

For us, Quadbuster was long and tedious, but on the trike, immensely doable, just as all the hills are. We are heavy, slow and we work our quads to their limits, but we truly can do any hill. And we "did" Quadbuster. Robert-- anyone who does the ride knows Robert-- pushed us a little near the top, and it was fun to get above two miles an hour for a couple of seconds.

The other side of Quadbuster is not that steep, so we sailed down without braking much. Much of the day is not very difficult, so we were back to camp fairly early. A real treat in many ways, because this was the night on the ride we were staying in a hotel, otherwise known as princessing. We were staying at the Hotel Adelaide, which was walking distance from the ALC Camp. We grabbed what we needed for the next day so we didn't have to lug our suitcases and hoofed it over to the Adelaide.

The Adelaide was the sister hotel to the Best Western next door. It was small and very pleasant. Jerry and I brought swimwear and headed to the hot tub. The trike was really doing a number on our legs, and the swirling hot water felt wonderful. We relaxed a while, then headed back to the room, got naked and ordered in pizza.

Pizza never tasted so good. There was a small refrigerator in the room, so we stashed the leftovers for breakfast.

The best part of the hotel experience, beside not having to schlep our gear and set up a tent, was not having to use a headlamp to get to the bathroom. I think I got up three times that night. Peeing was never so luxurious.

We got up at our usual 5 am, threw on our bike clothes and headed out. There was a Starbucks next door to the hotel, and I joined the line with all the other princesses and got myself a giganto cappuccino. Or whatever Starbucks calls it. Why do they have those ridiculous names. Starbucks; get over yourself. Starbucks is never my favorite coffee, but it tasted great that morning.

Time for

Day Four