The Big Sur Ride

This past weekend I rode the new bike on the Big Sur Ride. It is a two day ride, leaving from Carmel Valley, traveling down past Big Sur on hwy 1 and over Nacimiento grade into King City. We camped at Fort Hunter Liggett then Sunday headed back to Carmel through the Salinas Valley and the Santa Lucia mountains.

Big Sur is gorgeous country, and it's the scenery that you think of whenever you think of the coast of California. I remember driving down here alot when I used to work for the Nature Company. They had a store in Carmel and I got to come and visit about once a month during the mid 90's. It hasn't changed much, which is a good thing because as you can see it is a spectacular place to visit.

And yes, I actually did ride on the roads you see in the top and middle pictures- the top picture is highway 1 and the second picture is the climb up Nacimiento road from Hwy 1 to Fort Hunter Liggett....

The Synapse

I did it finally! I bought a new bike. It is the Cannondale Synapse, an all carbon bike with a very sweet ride! I took it on its maiden voyage on Sunday- Tour de Tahoe, a 72 mile ride around the Lake. With the exception of my numb toes, which I attributed to the 25 degrees at ride out time, the ride was extremely comfortable! At some point I will take it to Curtis Cramblett for a professional bike fit, but in the meantime it feels really good. And it weighs a whole 17 3/4 lbs, compared to my 23 lb R600 its a whole lot like riding on a feather.

I think I'm over my cycling burnout now...

Solmar Resort, Cabo San Lucas

Mike and I spent a week doing absolutely nothing in Cabo San Lucas. We stayed at the Solmar resort at "Land's End" which is the southernmost tip of Baja. It was great. These pictures are two of the twelve pictures I took all week. It is basically the view from our balcony- the beach and the main building of the resort.

We usually take vacations that are very active- kayaking, hiking, tours, etc. Not this time. This was the first vacation we took where all we did was read books by the pool, and drink two for one happy hour drinks from 3 to 5pm every day, and slept an average of 10 hours a night!

Needless to say it was very relaxing.