19,000 miles and counting...

Ride Leaders Julie Brown & Valdez Hill
(you need to worry when a ride leaders last name is "Hill")

People think its funny that I make such a big deal everytime I roll over another 1,000 miles. Yes I know plenty of people who have ridden waaay more miles than I have, I am just one of the few who actually celebrate it!

When I started riding in February of 2003, I was about 30 lbs overweight and had not been on a bicycle since I was 16. I was 40 when I started riding again, so to come all these miles and still be riding is a darn big deal to me considering I never thought I'd actually continue to ride after AIDS Lifecycle 2.


So today was the day I rolled over 19,000 miles on my bike odometer. That means I have ridden 19,000 miles with these two skinny legs (and believe me they weren't skinny when I started out!) It has taken almost 4 years to do it, but here I am still riding.

The fun thing about today's ride was not only that it was a 50 mile flat ride, but that I rolled over 19,000 miles on a ride with Bill Henry, who was with me when I rode my first 20 miles back in 2003. In fact on that ride, I fell on him twice (getting used to my new clips!).

But that's a story for another day...

Me and Bill.... I don't fall on him anymore.

Fifty Miles in December?!

Only Valdez Hill could talk me into riding a 50 mile ride the day before Christmas Eve. He has the way of innocently asking if you'll co-lead... knowing full well I don't pay attention to details, I just say "ok!".

25 or so of us rode out from Orinda BART out into the Danville/San Ramon direction. It was quite pleasant actually- relatively flat and alot of it on bike paths. We stopped at the Rising Loafer for lunch and took this group photo:


Afterwards we took the same path back to BART, my legs tired from the long ride but feeling pretty good about 50 miles in December.

I have 62 miles to go to roll over 19,000 miles on my bike! Weather permitting, I should be hitting it before the new year, probably sometime Saturday the 30th when I will be doing ANOTHER 50 mile ride with Valdez.... come out and join us!

Julie Filarca-Hoag-Brown

I ran into an old friend the other day and she told me she once tried to find me by googling my name.... Julie Filarca. Figuring I didn't have that name anymore, she gave up and instead found me through another friend... so I figured heck- I'll put my name(s) out there just in case my old friends from kindergarten really are trying to find me! :-) Oh and yes, I attended Miller Elementary School in East San Jose... right near the notorious intersection of Story and King Roads... yep, my old 'hood in El Barrio Tropicana! Ora le'

And "Hoag"? Well, that's a story for another time...

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures...

I try to post photos here as often as possible, but just in case you want to see them all (rides/friends/etc) they're HERE

There are various pages and the titles are at the top of the page, all you have to do is click on 'em.

I don't always get the chance to update this blog after a ride, but if I take pictures on a ride I'll usually have them on the webpage.... can you tell I'm gearing up for ALC training season???

"Fifth Time's A Charm"

I did it. I registered for my 5th AIDS Lifecyle ride. Glenn and Dave guilted me into it, so now I have to talk Michael in to riding one more time AND still saving vacation time up for a trip to Italy in October..... guess there are worse things I could be complaining about!

Thanksgiving at Pajaro

We spent Thanksgiving out at Pajaro Dunes in a vacation home for 4 days. The weather was beautiful! Clear blue skies all week and it didn't rain once! My family came out with a turkey and fixin's and we had a potluck at the beach (in the house). On Saturday a few friends (15 or so) came out to spent the day at the beach with us and have dinner. Donald, Matt, Daniel and Michael spent the night and we hung out by the fire in the evening. Hannah had a blast, learing to ride her new skim board and playing games with all of our friends.

Hannah and her dad, with a little help from Kevin- built an awesome sand castle. Dad- ever the contractor- had brought a shovel, and many cement trowels to make the castle a little more than kids play... All in all it was a fantastic Thanksgiving.

Friday Tib Loop Rides...

These days I spend my Friday mornings riding with ALC folks training to do the Ride. We usually do some variation of the Tiburon/ Paradise Loop. This is what a typical group of riders looks like- we took this picture on Nov 10... thanks to Bob Katz for the copy (and for taking the picture).

Robb's Birthday

I love being a trendsetter! 4 years ago when I started riding, I started my "Birthday Ride for Cake". People love the idea (hey, it means you can eat all the cake you want, as long as you ride), and four years later I rode with my friend Robb and his 20 closest friends to celebrate his thirtysomething birthday! We rode from Orinda Bart to the French Cafe in Danville and back, about 40 or so miles.... I love celebrating this way! (And so did Robb, he rode faster than I've ever seen!) Happy Birthday Robbie!

2 Day Training Ride Leader Certification

I had someone ask me my opinion about the new 2 Day TRL certification program. Here was my response:

"So I had a few thoughts- the same as yours, but probably more colorful- when I first heard about the 2 day training. I gave myself a few days to digest it before commenting on it too. Then I realized that the perspective I was taking was sort of a selfish "me, me, me", " how can they make ME give up MY weekend, etc... what more can they teach ME? I'M not a newbie." (of course it was really MY choice to give up my weekend) but then I thought:

Are there new things I might learn? probably, cuz I really don't know it all- I just know I like to ride my bike with others.

If I was the parent or partner of a new rider, would I want the TRL's to be trained for 12 hours or 3? um, as many as possible.

Do I remember from year to year, what we should be doing--- have ALL of the rules ever been stated to everybody at the same time, veterans & newbie TRL's alike? um.... I don't remember, but I think so but I'm not really sure.... but I would like them to be.

Have I ever been frustrated because there were all of these TRL's who were certified (for the 3 or 4 hours), and THE SAME PEOPLE KEEP LEADING RIDES? hell yes! .... if I remember correctly there were 80 TRL's on the list last year, and the same 30 kept volunteering to lead/co-lead!!

Have other TRL's ever called me because they were in a situation where they didn't know what to do, and wanted to know what they should have done? yes... and I could only answer them based on experience, not on what ALC wanted because I was never told their perspective in training...

.... and other thoughts like that.

For me, a 2 day commitment from a TRL to be trained hopefully means more of a commitment to lead more rides, bottom line.

We have gone through the same training for the past 3 years and have never given the newbies (us included when we started) the skills to train others, ie: riding behind someone to teach them how to shift (have you ever had to do that?) , talking someone OUT of riding the training ride that day because they are obviously not ready- but they have emotional reasons for doing it, making someone turn around on a ride... etc. Even if you are experienced, I think there is always something new you can learn (as happens in life!) and can also share with others.

I've learned how to do that stuff during "forced on the job training"-- which I've been lucky at, but would have liked to have known how ALC wanted us to do it. There are others who have never had to do it, or have muddled their way through it. And when that all relates back to the safety of others, I want to know that I'm making a decision based on experience I got in training (especially important for newbie TRL's), as well as the fact that I am representing how ALC wants be to deal with it. Does that make sense?

Now with all that said, I will tell you honestly that in my opinion not everyone who has been a TRL should've been a TRL. I have co-lead rides with lots of leaders and some of them are just there to ride, not to help. I would presume that anyone going through this training will understand that THAT is not acceptable to other leaders anymore, period.

We are there to help others in their training, and that training strongly involves training people to automatically follow the basic ALC ride rules so that they are instinctual during the week of the actual Ride, ie; Single File riding only, following ALL traffic laws (especially stopping), calling out, signaling, etc. You know as well as I do, this is a HUGE problem during the actual week of the ride.

Ok, I will get off my soapbox now."

On Top of the Golden Gate

Last Sunday Mike and I met our friend Daniel who took us on a tour of the top of the South Tower of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Yes THE Golden Gate Bridge. The one you see in all the movies, that gets blown up, that people fall in love on, that people jump off of. Probably the most famous and most photographed bridge in the world. WE got to go up to the top of it! My friend Daniel, whom I met when he was training for his first AIDS Lifecycle ride, is a Sargeant on the the Golden Gate Bridge. One day he emailed me and invited me and a friend to tour the top of the bridge. Talk about a once in a lifetime trip. "Of course!" I emailed back. And with that we set the date for October 1st. The south tower is 760 feet tall, and you have to ride a very small elevator to the top, climb a ladder that is about 20 feet, flip open a hatch and climb out. The view, as you can imagine is spectacular!


We spent almost an hour at the top, taking over a hundred photos from different vantage points on the tower. It was a pretty clear day, with only high clouds to worry about and very little wind.
How many times to you get a photo like this in your life?

The Big Sur Ride

About three months ago Mike decided that he wanted to ride the Big Sur Ride in September. Last year I did the ride with a handful of friends, and Mike drove and met us at Ft. Hunter Liggett and then at the end of the ride. Big Sur is a two day ride, with overnight camping at the Fort. Day one is about 92 miles starting in Carmel Valley, will a hellacious 7 mile climb up Nacimiento Road at mile 60. Day two is about 76 miles back through King City (over Quadbuster in the opposite direction), up to Cahoon Summit and back up Carmel Valley Road. This year there were nine of us: Mike & I, David, Jeremy, Charlie, Kelsey, Michael, Chris and MaryBeth. We left Carmel Valley at 7:30am on Saturday morning, and had a gorgeous ride down Highway One all the way past Big Sur, almost (about 45 miles short) to Hearst Castle! Charlie, Kelsey and I rode most of the first 2/3 of Day One behind MaryBeth. She is a little slower than us, and we were all wanting to take it easy so by riding with MB, it insured that we would not go to fast, nor drop her and never see her until camp.
If you've ever driven down Hwy 1 south towards Hearst Castle, you will recognize the pictures. Let me tell you, riding it on a bike is so much different because you get the sounds and smells of the sea and as Charlie says, you also don't have to worry about getting car sick because of the winding roads. In fact, the rolling winding roads on a bike are simply awesome!

At mile 60 or so, you make a left turn off of Hwy 1 onto Nacimiento Road which is a 7 mile, winding, two lane road with a climb up to about 2500 feet. At the top, there is a rest stop and lots of folks applauding the completion of your ascent. I road up the road at a snails pace, but was happy to meet up with David on the way who had stopped to catch his breath and take some pictures.
This is what Nacimiento looks like after you've climbed a couple of miles...
After the climb there is a great, winding, fast downhill a few miles until you get to the gate of Ft. Hunter Liggett, where we camp overnight. Once you are through the gate, it is another 10 miles of rollers, if you're lucky you miss the afternoon headwinds. We were lucky.
Without going into too much detail, I will tell you that Mike and I have decided to make this an annual ride, something like our annual rafting trip, where we invite everyone we know (who bikes) to come out and join us. It is a great ride, well supported and when you ride it with good friends, it really is an event!

Eighteen Thousand Miles and counting...

Hmmm. This past Sunday a group of us went out for a leisurely 82 mile ride out to Petaluma, then Tomales and finally down to Point Reyes station then home. While riding to Tomales Bay from Petaluma, I realized my odometer would be rolling over to 18,000 miles. I was basically almost in the middle of nowhere when the magic numbers appeared. Wow. I suddenly felt tired.

I tried to figure out in my head how many miles a month that was, since the time I started riding and it averages out to be about 430 miles a month! No wonder my family feels like they never see me.... :-)
We continued out on Tomales/Petaluma Road out toward the Tomales bakery and about halfway there, Michael hit 9,000 miles on his odometer.
He's afraid though, that his computer will only read out 4 whole number digits, which means when it rolls to 10,000 miles the computer will say 0000.00 I guess we'll have to wait and see. So we finally hit the Tomales bakery but got there a little too late for pastries. The bakery basically opens at 7:30 and stays open until they sell out. Well they sold out, so we had to go next door to the deli (which is also very good) and had sandwiches and snacks. That was ok because we knew we would hit the Bovine Bakery in Pt. Reyes in plenty of time and they rarely run out of goodies!
The 17 mile ride from Tomales to Pt. Reyes was great because we had a tailwind the whole way! It is a great rolling route that can really suck if that tailwind turns into a headwind. We made it to Bovine Bakery with no problem, fueled up on coffee and sweets for the ride home, er well to our one last planned stop, SCOOP ice cream shop in Fairfax.




Of course, after that it was two miles home to end a fabulous day of riding!

August in a Nutshell...

The months keeping moving, flying by and every once in a while I stop to try and figure out what the heck I did with my time. This month: (ok this is pathetic, I had to go back to my ical to see what I did last month!) The Marin Century was Mike's first 100 mile ride. He did very well, finished in a little under 8 hours. I chose to do the metic century, however because heck- I've done 100 milers enough times to cover me through the end of 2007.
Yoichi and I decided at the first rest stop that we only wanted to ride the metric century.
We had started out at 7 am, so this meant we were done with the metric right around noon. It was a nice relaxing and enjoyable ride. We realized as we rode up Red Hill back toward the Cheese Factory, that the ride was going to be a whole lot windier for those coming back from the hundred. We came up Red Hill around 10:30am and the wind was already picking up!

The rest stop in Petaluma was sponsored by AIDS Lifecycle so it was fun to hang out there awhile with people we knew before heading back to the start

August 13th was Mike's 42nd birthday, which he celebrated in true Brown style, but what else but a Birthday Ride.
We met up at Nicasio with our friends Dave, Chris D, Chris Z & Michael, and did a 55 mile ride out to Marshall, then up to Tomales Bakery- down through Chileno Valley and up and over the back side of Wilson Hill on to Hicks Road and on to the Cheese Factory for salami and cheese.
Wouldn't you know it, we ran into Kelsey at the Cheese Factory and she rode back with us Nicasio, then onward back to San Francisco.
I guess I should mention that Mike is planning to do the two day "Big Sur Ride" that takes place at the end of September. The first day is 90 miles with a hellacious climb at mile 70, and the second day is about 72 miles with another good climb about mid way. This is why he has been getting out on his road bike a whole lot in the past month.For details on the Big Sur Ride, Sept 23,24 see http://www.cypressgroup.org/bigsur.htm
In the meantime, we've been riding A LOT! August 20th was the Tour d'Organics- an organized ride put on by Organic Athlete. It was basically a ride from Organic Farm to Organic Farm, with each farmer offering up fresh, organic fruits and vegetables at each rest stop. It was awesome! We are always so filled up with bad, well preserved "ride food" that this was a refreshing change. Michael, Chris Z, Mike, Sandy and I rode through most of the Sonoma Wine Country, an area we have ridden through many times before. But where we usually stop at schools, wineries, community centers, etc; this time we got to see the really rural areas and the farms that produce most of the Organic foods in the area.

Tour de Julie Brown's Birthday- The Ride for Cake

Ever since I was a kid I've celebrated by birthday with a party of some sort. In the last 4 years that I have been cycling I've been making my friends ride with me before we partake in some sort of eating. This year was no different. With Michael's help, we designed rider bibs for each birthday ride participant.
Each Rider wore the number 044. I wore the number 029. You figure it out.
About 40 of us rode out from San Anselmo to the Cheese Factory, about 64 kilometers with a brief stop at Nicasio where Yoichi pulled in to offer us snacks of cookies and fresh fruit. Michael called it the "Execu-SAG". It was a nice touch.
We rode on to the Cheese Factory where we snacked on salami, cheese, chips and drinks while fighting the yellow-jackets for food. Afterwards we headed back to the house for some well deserved cake.

Since no one can ever decide on whether it should be a chocolate cake or a white cake, and since I have to order my own I decided I'd get both. That way I cover everybody. Heck I even had soy yogurt/ice cream!

The best part of the day was when Daniel gave me a very special birthday gift which he insisted I open before I cut the cake. It was the most awesome hat (I love hats, by the way) you could ever get for your birthday...

In case you can't see it, it is a birthday cake hat with candles on top. It is really really cool and I will wear it every birthday from here on out.
I figure we rode about 38 miles, times the average of about 30 calories per mile, that's about 1,140 calories burned. A slice of each cake was probably about 500 calories so with ice cream we pretty much canceled out the cakes by riding to the Cheese Factory. See? I ride to eat!
You can view more pictures of the "Tour de Julie Brown's Birthday" on my homepage:

Michael's ALC blog/photos

So I was going to finish off my ALC blog (better late than never), but then decided I'd just give you the link to Michael's since his is so much more thorough and entertaining.... a view from the injured cyclist side. Now I can continue on to tell you about other stuff happening...

Here's his blog/webpage: Michael's Blog

AIDS Lifecycle 5- Day 6

Lompoc to Ventura...

Michael decided he was feeling better and decided to try riding today. His leg was INCREDIBLY PURPLE.... I mean INCREDIBLY! (you'll see the photo below) So we left Lompoc and decided that we would ride easily and as long as he could, and then I'd SAG with him! WOOHOO! I'd get to finally SAG for the first time in 4 years. I was sooo looking forward to it. Well, of course we rode along at a good clip with Michael pretty much dropping me for the first 10 miles or so, and every time we'd get to a rest stop, I'd ask him how he was feeling and he'd say "Fine!". We climbed out of the Santa Ynez Valley and onto hwy 1, which to me-although its beautiful because it's along the coast, it's a pretty boring ride. No major climbs, sort of rolling hills and lots of ocean along the right side. We rode and rode and pretty soon we were coming up on Santa Barbara. Michael, Chris and I stopped to take photos.

We eventually made our way to Paradise Pit for real ice cream and it was then I realized that there was to be no sagging, as Michael was feeling too good and was gonna ride all the way in to camp.
Oh well, I set my sights on Rest Stop 4 and couldn't wait to see what Rowdy, Cami and the gang had in store.

Turns out they had re-done the Playboy Mansion, right there on the beach, with Hef and everyone!

The Boys had fun hanging out with all the Playboy bunnies, and we watched as everyone rode in and posed for pictures.

Soon we were off again, riding into camp to get ready for the Candlelight Vigil after dinner.




In the meantime, Michael's bruise had become somewhat of a spectacle. It was soo purple and so big- pretty much covered this thigh, that people came from all around camp to look at it!

Below you'll see their reactions
Yes, that purple is the bruise on Michael leg.
But here's an even better one.

Ok enough of the gory stuff.

That evening is the annual Candlelight Vigil we do on the beach at Ventura. All participants (that would be about 2300 people) are given a candle to light and we take them out on the beach. It is just our way of remembering those who we've lost to AIDS, and our silent statement of sadness. There is no "agenda", we just walk out on the beach holding our candles.

It's a pretty emotional time, and a good way to bring us back to remembering why we've spent the last 6 days riding, a good way to spend our last night of the ride.

DAY 5- Red Dress Day

We all love Red Dress Day- its the shortest day mileage wise (although there are lots of hills) and we get to dress up all silly and take pictures of ourselves!

Michael and I spent the night princessing at a local hotel in Santa Maria, but got back to camp early enough to eat a hearty breakfast. We took lots of pictures while waiting in line to get food...

Here's a group shot of all of us before we rode out for the day.


I rode out under overcast skies, and stopped at a local coffee shop for a mocha. While I was there, hundreds of cyclists on bikes also stopped. There I ran into Donald, looking much like Barbara Bush- with his red dress, proper hat and of course white fishnet stockings on.

Also present were Irish Greg and Chris, in their proper attire:
the day was loads of fun, and full of laughter. We stopped (ok a few of us stopped) at an ice cream truck along the way, to fill up on sugar before we climbed one mega hill into rest stop two in Casmalia...
(me, in front of the ice cream truck in my red dress...) I kept trying to talk people into stopping to eat ice cream, but they didn't believe me when I told them there was a hill ahead. They wanted to rush on. Imagine the curses they said under their breath when we hit the hill- the sugar kicked into my system and I passed them while saying... "I TOLD you, you'd need the sugar for a hill!! next time you'll listen to me...." Yah I can be a nagging bitch. :-)

Anyhow, I stopped in Casmalia to dance in the street with a hundred others. One of the local shop owners plays DJ to our group and blasts music on to the main street. We all stop, eat some barbecue and dance for a few before getting back on our bikes to climb the next hill, and the next and the next.

The route takes us past the entrance to Vandenburg Air Force Base. Normally we stop and take pictures in front of the sign. This year they got tired of us and had some guard come and tell us to leave.... no sense of humor, those military guys.

Anyhow, I eventually rode to the lunch stop feeling a nasty 'bout of acid reflux coming on... at that point Chris, Greg, Shance, Donald and Wayne said they were going to go into town for some mexican food before heading back to camp. At that point all I really wanted was a glass of milk and the thought of spicy food with my acid reflux made me shudder.

At lunch I sat with Charlie, Steveo, and their friend (who's name i cannot remember!), Doreen and her brother, and Tony- one of my newbie riders on the Tib Loop... it was a really nice day and I tried to take a nap but the acidy reflux stuff was just too much. So I hopped on my bike for the last 8 or so miles back to camp. I met Michael there (Yay! with the tent already set up!) and we hung out for the rest of the evening.
Me, hanging out--------->

ALC Day 3 and 4.... specifics

Ok.... um lets see what I can remember. Day 3 was Quadbuster Day! I met 3 other Velo Girls (see photo) at 7am for a Velo Girls photo shoot.... there were four of us all together: Michelle, Tati, Me and Winnie. Michael waited while we took photos, then together we rode out toward the rolling warm up hills of Quadbuster- he of course dropped me so I hooked up with Makoto and rode the warm up hills with he and Doreen. Soon I was rolling into rest stop one, which is just before the actual climb to the 'buster, directing people to the shorter porta pottie lines and soothing over peoples nerves.... I remember my first time on Quadbuster- I burst into tears at the top of the hill, so relieved that it was over. I think a few people did that this time around as well.
After climbing to the top, I put my bike down and cheered others on and took pictures of riders expressions as they reached the top. (you can see them here )

Donald and Chris decided this was the year they would do Quadbuster twice- and they did- and said that "no it is not any easier than the first time..."LOL!

The hill after Quadbuster is a nice descent, so the three of us road for awhile toward rest stop 2 where we had ice cream (popsicles) then continued on in the heat of the day toward the next rest stop and eventually lunch in Bradley. Before Rest stop 3 we found a post office/ market in a 2 building town (I can't even remember the name of it!) where we ate hawaiian potato chips, sunflower seeds and diet coke! After a brief stop there, it was on to rest stop 3 and more ice cream.... it was the hottest day yet.

In Bradley, we were late enough that they had already run out of burgers, but also late enough that they had already made the next run for food and were re-stocked by the time we arrived.

After stuffing ourselves, we rode on in the heat onto highway 101 (yes, it freaks me out every year!) and to the last rest stop at the Mission whatchamacallit. Sorry, but my now I was so hot and tired that I can't even remember the name of the place, except that RS 4 was the "After prom party" with pregnant homecoming queen and all. :-)

On to Paso Robles... the last stretch is a short climb then on to rolling hills toward the fairgrounds. At one point in the road, there was orange spray paint, pointing out a gnarly pothole that was like a moon crater and we needed to avoid. I found out later that day the pothole was not marked, until after Michael crashed into it.... OW OW OW.

I rolled into bike parking, parked and headed toward the tent where I was so happy that Michael had made it in before me and had set up the tent. That was when he walked up (limped up) and told me that he had crashed.

His right arm was bandaged after getting 2 stitches, and his right hip was swelled up so badly, I thought that it had been bandaged too because it was soooo huge compared to the other side.

I had decided that I would not Princess in Paso Robles, but it turned out that Yoichi was princessing and invited Michael to stay in the hotel room to be a bit more comfortable. Michael took him up on the offer, and I called trusty Ken Gaskins (SAG driver extraordinaire) to please give him a lift.

It's no fun staying in a tent by yourself overnight. Even though I had Charlie and Mark to keep me company next door- it took awhile to fall asleep...

On day 3 I actually was on the road for 10 hours! However only 5 hours and 20 minutes of that was actually cycling! The rest of the time it was socializing and eating!

Day 4: Paso Robles to Santa Maria. Evil Twins Day. Cartman Jersey Day.

I awoke early to get coffee, breakfast and take down the tent. Michael came back from his hotel stay and I helped him pack up his bag and dragged it to the gear trucks for him. He was obviously going to SAG today, as he was put on medical hold by the Medical Team because of his injuries.

About 2 months ago, I sent out an email and posted a message on the forum to invite people to wear the Cartman jersey. The back of the jersey says "Man, You Guys Suck!" which is about what you're thinking as you climb the Evil Twins on this day. I think about 40 people wore the jersey that day, and I got pictures of a few of them here

The road over the Evil Twins also takes you to the Halfway to LA point. Here, 7 of us got together to pose in our evil twin Cartman Jerseys:







<------Charlie, John, Lorenzo, Julie, Carl, Bill and Wayne looking evil.




It-was soo much fun- people kept asking us where we got the jerseys, and all I could say was "didn't you get the memo?"

So onward down toward Hwy 1 we rolled, and on to Rest Stop 2 which is right along the ocean. After a short break there, we continued on to Cayucos where we stopped for coffee and a danish... then of course lunch and RS 3. Afterwards it was a nice ride to Pismo Beach where we stopped for our traditional coffee and fresh baked cinnamon rolls with icing. yum!

That was just enough sugar and caffeine to get us over the last big hill and through the cross winds as we made our way toward RS 4. As we approached RS 4, Chris and I decided to skip it and ride on, since it seemed as if the winds were getting stronger. One quick turn and the wind was at our backs, blowing us along toward camp. WOO HOO! Day 4 was a Princess Night, Michael and I stayed at the Holiday Inn Santa Maria. SAG driver Ken was rewarded with a stay on the roll out sofa and a bathroom of porcelain for helping us out the night before.

The next day was Red Dress Day. You can imagine what that was like!