WHAT A LOOONG DAY!
106 miles, Santa Cruz to King City via the scenic route. (and that's NOT highway 101)
Michael, Chris, Charlie, Mark and I.... (MICHAEL picking up typing here, as Julie is falling asleep) headed out of camp at 7:20, only to be stopped five miles down the road when Michael got a flat. Course it had to be one of those "difficult flats and took about 30 minutes to fix, thus killing our good lead time. So back on the road and two miles later stopped for coffee, heck we're already behind might as well fuel up! Charged with caffeine and sugar we took off towards the artichoke stop skipping rest stop one. As we rolled over the rolling hills the aroma of strawberries wofted in the air, the roads were bustling with traffic, trucks carrying the freshly picked crops to market.
Upon arriving at the artichoke stop we met up with Matt, Rob, Wayne Donald and Dave. The line for the fried artichokes stretched through the parking lot, however, there was no line for the streamed ones inside, so we bolted inside. We devoured our treats and socialized with friends (what we do best of course!) Onwards it was a brief stop at RS2, and Ruben was dressed as Robin, Batman was nearby. Surprised by how late it was getting , 11:45am, we bolted to lunch and had a nice tailwind most of the way. Afterwards we began our way to the second half of the day, knowing what was ahead, wind, wind, and more wind! Luckily the wind gods were on our side and gave us some awsome tailwinds! We flew down the road for about 20 miles will little effort. At rest top 3, Mark O'Brian, Charlie's tentmate, stopped to chat with Lori Jean about his Day 1 dilemma, (will tell you about that later- long story).
Off we went,more wind, arrived at the mission in Soledad to the fill our water bottles and snack on Otter Pops. A few more miles down the road we crossed the skinny dipping bridge and stopped (well some of us) to admire the views. Then it was up big hill into a headwind.. fun! But we were rewarded by Cookie Lady on the downhill ..and YUM her cookies were good! Oh and Julie got a spanking! We got pictures.
With a brief stop at Camp Sorebumm ... we were off to the favorite part of the route- the roller coaster hills and a sprint to the finish! OK goodnite, I'm exhausted.
Michael & Sleeping Julie (go Here for Day 1 & 2 pics!)
