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--------->
