ALC Recap- Day One.. a foggy start.

First of all I've got to say- thanks for reading the blog! I guess I didn't realize how many ALC'ers read what I have to write (ooh I'd better start paying more attention to how I express my opinion, huh?). I met so many people on the Ride this year who told me that they read my blog all season. Way cool, so thanks!

Here's a recap of my AIDS Lifecycle week:

Day One- Chris, Daniel, Michael and I were privledged to be invited to ride out on Day 1 with the Positive Pedalers. This is quite an honor, as we got to be one of the first 100 or so riders that rode out that day.

Chris and I up front with the Pos Peds

This was nice because we were then "ahead of the pack" for most of the day. The day was much like my first ALC ride (2) because we rode up Hwy 92 then over Skyline and then down Old La Honda to the coast. My sister Cyndy met me and my "homolicious posse" at San Gregorio beach. From highway 1 down to Santa Cruz it was a helaciously lovely tailwind blowing us all the way to camp!

Somewhere along the way on Day One.... my cycle computer rolled over 21,000 miles! So that means that I have ridden 21,000 miles since I first started riding my bike in prep for my first AIDS Ride ( ALC 2) in 2003. I forgot to keep track that day so I could take a picture and by the time I remember to look, we were already almost to camp in Santa Cruz!

Me & Cyn in our U-2 pose...

We stopped in Davenport to have coffee (and a little caffeine spike) for the ride to camp. I spent the week with a cowbell in my back pocket just in case I came upon certain occasions (like this one) to make a little noise!

I gotta tell ya, I've seen lots of pictures of myself on the ride this year--- I hate spandex. Talk about showing every single bulge that you try to hide all the other weeks of the year!! Ack!!

Michael and I were part of "Kozy Korner" with a total of 27 tents! Marybeth made sure everyone had their own sign- to make sure we got back to the correct tent at night...


Between that sign and Rowdy & Bob's magic butterfly, we never got lost when returning back to the tent after a porta-pottie trip!

Rowdy & Bob's solar powered butterfly light.

This trip I vowed to Princess every other night... and it was perfect! On nights 2, 4, and 6 I stayed a local hotel. I made sure it was walking distance so that I didn't have to worry about hitching a ride to and from the hotel... it worked out great and I still felt a part of camp on the other 3 nights so I wasn't missing out on all the fun entirely!