The road out of King City is especially bumpy, but to tell you the truth it was much better than last year. I don't think the rough roads lasted as long as before, and the city had actually paved some of them. I'm sure last years rains made the roads horrible, and since the weather was entirely different this spring- the roads were easier to maintain. Every year newbies freak out about how bad they are, and I still say "WHAT?-- they have been far far worse in previous years!"
Daniel and I made our way out of town (after a nice stay at the local King City Inn), over the bumpy roads and on to rest stop one where I ran into many a nervous newbie. Here are a few of them (they all kicked my butt on Quadbuster, so I don't know what they were nervous about!)
miguel & mike
Brian
AntonioEventually we all made our way up to the top of Quadbuster with no problems... and I proceeded to cheer as many people up to the top with my very loud cowbell. As you can see I had a lot of fun!
Kimball and Daniel thought I was crazy...Everytime I saw someone I knew making their way slowly to the top, I'd ring the bell extra hard to let them know I was egging them on to the top.... good ol' John Hershey caught a photo of me in action: (okay, not really my best side...)
That's me egging newbie Geoff Gillette up to the top of Quadbuster. Geoff, by the way wrote a great article for the Danville weekly and it made the cover story!! You can read it HERE.
I pretty much stayed at the top of Quadbuster until my friend Ken Gaskins got to the top on his recumbent tricycle... then waited to see if anyone else I knew was on their way up. Eventually I rode on to rest stop 2 and met up with Ken. I decided I'd ride with him for the rest of the day, on to Paso Robles. You probably saw Ken on his recumbent... sitting low to the ground with a cool pinkish/purpley flag sticking up from it.
Ken on a ride New Year's Day 07...
It was great riding with Ken. Although the recumbent is a heavy trike, he kicks along on it at a pretty good pace and since I really didn't need to be screwing with my knee the pace was good enough for me! We rode from RS2 down that long boring road on the way to RS3. You know, the one that has a single little post office and store where we all stopped for ice cream and stood outside tempting you to stop too? Yeah, that one.
And yes I rode with Ken on Highway 101... you think that's a freaky ride for you on your road bike?? Imagine riding it on a recumbent!! I think mostly I rode behind Ken to make sure he got to Bradley and then on to RS 4 safely. Unlike most of us, Ken was not able to "ride the white line" on the freeway because of the width of this trike. SO... we rode every single one of those bumps, and I think it was right about then that Ken decided that next year he would go back to being a Roadie on the Sweep Team! (I don't blame him!)
After RS4, the Dreamgirls rest stop- we headed on to camp. On the way we stopped a couple of times to rest. Although the rolling road was great for both of us, being so low to the ground I think Ken has to work a little bit harder than I do. It was a fun ride, I started singing songs from the Sound of Music (that comes from riding with Gay men so much). At one point, Ken and I had stopped to rest and a group of 4 guys came riding past. All I had to do was sing out to them".... doe a dear a female dear...." and they all chimed in and sang that song all the way back to camp! Ken was so amazed, I think he also vowed to learn the song so that he could sing along next year.... ah, but I digress.
The day was fun, pretty effortless because I chose to ride and be social instead of racing back to camp to sit and eat pizza... oh yea that's what else we did that night, we ordered pizza and had it delivered to the fairgrounds in Paso Robles- which was where we camped night three.
That's me egging newbie Geoff Gillette up to the top of Quadbuster. Geoff, by the way wrote a great article for the Danville weekly and it made the cover story!! You can read it HERE.I pretty much stayed at the top of Quadbuster until my friend Ken Gaskins got to the top on his recumbent tricycle... then waited to see if anyone else I knew was on their way up. Eventually I rode on to rest stop 2 and met up with Ken. I decided I'd ride with him for the rest of the day, on to Paso Robles. You probably saw Ken on his recumbent... sitting low to the ground with a cool pinkish/purpley flag sticking up from it.
Ken on a ride New Year's Day 07...It was great riding with Ken. Although the recumbent is a heavy trike, he kicks along on it at a pretty good pace and since I really didn't need to be screwing with my knee the pace was good enough for me! We rode from RS2 down that long boring road on the way to RS3. You know, the one that has a single little post office and store where we all stopped for ice cream and stood outside tempting you to stop too? Yeah, that one.
And yes I rode with Ken on Highway 101... you think that's a freaky ride for you on your road bike?? Imagine riding it on a recumbent!! I think mostly I rode behind Ken to make sure he got to Bradley and then on to RS 4 safely. Unlike most of us, Ken was not able to "ride the white line" on the freeway because of the width of this trike. SO... we rode every single one of those bumps, and I think it was right about then that Ken decided that next year he would go back to being a Roadie on the Sweep Team! (I don't blame him!)
After RS4, the Dreamgirls rest stop- we headed on to camp. On the way we stopped a couple of times to rest. Although the rolling road was great for both of us, being so low to the ground I think Ken has to work a little bit harder than I do. It was a fun ride, I started singing songs from the Sound of Music (that comes from riding with Gay men so much). At one point, Ken and I had stopped to rest and a group of 4 guys came riding past. All I had to do was sing out to them".... doe a dear a female dear...." and they all chimed in and sang that song all the way back to camp! Ken was so amazed, I think he also vowed to learn the song so that he could sing along next year.... ah, but I digress.
The day was fun, pretty effortless because I chose to ride and be social instead of racing back to camp to sit and eat pizza... oh yea that's what else we did that night, we ordered pizza and had it delivered to the fairgrounds in Paso Robles- which was where we camped night three.
