Renegade Ride: Napa Valley

Donald, EJ, Me & MB

Paul, Robb & MB- observing EJ

I spent Saturday in the Napa Valley with a bunch of Renegade ALC riders... A "Renegade Ride", is an unofficial ride with a bunch of ALC riders and friends where we don't have to stretch if we don't want to (most of us do anyway), we don't have a safety speech, and if you're late then it's up to you to ride fast and catch up!

Michael, Debra & Jerome

This time the plan was to ride up the Silverado Trail to Calistoga, take a quick break then ride down highway 29 to St. Helena with a stop at Taylor's Refresher (the original) for lunch. A total of 57 miles and mostly flat!

This is what the Napa Valley looks like in October!

I say "the plan" was.... because although it was my plan, Talia and her rear tire had a different plan for us (Talia, Donald and I). First off was a flat tire with David, who has been having his share of flat tire bad luck lately. We were on the Silverado Trail and the three of us, George David and I took care of the flat in short order.... soon we were back on the trail.

Donald helping George, pre-ride.

Not even 5 miles later, I came upon Talia and Donald discussing the prospects of changing her flat, which they had pumped up just before coming out to Napa. Ah well, we took it all apart checked the tire and voila! nothing there. So we re-pumped the tube put the tire back on and were on our way.... soon after she was flat again. This time we put a new tube in, pumped it up and got on the road, we were obviously far behind the crowd and had yet another 12 miles or so to go. We pumped the tire (after figuring out how to use Donald's CO2 dispenser which was really weird and unlike mine), got on the road and went about 2 miles when it went flat again.
AARRGH! By this time we were just trying to figure out a way to cut across and into St. Helena because we were really going to be too late to catch up with the group. After much discussion, we decided we'd put another new tube in and pump it, then cut across on one of the side roads and meet everyone at Taylors. I called Michael to let him know and he said he'd tell the others. Three changes later and Talia's tire was finally happy.

Cutting across was quick time- like 5 minutes! Which means we got to Taylors in St. Helena at 11:30am, about 45 minutes before the rest of the group. This was a blessing in disguise because by the time the rest of the group got there, the line was miles long. Me, being the hungry person that I always am, did not wait for the rest of the group to arrive but instead had an early lunch and shake while we waited for the others.

Robbi celebrated his birthday on this ride, so Milam brought birthday candles and put them on his milkshake (yes, they're that thick!)and we all sang Happy "29th" (again) Birthday to Robbi.

Robb and his Birthday milkshake

Soon we were all fueled up and on our way back down hwy 29. At Oakville Cross Road I took a left and rode that the 3 miles back to the Silverado Trail. Interestingly enough, a nice head wind picked up which made the last 10 miles back to our start rather ....um.... taxing.

One by one we each made it back to the Chevron station on Trancas, which was our starting point (they have the cleanest gas station bathrooms I have ever seen!).

Not sure where the next Renegade Ride will be, but I'll be sure to post details here somewhere.