It began after Colby and I walked with his bike 45 minutes to the bike shop. The place was a little hole in the wall rental operation, so it was good that I brought my bike shoes along. Justin was doing his best, but told us he was really new at all this and was filling in for the owner. He switched out the pedals to match my shoes, but when I did a test run, the cleats just wouldn't click in. We were all at a loss.
Who ya gonna call?
The Bike God, Joe, of course. He understood. The pedals they had would never match my Crank Brothers set up, so it was back to the foot cages. It took awhile to get back in the swing of riding with those again, but once we got out on the road it was only a minor set-back.
Once we were riding under that clear, blue, blue sky, in that gorgeous day (Colby said it was the most perfect day of the year so far), we were laughing and having so much fun that I could hardly believe it was all real. The big thing I noticed, besides the fact that everywhere you looked was a panoramic vista of hills and parks and amazing houses, was the fact that this is the land of the PRIUS!
It became the most annoying thing by the end, calling out "Prius" every time we saw one, because there was one on practically every street we turned down. Sometimes there were two or three. And, there were so many from the early years like mine! When we passed the huge environmental billboard that had a polar bear on it, I said, "San Francisco, you are my kind of town." I can see why Tony told me last night that he just can't leave this place. Even though the water temps never rise even close to warm, it has everything else that you could possibly ever want. It looks so much like New Zealand...
We rode through Oakland, and on into Berkley. It was so hard to keep my eyes on the road. Between looking at all the trees, plants, and flowers in bloom, the gorgeous houses, the one Prius after another, and all my fellow road-bikers, it was a miracle I didn't crash. And, oh, the hills! We worked so hard today! The descents were almost as much fun as surfing.
First stop, "Cactus," for Mexican food. Oh, heaven! They had homemade tortillas, fresh fruits juices; pineapple, cantaloupe, watermelon. They had fresh salsas of every flavor, fire roasted jalapenos that Karen and Bruce would have devoured. We both got fat veggie/bean burritos with every kind of veggie inside. The chips and guacamole were the best. The place was bustling with every kind of interesting character. After this, we went to a park and sat in the sun for a few minutes, watching the families and dogs and people just lying in the soft green grass, as a perfect breeze blew through the scene.
On we went, climbing hills, stopping at scenic overviews. We would suddenly turn onto a gorgeous view of green hills and dark pines with a rolling descent that had us hooting at the top of our lungs. What fun! We found the Merry-Go-Round in Tilden Park, and watched the kids riding round and round smiling. We found a grassy slope with a backdrop of deep dark trees where a woman, wearing a red jacket, was lying in the sun with her black dog. It made us both think of a water color painting by Andrew Wyeth. I took photos of this. I could not resist going over to the dog, and the woman was so nice, telling us the story of "Bodi," and how she was rescued by the side of the road. That dog was the sweetest, most gentle dog! The woman asked me if I wanted to take her. Colby told her I wanted a dog. I live in Florida, i explained. Not the best place for a dog, but this, THIS is where a dog can be happy! Bodi nestled down into the soft, lush, green grass and looked up at me with big brown eyes. That woman would never give that dog away. She wished us a good ride, smiling up at us, and we left.
We climbed and climbed until we were exhausted. But, the funny thing is, we kept finding these power reserves that I can only attribute to pure stoke. This day was so beautiful, and being with Colby riding the bike made me wish it would never end. We made it to the top, looked over San Francisco Bay, and proceeded to take the steepest, fastest descent I have ever done on the bike. Colby amazed me, leaving me behind at one point. I wasn't sure of the bike, and my hands cramped from the brakes that you almost continually had to squeeze. That descent had to break my 40 mph record! There was no computer on the bike, so I will never know. I haven't ever had that much adrenalin flowing on a descent in my life. At the bottom, we were whooping it up, breathless, and realized we had spent the entire day outdoors, on the bike!
We ended up at "The Wall," a great Chinese fake meat restaurant, where we had some amazing food. I didn't think I was hungry when I first went in. Once we sat down, I devoured everything in site. We headed back in the fading light, and as we headed up the steep hill by his place, Colby said he couldn't believe he hadn't worn me out. I actually wanted to keep riding, I just did not want this day to end. But when we got upstairs, took showers, and watched the latest episode of LOST, I realized I was not going to be able to stay up for the movie that night. By sunset, I was fast asleep...
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