Day 2 - 05 June 2006, Santa Cruz to King City

Photos from Day 2

Today was our longest day. It started out a little cool, but still still acceptable weather. It was, however, damp and we had to pack up everything that way, no time to dry out. Riding out of Santa Cruz was a bit frustrating and slow as we had a lot of stop lights to contend with, traffic was hectic at parts but manageable.

Rest Stop 1 was on a beach that like yesterday was foggy. The ride took us through Watsonville and Moss Landing where much of our riding was through fields. Some with workers, some empty, and some growing a variety of crops. We saw strawberries, artichokes, and celery for sure. Outside of Moss Landing there is a fried artichoke stand. I hear they're great but at that time of the morning I just wasn't into eating artichokes, instead I needed a bathroom, bad.

Our next rest stop was in the town of Marina, here we were refreshed by a team of super heros. Again, and as with most every stop today, I had to pee. They tell you this is a good sign, that you're staying hydrated. I can understand that, as they say, going to the hospital to get an IV is a bad thing (and I had enough of hospitals with the dislocated shoulder). The mantra is "eat, drink, pee." The lesson is when you hydrate you pee, a lot.

Lunch was in Salinas in a nice park with a good mix of shade and sun. I rode out of lunch with Thomas and we stayed together for most of the rest of the day. From lunch to rest stop 3 was pretty uneventful, just some great valley views and a lot of vineyards. The rest stop was very dry and dusty and fitted out in a disco theme. By now the familiar process of tanking up on water or gatorade and snacks and then visiting the port-a-potties was in full swing. After rest stop 3 things started to get a little hot for me. The water stop was a welcome break and we were treated to Otter Pops and M&Ms.

Continuing on the heat became a tad unbearable for me and I slowed down a little. We then came to a single lane bridge. Before entering there was a moto safety guy telling us to slow down and that we needed to prepare for a climb up a hill or to skinny dip. Ah, the infamous skinny dipping spot. To me the prospect of putting my riding gear back on while wet just didn't appeal to me so I elected to ride up the hill. Thomas decided he was going to just dunk his head in the river, but ended up skinny dipping instead (one of many firsts for Thomas today).

Coming up the hill the temperatures got a bit better as the wind that had been mostly at our backs picked up. I later found out it got into the 90s on the road. Whoa! At mile 89 we were treated to free cookies from the Cookie Lady. Every year she bakes cookies for all the riders and gives them out. This year her theme was S&M girl scouts. Continuing on from there we had a straight ride with a nasty cross wind to rest stop 4. For those not familiar with cross winds you have to lean your bike into the wind to keep from falling over. In this case it was to the left and traffic (which was thankfully lite). Occasionally a big truck would go by and you get bounced around. Fifteen miles before came rest stop 4, the miscreant summer camp, was a welcome rest for a little bit.

Out of rest stop 4 we had five more miles of cross winds as we made our way across a valley and to some foothills. At the right turn to King City we not only had some hills to climb but a nice tail wind. Being at the end of the day I felt I was really slow on some of the hills, but along the way I hit the 100 mile mark for the first time. My first century ride. On the last downhill I cranked myself into the biggest gears and pushed myself over 25 MPH for four miles. I doubt I could have done that without the downhill and tail wind.