Day 9 LA to San Clemente

Today was complicated and busy but it all worked out like clockwork.

Before I start on today, here's a few shots from previous days that somehow did not make it to this blog:

Retro Ride with Sean

Day 6

Picture from stop in Cambrian

Okay, now back to today!

Sean had an early morning interview with the New York Times, followed by drive through LA traffic to deliver a send-off speech for an AHA National Walk day event.

Speech delivered, we then rushed down to Huntington beach for a  2 pm launch.

We were met there by Ulmont Smith who had ordered and delivered a great tail wind for our ride. There may have been other riders as well as Apple Maps incorrectly showed the start point about 20 blocks further North. My apologies if this threw anyone off.

Fortunately Jose arrived at the wrong spot early enough to see us fly by.  He then made  it to the correct spot with minimal huffing and puffing.

Ulmont and I then reviewed our route and he approved the last minute changes I had made based on yesterday's scouting trip. He even suggested a new scenic twist which turned out great even though it threw the photographers for a loop!

Once the bikes were unloaded,  Don drove the van back to do a reconnaissance sweep but  came back empty handed.

As we rode, it was nice seeing Sean and Ulmont reconnect. Lots of laughter and free flow moments. Sean marveled at the fact that they've known each other so long, but never had a chance before to enjoy a bike ride together.

Our plan was to arrive at our 23 mile meeting point ant 3:30 and we delivered. We pulled in the parking lot to meet Jason Chen and Hugo but were told they had headed up the hill when they saw us coming.

They were promptly hailed back and more happy greetings took place.

 It was quite the scene with multiple cameras and video recorders flying and a new drone that didn't seem to mind flying within feet of my helmet. Some latent instinct of mine kept telling me to swat it down, but fortunately I was able to restrain myself.

Towards the end of our ride we  rode with "Hollywood", an Intel retiree who sends his greetings to Tom Lacey.

We arrived at our hotel close to 5 pm and everyone was happy. I was just relieved that we all finished rubber side down.

From there it was a mad scramble to start laundry, dry my clothes and get a shower before heading out for a 6pm dinner. Somehow I managed...

So now I sit here pleasantly full and ready to start reviewing tomorrow's ride

We will launch at 9 am.

Cheers,
Dave