Day 4 Ragged Point to SLO

Today began for me at 4:00 am. This was about the only time of the day where internet traffic was low enough to allow me to modify our route to San Luis Obispo. I had not planned to get up this early, but the refrigerator in my room woke me up and I decided, why not..?

With feedback from those who rode the route yesterday as they dropped off Dedi, Randy, and Lee (a sad time for all of us), and taking advice from our friendly waiter to work in Turri road, I went to work. The results paid handsomely.

Our biggest concern was the heat along our route (highs in the mid 80s) and we wanted an early 8 am start. But we also wanted a hearty breakfast and restaurant did not open until 8:30. It was 9:10 before we hit the road.

The camera crew wanted to attach a ~2 foot pole to Sean's bike to create some great shots in the early morning light but with the strong winds and tricky descent I vetoed that and proposed  they attach it after lunch when we would be doing more uphill work. There were no objections. I hope the afternoon shots worked out. The early morning portion of the ride was beautiful. We also got to see elephant seals basking in the sun. What a life. And no sunscreen required!

Don and I took turns with our wrist mounted GoPro and Don sure demonstrated a steady hand. I think we got some great video. Here are some screen shots...

There was one sketchy part on our ride where we had to deal cars entering the highway as we exited, but we were clear with our signaling and made the exit gracefully.

As we rode up South Bay Boulevard towards Turri road I saw a good climb and hollered out to Derek "here's your hill" . He seems to like powering up short steep climbs. He took the bait and Karen followed. It was quite the site to see them fly up the hill right past the Turri road turn.  I guess that wasn't the hill. I got a good laugh out of that one...

Turri road was great with almost no traffic. And it had a nice climb which not surprisingly Derek attacked. He flew by a couple riding up the hill and from the distance we watched one of the riders try to catch Derek. No chance. Feeling a the urge, I too then took the bait and opened up the legs. It felt good.

As we approached SLO we saw a cyclist riding towards us. This was Tom  Robak who we had met last night at Ragged point. He lives in SLO, had parked his car at our hotel and had ridden out to help guide us in. He was shocked at how close we were. We can thank the tail wind for that.

As we rode with Tom, he invited us to his home for some wine and cheese. We gladly accepted and agreed to swing by at 5 pm. As we pulled into our hotel, we looked at our watches and were pleasantly surprised to see it was only a bit past 1 pm. Wow! We did fly and we had time to get some R&R before heading over.

R&R consisted of jumping in an ice cold pool then feasting on chicken burritos that Andrea purchased for us. They were the best. Derek did point out that hunger makes a great sauce!
Did I get that right?

Before we knew it, 5pm was approaching fast so we headed up to visit Tom and his wife  Charlotte. Their home was spectacular and his hospitality matched it!

We had a great visit  and enjoyed our time with them very much. It's so great to run into people like Tom and Charlotte that stop what they are doing and reach out to help a bunch of tired cyclists!

Spectacular views!

 What a day!

But it's late now, I am exhausted and have yet to pack up for tomorrow

Tomorrow will be another hot day and one where we will experience riding on Hwy 101 for extended times. A good day to bring out the flashing helmet lights and it's good for Sean to get this experience while riding with other cyclists...we are still 7 strong.