The day started with a super bowl of frosted wheat, and ended with a Super Bowl. Yes, it’s that time of year again, and we were most excited thinking that at the end of our ride today, we would be watching our new team, the N’Awlins Saints, play the first Super Bowl in their history. But that’s getting a little ahead of ourselves.
The riding day actually started with a super-killer hill. Over 4 miles of relentless climbing, we ascended around 700ft into the clouds, winding round switchbacks, and found ourselves at just under 2,500 ft. It brought back memories of the night before, as we were finishing our bottle of wine in the Frio Canyon Lodge and chatting to the owners. Without a hint of a smile, they said “you’ll regret that bottle of wine in the morning”. Well, they were almost right. We can’t pretend that the climb wasn’t tough, but it could have been a lot worse. Once we had cracked it, we had pretty much finished our serious climbing for the day. The road turned into a mini roller-coaster and we were up and down and up and down. Yee-ha. And then, before we knew it, we were in Camp Wood, the only point of civilisation on our route today, enjoying a French Vanilla coffee, before setting off again to complete the remaining 50 miles of our ride.
A word about the road surface today: the word is Boneshaker. For the short stretches where we either crossed a bridge, or some roadworks had led to a small stretch of re-tarmaccing, anyone within earshot would have heard us let out a loud contented sigh The rest of the time, poor old Trusty and Steed were shaken to within an inch of their lives. However, we can’t really complain. Although Evil Edwin made more than a cameo appearance, perhaps closer to a supporting actor’s role, for most of the ride, we had a fair side wind and even a tail wind at times. Also, after the big climb, it was nearly all downhill. Even allowing for Audrey and Margaret taking us to completely the wrong end of town, and giving a few minutes for Anthony to save a goat that had got its head stuck in a fence…yes, you did read that right … we completed our 71 miles by mid-afternoon. Plenty of time to get showered, pick up a couple of chicken burgers, and settle down to the Super Bowl.
No internet access tonight so, by the time we post this tomorrow, we’ll know the score. All we can say for now is, WHODAT?
Us x
P.S. GO SAINTS!!!!! Super Bowl XLIV winners.
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