Thursday, October 28, 2010

Arrival in Newbury Park












A quick note before turning off the lights for a refreshing sleep. Tomorrow starts early with breakfast around 6:30, baggage has to be dropped off to the burly baggage boys by 7:00, and then it is off to Giant Bicycle headquarters for a little meet and greet. Around 9:00 we head down the hill to the ocean and will continue over dale to Santa Barbara.

After nearly giving Julia a heart attack by just making it to our meeting point by the appointed time, and THEN requesting that we make a short stop at Costco to pick up a prescription, we made it to the airport and checked in the BIGGEST luggage I have yet traveled with, the bike carriers. I borrowed mine from Dave Evans, and Julia found one on KSL. they are big and bulky, but they do have wheels and are relatively light. Fortunately, we encountered no lines either at check-in or security and made our way to the gate with plenty of time to spare...with even enough time to catch a quick lunch. The flight was relatively empty and we had the middle seat open and stretched out. After arriving, we decided that I should go and get the car and that Julia should stay with the mountain of luggage so we didn't have to haul it on and off the shuttle bus. I came back to get her about an hour later in a shiny black Jeep Grand Cherokee, which contained our mountainous baggage quite well, thank you. (to be fair, Julia is travelling with one little rollerboard in addition to her bike, while I have the big bag, the laptop wheely bag and the bike)

After getting a bag full of really cool goodies (hardly anywhere to sleep once they were dumped out on my bed) we were so excited for what turned out to be a big bonus in the form of Evan the Giant bike mechanic. He was still set up in his parking lot-tent-fix-it-shop when we arrived and graciously stayed beyond his scheduled hours to reassemble our bikes. We were so grateful, as we imagined that had we had to do it ourselves, it would have taken a lot of time...we might have missed dinner!

We are approximately 35 riders for this "inaugural west coast" ride, with about a third of the people having participated in the east coast version of the ride in previous years. I think by the end of 3 days we will have gotten to know most folks fairly well...which an exciting prospect.

Tonight at dinner we sat with two couples who do a lot of charity rides across the country. When I asked them what motivated them, they said, "Diseases, we are not discriminatory." It sounds like the wives take their time, and the husbands forge ahead a bit, but they have seen some amazing country and have raised money for a lot of good causes. We also met Lisa Frank, one of the organizers of YSC and one who facilitated our bike gifts from Giant. We will look forward to meeting the rest of the crew over the following days. So far, as expected, everyone has been ready to be an instant friend to us. I think we are in for a great experience...if we survive the "technical descent" at mile 6 tomorrow...the road from the top of the hill to the beach. They have given us plenty of warning, and if we decide that we don't want to do it, we can ride in the SAG wagon. It promises to be an adventure! It will be fun to have Janice along to take pictures and to cheer us on, she just arrived at the airport and has so kindly volunteered to sherpa for us in any way we need. Let the good times roll!

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