Thank-you Tri Girl and Aggie_Ama. And a special thanks to the kilted one.

I am wiped out today. It was definitely a challenging week-end, as I had not ridden anything so hilly before. But, boy, was it fun.

We rode out of Seaside, where we had stayed at a friend's house (Thanks, Wes!), and headed south on Hwy101 to Manzinita. The ride started out flat with a couple gradual hills a few miles out of town, which was a great warm-up for what was to come. I was intimidated by the height of the first mountain, so I tried hard to concentrate on conquering the 3-4 feet in front of me. When we were approaching the crest, the view of the ocean was a wonderful reward and motivation to get to the top. The decent was a little scary in the beginning because I wasn't used to the extra weight I was carrying on my bike. It didn't feel quite as stable as I was used to. I remembered something I had read on TE about shifting your weight back on the saddle, almost with some of your tush hanging off the end and bringing your torso down. That did the trick! (So whoever posted that - thanks!)

The second mountain was much, much more challenging and seemed to take forever to climb. I was suffering through some of it, but I just had to make myself go on. The encouragement that I received from DH was incredible. He let me know that this was the big um...well, tit. (I had mentioned that the bigger hills looked like a lopsided pair when he showed me the elevation profile while we were planning the ride.) What also helped, was a teen hanging out of his back seat window and giving me the thumbs-up while whooping. And there was another rider, who I had noticed a couple of times before both coming and going, that let me know the crest was only 500 ft. ahead as he passed me. The descent was so much fun and rewarding after such a hard, for me anyways, climb.

After that, there was a small hill and a gentle descent into Manzinita, where we enjoyed a great lunch at a charming diner. Then DH set up camp while I got myself cleaned-up and we headed into town on our bikes. I hadn't been to Manzinita before. It's a very charming coastal town with gorgeous beaches. We spent a wonderful evening eating, drinking stout, talking, eating, warming our bums near the fire, and eating.

I woke up early the next morning and made myself some coffee. I took a little walk around the camp grounds and ended up at the beach. I couldn't leave the coast without dipping my feet in the water. So I walked down the beach a bit 'til my feet became numb. I envied the people with wetsuits because I would have loved to be able to jump into the Pacific. One of these days, I'm going to try surfing. When I got back to camp, DH was up and had started a fire. What a wonderful man! We had a pre-breakfast as we broke camp and had a chance to talk with one of the other cyclists who were riding from Portland to ,I think, San Diego. Breakfast was in Manizinita at a fish market. We shared a crab omelet with hash browns and toast. Yum!

We rode the same route back as we had come which I'm very happy we did because it gave me a better appreciation of the mountain pass that we had ridden the day before. Starting out was not fun. We immediately had a short but steep climb out of Manzinita. I had to keep stopping to catch my breath. I was having some serious doubts that I could make the second day. It made me feel a little better when I looked behind me to see how steep the road was that I had just climbed. So on I went. Eventually, I found my rhythm and things became easier. We reached the beginning of the big...ahem looming before me.<Gulp!> So, again, I concentrated on the little piece of road immediately before me and climbed slowly(3 mph). Occasionally, I looked up to see the neighboring hill get closer which was highly motivational. I was steadily making progress! The descent was very steep and quick. I was awestruck that I had managed to climb this the day before!

I think it is an easier ride going north. Not that I didn't suffer. But I came to a point where the pain was kinda enjoyable. I found myself grinning through even the pain. But ,then again, maybe I'm a sicker puppy than I knew.

Sorry, I have to cut this short. I have to take DS to TaeKwonDo. Although, it looks as though I've already written a novel.