the ride of the mad march hairs

[mimitabby]

Yes, that's right, hairs, not hare. I didn't name this ride.

For those who are unacquainted, my DH aka Raleighdon and a good friend Pansy Palmetto; both of whom are rather notorious on bikejournal.com put this ride together for the second year in a row. It's actually a series of rides, one being climbing to the top of Mt Diablo, (which I missed) and another exciting ride to old Sacramento and back on the gorgeous American River Trail, but the ride I'll tell you about is the ride yesterday, which started out in Fairfield, California and did a loop in the Napa hills and a little bit into the Napa valley.

We started out at a restaurant for breakfast and got reacquainted with a bunch of nice people, including my cousin's husband who is part gazelle we later discovered.
The ride started out with 3 tandems and 4 or 5 singles. the tandems being SalsaMTB and Mr Salsa, Raleighdon and I and the indomitable Pansy and Mr Pansy. Almost immediately we were rolling up and down hills, and they got increasingly difficult in grade. The Salsas and my DH & I quickly left the Pansys behind, and after doing some really fun up and downs on some snake like roads, we lost them. We sent back some speedy single speedy cyclists to
see if they were all right, and discovered that they got a double flat on a pot hole. it took them almost an hour to fix it. So some of us waited, some of us, on speedy single bikes went back and forth giving progress reports. And some of us ventured into the bushes to go to the bathroom.
We climbed a little more and the pansies (or the palmettos) decided enough was enough; and they turned around and went home. So we continued over the pass, and skirted a dam, and finally found ourselves on the flats with a tiny bit of a tailwind. We rode as fast as we could on our tandem, with our previously speedy single bike companions holding on for dear life. (in our draft) it was incredibly awesome. For the first time I discovered that I could do more good by focusing on the stroke between 4pm and 10am because DH's regular stroke was so strong I could barely push any more there. It was a very exhilarating ride, particularly considering that I haven't been riding very much this year. We ended up with 62.5 miles, a metric century, and over 4000 feet of climb.

Then there was today. Today was to be a shorter, friendlier ride. (Photos must wait until tomorrow, unless you go to bkejournal where Pansy will be posting) we just did a 28 mile loop on the American river trail; but Raleighdon had a little chevas regal crown on his helmet with his tuxedo jersey and Pansy wore a wedding veil. People thought they were just married, and me on the back of the tandem. we got laughs, smirks and giggles for 28 miles I never had a laughinger ride in my life. it was hilarious.
and we ended with VERY GOOD ice cream.

[HillSlugger]

Are you back as Mimitabby?!?

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Hey thanks for the ride report, Mimi! Glad to know it went well.

[salsabike]

I'm almost positive, though, that it wasn't SalsaMTB on that other tandem.

[Biciclista]

OH DRAT
i'm sorry; i havent been on this laptop in ages and it had the mimitabby cookie.
i fixed it and will not make that mistake again on THIS computer. That's the trouble with logging in from 6 different computers.

And SalsaBIKE, i'm sorry it was YOU and only YOU not that other pretender Salsa who was on the other tandem.


SalsaBIKE and Mr Salsa, as I was saying were great tandem buddies, I would recommend them to anyone. While we had two fast single bike dudes drafting off us, they had 1 drafting off them too.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

OH DRAT
i'm sorry; i havent been on this laptop in ages and it had the mimitabby cookie.
i fixed it and will not make that mistake again on THIS computer. That's the trouble with logging in from 6 different computers.

Ha ha, now everyone sees your real post count!

[salsabike]

Seas of lupines...incredible. And the second picture is Lake Berryessa (and me and Chris). This ride was really fabulous--we had a blast.

[NbyNW]

Beautiful pictures Salsa! Those flowers are unreal!

Mimi- loved the ride report!

[maillotpois]

wow - great pics Salsa!! I love lupine season.

Sorry I was not able to join this ride. We had a training ride for TNT. I did do the Diablo ride and met Mr. Salsa and RD (whom I'd met before at Tucson). Did not get to spend enough time socializing with those guys though, as I had to get back to work.

[Biciclista]

great photos, Salsa, I am looking forward to seeing our photos too; but you caught the best of the scenery in those two photos.

[Biciclista]

Here's some of the March Hair gang, Twain (from left), Pansy, me, Mr Salsa,
Salsabike, and the mother of Twain's child's sweetheart, Rick(sorry, I forget his screen name


Here's Poppies we saw up by the dam



and here's our last Icecream with Pansy.

[Geonz]

It's all about the hair.

Great report

[shootingstar]

Enjoyed the photos! yes, yesterday was a fabulous day...though not quite as warm in Vancouver, based on your cycling gear.

We were still wearing long cycling tights and jackets yesterday. Maybe we're thin-blooded.

[Biciclista]

no, Dear Shootingstar, it was close to 80 degrees in Sacramento. We're sitting in the shade for a reason!

My kneesocks were a bit too warm.

[Trekhawk]

Love the pics!!
Sounds like you all had a ball.