Day 1

  
 
The wait is over - well, not really...
    
 

   

The Journey begins... After spending about 4 hours on Day 0 with administrative tasks such as: Registering, watching the safety video, taking care of pledge deficits (I was a whopping $20 short), medical information, and tent assignments, we are ready for the big adventure.

Say Buh-Bye to everyday luxuries... On a VERY early Sunday morning in June, we put on our bike clothes and lug our bags down to Fort Mason, where we are introduced to the L Gear Truck for the first time. We are anxious to get started on the big adventure and have no idea what to expect from the next week. Only thing we know for sure is that our beds will be replaced with sleeping pads and we'll be seein a lot of plastic where there normally is porcelain.

Have you seen my bike? It is 7am on Sunday morning (Day 1) - Do you know where your bike is?


The crowd is pumped! After listening to very inspiring speaches and watching the Positive Pedalers ride out, we were all ready to get going. Little do we know that it will take close to an hour and a half before we will finally hit the road...

2799 bikes at Fort Mason and ours have to be in the last row... Tuesday before the ride we made the trip to the Hollywod Bowl to drop off our bikes. They were then shipped with McAllister's and we are re-united with them on Day 0 (but not before we had watched the obligatory safety video - they are serious about rider safety on the ride). The bikes seem to have survived the shipping OK. The only snag is them not being in their designated spots. We have to search through all 2799 bikes before we finally find them in the very last row. Flat #1 presents itself to me, but is quickly fixed.

San Francisco is not made for bicycling... The first 17 miles take about 2.5 hours to complete. Bikers everywhere and most traffic lights seem to only stay green for about 7 seconds in our direction. By the time we reach Pit 1, they are about to close it (half an hour later than originally scheduled). By Pit 2 (Picture), we have reached a little more open roads and have begun climbing. This scatters the crowds a little and by lunch are finally ready for some real riding. Open roads and a nice tail wind round up a VERY long day.
I'm looking for my bag - it is black - have you seen it? That is a typical line on most days when we go to pick up our gear at camp. Kurt is smiling here as we have very bright (and very big) blue bags that are easy to recognize. Since we have been assigned L82 as our tent address, we pick up (and return) our luggage and tent from the L truck every day. Two very cool young girls handle ALL of the luggage for truck L and there are 19 gear trucks in total. This picture is from our first camp in Santa Cruz.
Is this a duathlon? Coming to camp at the end of the day is always nice. Our routine is to find our gear bags, change shoes, stretch by the bags, and then start the long trek from the gear truck to our designated tent spot. Supposedly, they mix up the tent locations so that As and Qs take turns in being far away. However, it appears that L is lost from this rotation as our spot is never particularly close. Walking with 45lbs on your back is just what your legs are longing for at the end of the day... After getting the gear comes setting up the tent, showering, and eating. By 7:30 it is time for the daily announcements and from 8 - 9 the nightly entertainment is on. Bed time is usually around 9pm... The band this evening is a very happening swing band, but it appears that most of the crowd would rather swing in their sleeping bags at this hour.