Neither of us wanted to get out of bed in the morning. It was warm under the blanket and it’s the first day of our Thanksgiving long weekend. But F'ueco said he and Joan might be there, so it would be bad form if we flaked. Finally, I exclaimed, “we might as well go and get this over with!” At that prompt, we jumped out of the bed. Once out, it was not too bad.
Actually I’d been looking forward to his ride for a while. For one, I’d never been on this side of the observatory; and it would be a long ride (18+ miles of climbing), which I liked. It rained the day before, but in the morning, the live condition report from the observatory looked promising.
On our way to the start, I felt drowsy, still a bit jet lagged after I returned from China less that two days ago. So, we stopped to get coffee. I brought my stainless steel mug with me. Big mistake. The coffee stayed too hot to drink all the way to the start. With the long wait in the registration line, our warmup time gradually slipped away. But one nice thing is F'ueco and Joan showed up. This is our first time meeting Joan, but I had seen her website on her great finish at Furnace Creek 508. F'ueco joined our Mud ‘n Crud team again and signed up for the ride. Up we went.
It was a big group at the bottom, but it thinned out fast. For a long time, I could only see one or two riders in front of me and none behind me. I guessed most had gone ahead. I felt good on the ride, keeping my heart rate low as usual. Along the way, I made sure to turn my head to check out the view. At the bottom, we were under the clouds; gradually, we were in the clouds; and near the top we were in the sun. I was able to see the beautiful hill side and the valley below most of the way up, which made the ride even more worthwhile.
At the top, the sun went in and out of the clouds. It was very calm; however the temperature was still a little low. We got a bit chilled standing around and chatting with F'ueco and Joan. With the exertion behind him, Mud hacked away violently, which did not seem going to ever stop. We couldn't talk over his deafening coughs, so we watched him hack bending over the handle bar. F'ueco went from "please live" sympathetically to "will you live?" staring at Mud's Specialized bike. He has been battling a stubborn cold for almost two weeks. Poor guy.
I went through different climates descending the 18+ miles I just climbed going from bone chill at the top to comfortably warm near the bottom. The smooth surface and the friendly curves in the road at the lower half made descending surprisingly fun. Back at the car, both Mud and I agreed that we were happy that we got out of the bed this morning.
