Day Two

Now that's a hero shirt!

Five flat Don with Ironwoman Lynn and her temporary cast.

McGarry crater...definitely a walk-around.

Anybody check to see if these guys are legal?

Waiting for the Jelly Belly tour.

Robb with 90 year old Leon at In-N-Out

Emotional art work at Best Western Sacramento...note the blood.

Hero Shirt Day…so this is the first day you can wear one of your best riding shirts since we were relegated to uniform yesterday. Of course I was elegantly attired in my fav Ben & Jerry’s shirt, Robb decided to go incognito with his Brunello wine shirt, but everyone just gave-up when Ironman Lester walked in with his California Triple Crown Winner shirt for riding FIVE DOUBLE CENTURIES (as in 200 miles) within one year. To honor his special status we let him pull the peleton all day…that’s the guy who pedals up front and makes it easy for the rest of us to ride…thanks Lester!

My virtual rider today was my musical son, Alex, because we visited the home of his two favorite non-liquid foods: Jelly Belly Factory and In-N-Out Burger! Sorry buddy but we just didn’t have time for the Budweiser tour.

Only the second day of our fabulous adventure and we’ve already lost our first member. Lynn aka Amber from Ocala, FL was taken to a clinic after dinner last evening because of an elbow “problem”. Well it turns out she broke her elbow and then rode in the final 30 miles yesterday (including all those ugly Hwy 32 miles!). Now I know that at least one of my ardent readers is thinking PEDAL STRIKE and, in fact her pedal did strike the pavement but it was well after her elbow hit so we have yet to experience a pedal strike accident on this tour. Lynn is on her way home and hopes to join us before the end of the tour even if it’s only for the wheel dipping ceremony in Portsmouth, NH. She’s one tough woman and we’ll miss her.

Pretty easy ride as advertised today and they even threw in a tailwind so we had lots of time for our stops at the Jelly Belly factory where they make 35,000 beans a minute and the #1 flavor is Very Cherry followed by Buttered Popcorn. First time experience for Robb and me at In-N-Out and we can see why it’s so popular. Robb is thinking of opening a franchise inside the Chop House. Our visit was enhanced by our introduction to Larry’s 90 year-old riding buddy Leon who has recently cut his annual mileage down to about 5000 miles because “the hills are getting steeper”. We wanna be like Leon!

Today’s ratings:

Scenery: 5

Road conditions: 8 (would have been higher except for McGarry crater)

Grunt factor: 9