The last day...arrival in Santa Barbara

Saturday morning and the last day of the ride.  Calvin and Jim rode from Arroyo Grande into Santa Barbara, which might have been a scenic ride, but mostly they cranked out a speedy 91 miles along Highway 1. It was a little chilly in the morning.

Here they are headed off on Highway 1

I didn't see them again until they reached the pool at our hotel. That is Calvin's "happy it is over" face.

I think they were very satisfied with the ride.  Here they are, out of spandex, at the final destination.  Rosie and Jay's house.

While Calvin was cranking out the miles, Rosie and Jay and I had a lovely afternoon at the pool.  Then  Rosie prepared a delicious dinner and we took pictures of ourselves.

 I love their house, although it seems to be a little crooked in this picture it really isn't.

We finished the evening climbing around boulders and watching the sun set over Santa Barbara.  It was a great trip and a great destination.

Leaving the desert and heading for the coast

There is not really a lot of difference between days on a six day bike ride.  Get up, eat breakfast, ride the bike, check into the hotel, eat dinner and go to sleep. The only real difference is the scenery passing by.  Today they left the desert of Coalinga and crossed over to the coastal foothills. Notice the palm trees at today's start as opposed to the snow a few days ago.

The eastern side of the coastal range is really dry this year.  It looks like August not April. This was the first leg of today's ride.  They are out there on the road somewhere, not in camera range.

The second leg of the ride was on a delightful bike road.  A small twisting road with no trucks allowed.

And after a few loops at the start for photographs ...

the riders are off to Santa Margarita for a lunch stop.

They rode after lunch, but the ride photographer got lost in the outlet mall and they had to finish the ride without photos.  Seventy four miles and they are still smiling.

Brothers on Bikes

Last night Calvin's brother Jim Smith joined the ride. They rode 97 beautiful sunny central valley miles and ended up in Coalinga...more or less.

(Actual un-staged footage)

San Andreas to Los Banos

Today Calvin left winter and cycled into spring.  He traveled 98 miles.  The first 13 were rolling Gold Country miles, but at about mile 30 he pick up a pretty good tail wind, which added an element of happiness to a long day on the road.

We started the day with a lovely breakfast at the Robins Nest B&B.  Fresh fruit followed by papaya soup and eggs florentine. I generously shared my fruit with Calvin knowing he would need a little extra boost for the road.  We tend to travel like gypsies, living out of the car.  It is good thing we have a big car.

The Robins Nest is a nice B&B if you like B&Bs.  I tend to prefer the less personal chain hotels, which is good because that is where we will be the rest of the trip.

While Calvin was riding I went to Sonora to check out a cemetery.  Disappointing results at the cemetery, but the drive through the foothills was beautiful.

I caught up with Calvin on the road between Oakdale and Turlock.  Notice the big smile, he had a tailwind through this stretch.

This is a stage picture to show the road he was riding. As a general rule Calvin does not ride on the wrong side of the road.

Bike ride to Santa Barbara

Calvin has been planning to ride his bike from Reno to Santa Barbara for many years and decided this was the year to go. We have had a fairly mild spring, which has allowed him to get in bike shape early this year and yesterday he embarked on the trip.

 It was a cool but sunny day in Reno when he left, but by the time he reached Genoa he had cycled 60 miles into a head wind and was looking at white out conditions over Kingsbury grade, so he hitched a ride the last couple of miles to South Lake Tahoe.

The temperature at South Lake Tahoe when we arrived was in the mid twenties and it didn't warm up over night.  We woke up to several inches of fresh snow.

Fresh powder is great for a skiing vacation, but not so great for bike riding. The ride director decided to sag the riders forward until we were out of the chain control zone.

It was pretty drive with everything covered with about six inches of fresh snow.  We stopped at Ham's Station for lunch and had a "Ham's Burger" which was not the best burger I have ever eaten and then Calvin bravely got on his bike and hit the road.

A little downhill and a little tail wind and Calvin arrived at our second night destination, San Andreas, in good form.

Red Rocks

When we lived in Utah while Calvin was going to school we took driving vacations.  We took a lot of trips to the red rock country of southern Utah, because we might not settle in this part of the country and we wanted to see it while we were still living in Utah.  Then Calvin got a residency in Arizona and we saw more red rocks.  I thought I had seen enough red rocks to last a life time, but I find that I love to visit southern Utah and see the red rocks all over again.  We spent a couple of days in Moab with Butch and his family last week during Zach's spring break.  And we took lots of pictures of red rocks.

We spent a lot of time hiking in Arches.  The hike to Delicate arch climbs 500 feet and is listed as "strenuous" in the park guide.  Zach and Austin did the hike like it was a walk around the block. Here they are with the iconic shot with arch in the background.

Here they are inside the arch.  It is a lot bigger than it looks.

The boys loved to climb into little crevices in the rock to hide.

We had lunch at Sand Dune Arch, which is like a giant sand box for the boys to play in.  I remember dragging Butch into this arch before he was born.  It is still pretty, but crowded.

Zach liked to climb up anything and everything. No fear.

Sometimes Calvin followed him up the rock.

Sometimes Butch and Calvin followed him.

And sometimes Emily and Austin made the climb too.  It was breezy up there.

My only regret is that the pictures don't show the vivid colors I could see through my sunglasses.  I guess that is viewing the world with "rose colored glasses."