My Journey: Day 2

Breakfast was delicious at the hotel. I stayed in the Travelodge. It was a pretty good night of sleep. A little chilly because my roomies left a crack in the door.

This was last night when we made it to Santa Cruz.

Check out this illusion headboard (hehe) I think it's pretty funny actually.

And as a tribute to Jef Petersen I decided to take a picture of the WHOLE FOODS truck :) Thanks for all of the great skills and inspiration. I miss your feedback. (Even though I still like to be Right!)

Emotions.....Today has been a day of emotions. I think I have experienced the whole range. Maybe it was the weather, maybe it's the lunar cycle and the tides, maybe it's pms, or maybe it's being a part of something so incredible.
I started out the ride in the front group, and I started strong. I was getting the concept of drafting with a group and it was fun :) We started in on some hills, and a couple of people fell back with me and helped pull me back with the pack. I stayed on their tails and it was smooth sailing up and down those hills.....until.....Someone took a wrong turn.....of course, we didn't find out about it until about 15-20 miles later when we had completely missed the rest stop. That's when I began to feel the grumpy emotion setting in. Maybe not even grumpy, I'd go with all out frustrated and mad. (I don't feel that way anymore) but for a while I was pretty grump }: (

Maybe it was the lack of calories, or the frustration of being with a group that got lost. I got caught up in the moment, and didn't look at the bigger picture of things. We are all here to over come challenges and this is Supposed to be fun :)
So one guy and I ended up stopping at a local farmer's stand for a bathroom break, fill up on water, and eat some snacks. I guess you could say that we made our own rest stop. Then we headed back to the open road.

I was riding so fast they only got the back 1/2 of me :) Look at that right quad....it's starting to show a little definition.

Oh! but don't let me forget one of the important parts! So during our little unplanned scenic route I fell over. Not once but TWICE!!!! can you believe it twice! At least I was wearing my tights. One time it was on a dirt road that was more of a hill for a mountain bike. :( The second time my seat got twisted almost perpendicular from where I was supposed to be sitting. It wasn't a fast fall, but it was forceful enough to twist my seat. My right foot was clipped in both times so it kinda got tweaked a bit.

I called one of the support vehicles and asked them to have an ace wrap for me when we made it to the next stop.And they did. Thanks Matt and Kristen. And a special thanks to Kristen who took the camera.

I was ready to hit the road. the ace wrap really helped with going up the hills. We were a few miles from the hotel and my derailleur was acting funny and my gears kept slipping and the chain kept slipping, and it was crunching, and grinding and I was not at all stable, so I stopped on the side of the road and Juan and Shawn (I think that was his name.)

So one of the men told me to just keep it in 2 gears for the last couple of miles until we got to the hotel. (bad idea by the way) The hills were steep and I had to stand for most of it, because of the gears I needed to be in. It was slow going. There was a stoplight mid-road and of course....it turned red. I tried to unclip my left foot and was unsuccessful and down I tumbled again. (or maybe I tumbled up since I was on an uphill climb) Only this time I fell to the left and got a little road rash on my knee. I also hit my chin on the handle bars when I was going down :( Talk about a rough day!

That's it! I'm done! My pride is hurting, and I'm getting in the Van.

I was not happy :( I even cried a little bit because I felt like a failure.

Don't worry don't worry, it didn't stay that long. I worked out a 5 column in my head and didn't feel so bad about myself.

But it's hard.

But the hotel we are staying in is absolutely awesome! Chartreuse never looked so good and I'm not being sarcastic. I really love this room with the matching carpet and the tweed chairs, the polka dotted bed spreads and the wavy curtains. I will defiantly enjoy sleep tonight.