ALC Day 1: Opening day and San Francisco to Santa Cruz

The first day starts so early. The opening ceremony is at 6:00 AM, so we had to get to the Cow Palace, drop off our luggage at our truck, attend the ceremony and get pumped up in those wee hours, and finally grabbing what breakfast we could as we went to our bikes. 

Notice Virgil on our truck. The list of required items ends with the bear hug, required every day, as well as the wall of trucks that went with each row of tents.

Here's the bike garage teaming with people

This was a roadie at rest stop 1 that was greeting people at the middle school in Pacifica. And yes, she was using her hands to "accentuate her flowers."  It was the start of a fun week

Here's Pacifica, a beautiful beach and ocean view. And yes, the skies looked like this almost all week. Cloudy and temp in the upper 60s.

Here's a picture from our first lunch stop.  The kit for the "Slayers" team give you an idea of how people looked.

Further down the coast, at the Pigeon Point, were the Pink Ladies, who have been doing this for ALC for eight years. 

As we rode down the coast on route 1, we went through the Big Basin park and its surroundings that were decimated by the fires of 2020.

Rest stop 3 was a Star Wars theme.  Peter did a picture with Princess Leia.

Chicken Lady did a display of his wares in the stands of the Santa Cruz bike garage. He appears in the video as well for the back story. 

Day 1 was a great day.  I finished the 82 miles strong, as opposed to 2019, where I sagged from rest stop 3 to the end.  We stayed at Joe, our team captain's, house and avoided both hotels and tents.