ALC Day 2: Santa Cruz to King City

Day two was our longest day, and I felt ready for it.  After sleeping in a real bed at Joe's, we got a lift over to Santa Cruz to have breakfast and start the ride.

This was our ride director dressed for safety day, day 2. The theme was orange, as in Coney, who you saw on day 0.

Each day's bike racks were named after different themes.  Santa Cruz's theme was cities, but we had TV shows and gay stars in two of them later.

I wore  my MS kit, as it was the best orange I had, along with my orange cougar socks. I thought I was pretty cool in my orange, but other people and teams did a much better job,.

This is a shot of the two bunk rooms at Saint Francis's retreat center.  This part seemed tranquil and much like it was when Ann and I did Cursillo there.  The rest of it was a very different scene.  I put this picture in for the friends we still have at Saint Andrews in Saratoga.

The Salinas valley is often said to be the salad bowl of the US.  Here is a field of Andy Boy romaine lettuce, stretching for miles. The great thing with the ride from Salinas to King City was that there was a tailwind of 15+ mph.  It made the 108 miles easy.   

Day 2 has had a long tradition of the "Otter Pop Stop" on day 2.  It was at this stop in 2019 that I realized we were not in Kansas any more.  I had my picture taken at the photo booth, posted it on Facebook and received NO comments.  Here's the 2019 picture.

I was determined to do a photo again this year, but did not care about Facebook. They had a much better photographer and more aggressive bears than four years ago.  And the funniest line before the picture was the photographer calling out "we need more bears here." He got them. It started as a simple pic

But then turned into "we need some skin," complete with the disappointment that I was wearing two layers.  

I had no idea what was happening until I saw the pictures. And then I cracked up laughing. The last picture certainly is a treasure.

Here are a few other pictures of some people at the stop, including how we were greeted from the road.

When we arrived at the bike corral at the end of the ride, we were presented with a carton of chocolate milk. Before I lost 40 pounds by cutting out sugars, baked goods, and other things that would cause an insulin spike, I used to drink chocolate milk at the end of each ride from my house, even if just an hour or two.  I stopped this at the start of the year as I dropped weight. But on this ride, my body needed all the carbs it could get.  Drinking chocolate milk helped keep me going until I got to dinner.

Here's a typical dinner plate.  I went back for more pasta and a second dessert.  Having two dinners was an often-expected event.

Here's a picture of our gear offloaded from the trucks for pickup at the end of the day in camp.

It was a great day.  I finished 108 miles in 2019 and did it again this year. The difference was that I finished strong and passed some people in the last 30 miles.  Lest I seem too cocky, people were passing me as well.