It's kind of hard to write up a ride recap when Anne and Bill did such a beautiful job. I'll do what I can not to be redundant.
Like all good trips or experiences it always starts with some challenging event. Like what I tell my students when they start complaining about running the mile, "If it's not hard then it won't be fun". Well if the trip started with a sidewall flat then I knew this was going to be fun. I got to borrow my brother's bike the famous accordion honjo fendered bike for the trip, jury-rigged my platrack sackville bag to fit his soma porteur rack ( which fit without much trouble) and hanged most of the things that I didn't fit outside of the rack. Like how Bill describe it the rear exploded with such fury that I thought the trip was going to be over before it started. But low and behold things happen for a reason and Bill gave a call to Rivendell. Super Grant was there to help save the day. Wrestling on the tire and getting pumped up only to find out that the tire was rubbing on the fender I figured I would have to deal with it for today so I ride off, when I hear Grant yelling at me, "Come back Manny I have a better solution for you." I come back and he's pulling out a 48cm Hunqapillar display bike out from the shop for me to borrow. Horrid that I had to put Grant out, I figured this was going happen whether or not I was going to like it or not. It's weird because getting a loaner bike from Rivendell would be a dream from some people. I felt like a horrible person that I had to had to trouble Grant to accommodate my mistake. But I digress, more on this later. So after some basket fitting, we're off riding up Diablo with gorgeous views of the sun setting in the over Walnut Creek. We get to the campsite almost in the dark meeting up with Dustin and Anne. We sent up our tents and get ready for dinner. Food is good and plentiful with our butter cooked veggies and bacon-wrapped hotdogs. We sleep well until we hear some near by neighbor practicing his karate at 2am in the morning (he was shooing off raccoons I was told). I wake up to find Bill and Anne making coffee and Bill ready to go to work. Before he did he took the summit; nothing like starting your day climbing a mountain before work! Around 8ish we all got up and rode to the summit for some good morning ice cream sandwiches at the summit vistor center. This is were Anne took her leave and bit us adue as she ride back to San Jose. We rode down pass the ranger station to scope out a spot to take pictures of the race. Dustin pick a great shaded area 200m before the KOM. It's funny how riding a mountain and waiting a couple of hours to watch other people ride the same mountain for 10 seconds can bring such a crowd. The atmosphere before the ride was quite interesting. It became more of a mini party deck out with free ice cream and people dressing in ludicrous costumes dressed as cats, witches, raccoons, Zorro and even (gasp) Lycra! I'm one to talk as I was at the race dressed in my SF Randonneur's (wool) Jersey. We spend our time waiting for the riders by eating. Dustin was nice of enough to share his lunch of cheese and salami. I had rope from my hammock so I decided string up a chair to wait on. Got to meet with a people who stopped by and said hi. Mike who was suppose to meet us up at Juniper but decided(smartly) to sleep near the ranger station because they rode up wall point prior. Grant and former Rivendell employee Peter even stopped by and hung out as we all waited for the racers to make their way up the mountain. After the 10 second flash of 18> pound bikes the descent down Diablo was amazingly hectic with so many riders. We make our way back to Rivendell said our good byes to Dustin, dropped off the loaner bike at the shop and we jumped on bart. I find it amazing that this trip was made possible through just simple communication of time and place on this forum. With very actually conversations with real people. Oh the wonders of the interweb. It also was interesting to note that despite the many differences and many routes of how we got to our main destination we were brought together for good times, good food, amazing people and great bikes. Another awesome trip. Already looking forward to the next one. Pictures proved that I didn't go to school that day: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjzppyVU Better pictures proved that I stole my girlfriends camera: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjzpyB7j -Manny "Bacon Wrapped Anything" Acosta oh yea I picked up my new Hillborne too. More on this later. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rbw-owners-bunch/-/6eb2yOwnPOkJ. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
