not quite there

I mapped out a ride to put me over a few hills and take in a little scenery. Today's plan was to ride this:


The weather was the nicest it's been since I've been here. As I started out the sky was mostly blue.


The wind was blowing a bit more than normal, but temperatures were moderate.



As I got into the hills the dark clouds began move in. I'm of the opinion that the best thing that "sunny southern California" has going for it is a good PR firm. In the two weeks I've been here it seems that the "rainy Pacific NW" has had better weather! I stopped to take this picture of the dark clouds:

As I did so a guy rode by and commented that there wasn't much to take a photo of there. I stowed the camera and caught up to him. We visited a bit. He told me he rode a lot and really appreciated the cooler weather of late. I'd slow to keep in the conversation but was thinking it was because we had a bit of morning commute traffic yet and single file was better. About that time we began up a reasonable hill. It seems that this guy remembered to bring the bike (Trek Madone 5.0) fancy riding togs, and biking stories............ just forgot to bring the legs! I climbed right away from him, never saw him again.

I was in some reasonably hilly country but pedaled along pretty well.


I had a good supply of ride food along, but when I saw a Taco Bell at 11:30AM I decided that it was a good time for a break.

I mapped the ride to bring me past several lakes. They provided some nice views, unfortunately, the batteries in my camera gave out. I suppose I could have stopped somewhere along the route and picked up some new ones, but the project manager was back doing some painting while I was out riding so I felt a certain need to keep the futzing around to a minimum.

After playing around in the hills a bit I turned towards the coast and rode down Carmel Valley. When I reached the ocean, near Del Mar, I turned back south and began a pretty decent climb up Torrey Pines Rd before dropping back down to Pacific Beach and wrapping up the trip.

I was tantalizingly close to a century, but as mentioned, I felt a bit guilty about playing while there was work to be done. I was hoping to get a chance to ride those 8 miles to bring me up to 100, but alas........ the San Diego tour guide had plans for dinner and a walking tour around the harbor tonight.

A pretty good reason to miss an eight mile ride!



+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
...............Road Bike.....LifeCycle.....Total Miles
Today............92...............0.................92
Jan total.......501.....+.........30.......=.......531
Feb total.......614.....+.........0........=.......614
March total.....860.....+.........0........=.......860
April total.....790.....+.........0........=.......790
May total.......901.....+.........0........=.......901
June total......143.....+.........0........=.......143
Year to date...3845.....+.........30.......=......3875
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++