TOC Recap

My time in Cali was very well spent. From a vacation perspective, there wasn't a need to do a whole lot, so even though we spent hours over hours riding, there was plenty of time to chill out and do nothing except watch the view from the porch.

It felt so great to have shorts on and not freeze. Even the cold days were exceptionally warmer then the temps back home. In fact, when I landed there was snow on the ground (not the same novelty as the top of mountains in Cali) and a chill in the air. Within a week of being home, a blizzard is bearing down on us threatening 15 inches of snow. Seems like the skiing isn't over yet, nor the massive trainer time. Only home a week, and I'm already counting down the time until next year.

I want to close my trip to Cali with some observations. There were over a dozen cars that started to pull out into the street, then when they would see cyclists, would back up and let us pass through, amazing. Dedicated cycling lanes through many of the city streets. Very strange when the cycling lane is in the middle of the road, with straight traffic on your left and right turning traffic on your right. Temperature is relative, cold for some isn't nearly the same as cold for others. While the climing was epic and never-ending, I still think it's harder to climb in the east. My reasoning is out west you can really get into a tempo and ride at your threshold. In the east the hills roll so constantly, that you are spiking over your threshold for a minute, recovering, then doing it over again. And even though the majority of cars are driven by conscious minded individuals, they still have assholes, as evident by honking horns and the one lady who passed a very large group by overtaking us into the lane for oncoming traffic and almost pasting the front several cyclists who were taking a left. Of course, as wrong as she was, the front several cyclists never looked to see if there were cars. Amazing. Amazing good and amazing bad, but I will be back for next year.

Final tally; nearly 500 miles, over 31 hours of riding, 40,000 feet of climbing and awesome memories.