Blog Editor

Editing Post: 2025-09-12 Cancel

Title

Text

An interesting day, w/ some crazy steep hills, but overall not too sharp or too long. We're spending the night in an RV park, but one w/ plenty of space, shade, laundry, and fabulous grass.
Because of my knee replacement last November, these last two days are the longest I've done this year.

It was fun, though. I started riding with/ Doug (owned a company decimated by tariffs and newly retired) and Molly (worked for Bike Friday for a few years), two folk who met on an earlier ride and got so close that their families know each other. Both are exceedingly strong riders. We were soon joined by Jim, recently retired from a company that builds facilities for high-tech needs, recently work in San Francisco for a relatively large amount of time.

I had a blast w/ those three until we hit the 17% hill (!!!), after which I biked mostly with Pam (not fast but incredibly strong, recently rode the Tour D'Afrique from Cairo to Cape Town (6000 miles, 4 months, in Africa), Tim, a laconic dude from Louisiana, and Jeff G, a recently retired high mucky-muck from ATT and who lives in Ohio and Florida. We also spent some time with Anne, who works in senior living and serves on boards for community banks.

On this trip there are a ton of connections between various riders (and our leader Brielle):

<ul>
<li>Jeff G/Tim/Bob all rode the Southern Tier in 2023.
</li>
<li>Brielle was the leader of the 2024 TransAm that included Stephon, Jim, Molly, and Doug.
</li>
<li>"Mark" (not on this tour) was a co-leader of both the above.
</li>
<li>Brielle and Pam were both riders on the Sierra Sampler in 2016, when their leader was Kelly Hannigan.
</li>
<li>Kelly Hannigan was leader when I did the Southern Tier in 2018
</li>
<li>Anne and Brielle both know a Steve Powell.
</li>
<li>Pam's oldest friend's sister is a good friend of Stephon (though they didn't know each other)
</li>
<li>I've been talking longingly about doing this crazy trip doing basically the length of Africa, and Pam turns out to have done this last year.
</li>
</ul>
Being part of a community of bike tourers is fun.

Surrounding the picnic table are Tim, Stephon, Jeff from Ohio, Anne, Jim, Pam, and me.

The picture w/ the three are Jeff G, Jeff Z, and me. Jeff G is telling us about the dildo he supposedly saw on the side of the road.

Mileage

Climbing (feet)

Latitude

Longitude

Visible