A great ride out through the San Diego River valley

I don't have a correct track and profile for today's ride because I forgot the GPSr. I was excited to ride my new $150.00 bike.



The weather was beautiful. Rain had been predicted, so Steve was riding a hybrid mountain bike. Tom was also riding a different bike, his "rain" bike. So there were three of us on unfamiliar bikes. Larry helped me adjust the derailleur on my new Mako bike so it would shift better. I also had to learn how to use the shifters. Campy does things differently from Shimano . . .

Another Mountain Bike Ride on Barber Road

This was my companion's first Mountain Bike ride and he did great.

I fell over . . . twice.

Those pedals are getting replaced with platform pedals . . .

A Good Samaritan Comes to my Rescue

As I pedaled hard up Dehesa hill, I suddenly heard an awful crunching sound and couldn't pedal anymore. I struggled to get my feet out of the pedals, so I could stop before falling over. I turned around and looked at the derailleur on my bike. It was turned upside down on top of the cassette . . .

The guys, including Hector who is a very good bike mechanic, took off the derailleur and shortened my chain so I could ride the bike back to town in one gear.

Because it has been cold, I haven't worn my short-sleeved "Kokopelli" jersey for several weeks, but this morning I decided to get it out and wear it. When my bike chain hopped onto a larger sprocket on the rear cluster and I could not pedal anymore, I impulsively stuck out my thumb when I saw a pickup truck approaching.

The man turned around and stopped. When Steve and I explained the problem and told him where I needed to go, he volunteered to take me and my bike back to the RSD shopping center.

On the dash of his truck was a little Kokopelli figure . . .

What are the odds?

Here are the tracks of my shortened ride:

A Sunday ride for a change

Because of all the rain and bad weather Saturday, I wasn't able to ride. But, Steve Six wanted to ride today, so we met at the RSD shopping center. Later on we rode with Frank and we took a different way home with him.

After he split off from us, we took quite the tour of Granite Hills.

Here is the profile of that long ride.

A little ride with "Sit-down" Steve on Barber Road

Larry was hit by a car this morning

As we waited in the parking lot, a vehicle drove up to Jim and said a bicyclist had been hit by a car on Fury. Since Larry is always on time, and he wasn't there yet, it was a good chance he was the victim.

We quickly took off on our bikes and pedaled up the steep hill to the accident scene. The paramedics were carefully getting Larry on a backboard in preparation for a short ride in an ambulance to the waiting LifeFlight helicopter, which had landed in a nearby park.

The woman who hit him with her BMW was distraught, and when I heard how the accident happened, I can understand how she missed seeing Larry riding down the Bike Lane. However, she should have fully checked for all oncoming traffic before initiating left turn.

After Pete took Larry's bike back to his house, only four of us continued on the ride, Jim, Steve, Frank, and me. No one said a word as we rode down Willow Glen and Dehesa Road. Once Frank took the lead, the guys pulled away from me, so I turned around at the bottom of Harbison Canyon and headed back. It took almost the entire ride before my brain could think about anything else but Larry and his condition.

Here are the tracks for my shortened ride:



And here are the results of the heart rate monitor for both Thursday and Friday's rides:




When I got home, I called Larry at Sharp Memorial. He has cracked ribs, a broken shoulder, and six stitches in his head. It will be a long time before he'll be able to ride again, and that makes me sad.

A ride from fog up into bright sunshine

It was overcast and very cool when we started out from the Starbuck's parking lot at 8:00, but with just a bit of elevation gain, we were in the sunshine and clear skies accented with a few very high clouds. Jim, Frank, and Steve set a very fast pace going out Willow Glen Road and I could have used my new fleece earmuffs I bought a couple of weeks ago.

The profile of my ride looks familiar because I stopped at the Starbuck's where both "Sit-down" Steve and Tom were stopping. The faster, stronger men continued out East Willows Road.



This is what the heart-rate monitor recorded for today's ride:



Coming back I didn't have to work very hard because I was drafting behind Jim. There was one heck of a headwind and I was never tempted to take the lead after my "first place finish" going down Harbison Canyon.

I felt better today, back to the way I felt two months ago when I first started riding with this wonderful group of people. I hope they know how much I appreciate their company. Their friendships mean a lot to me. It has been wonderful to expand my social contacts since I met them in September.