Honeymoon - Newport, OR - Day 5

Last day of our honeymoon. We both woke up very early and noticed that it was raining. Apparently Bozo had been up for a little while and couldn't get back to sleep. Then we opened the sliding glass door to hear the rain and the waves and she was out! lol How are we ever going to sleep at home again??

Up around 9am for breakfast, which wasn't too bad for a larger hotel. They had square egg patties that Bozo made into a little sandwich. The rest was the usual bread, cereal, yogurt, and oatmeal fare with a waffle maker to boot.

During our breakfast we also saw the news about the LAX shooting. We had seen bits and pieces here and there but chose not to listen further until today. We just didn't want to disturb our minds with the information. Our flight today was not impacted and it seems like only flights from home that may connect with LA are impacted. So, we were on schedule. Until there was a mechanical issue and we needed to change planes. But it was only about half an hour delay so that was okay.

Our drive from Newport to the Portland Airport was beautiful. It alternated from sunny to foggy to rainy and back again. We were going through forest much of the time and took a bit longer route through Salem to avoid getting on I-5 quite as quickly. We stopped at a Country Pride restaurant at a truck stop and had a good fried lunch. The server was awesome! Apparently we looked like we were in a hurry so she rushed us along. We weren't in as much of a hurry as we apparently looked. But it was good to have fast service! When we got off at the last exit before the airport for gas, it was raining and started to hail just slightly. I yelled, "NOOOO! We have to get under the gas station cover!" We hadn't gotten any extra insurance for the rental car. lol The last thing we needed was hail in our last 10 minutes with the car! No worries. The hail ended quickly.

No trouble returning the car and the shuttle from Alamo Car Rentals to the Portland International Airport departures was about half the time as it was to get to the car rental. That was a nice surprise! We had planned for at least 20 minutes since that's what it took to get there.

Nothing much different at the airport except TSA had black bands on their badges. There may have been more security but it wasn't overwhelming and getting through was just as fast. Though I have to acknowledge that we are both middle aged white women and have the privilege of not generally being the ones profiled. So others' experiences may have been different during this time particularly.

The flight was mostly uneventful. Just a bit of turbulence that made the flight attendants sit. I kept saying that as long as he was handling coffee, we were okay. Then he sat. Arrgh! Didn't last long though. Because of the plane switch, we missed our city bus and had to wait an extra 45 minutes. No big deal in general but the waiting time was beginning to add up and we were ready to just be home.

Finally home, all was intact… with the pungent smell of burlap still in the air! lol We made a quick trip to the post office and picked up a package…. a gift… from REI! Yes!

The Honeymoon was exactly as a Honeymoon should be! And now we settle back in to our lives!

Remember to move the clocks back an hour tonight!!

View from our room at the Elizabeth Street Inn

AIDS/LifeCycle 11 - Day Five

Santa Maria to Lompoc

Distance - 41.85
Time - 3.21.41
Avg Speed - 12.4mph
Max Speed - 41.0 mph

RED DRESS DAY!

Is it possible to have surprise climbs?? Yes, it is! I guess it would help if we looked at the elevation profile but I think that was even slightly underestimating. At dinner the night before, apparently they were going over the ride for today and no mention of climbing was made. Well, there were a couple very good climbs I must say.

Team Sacramento intended to ride together for at least part of the day but most of them left while I was getting ready to head out. A text from Kenny said The Misfits were planning to leave later so I headed out on my own. With a crowd. lol First part of the ride was pretty flat and a good warm up on a cold morning. I caught up with Team Sacto at the Rest Stop 1 where we took some photos and did some red dress site seeing. There are some very creative and daring people in this world! I took off with Team Sacto, which is the first time I have actually ridden with any of them. lol On training rides they were always well ahead of me so I mostly rode alone. We did a good job staying together until we got to the first climb. Though there was a head wind and it was safer to stay at the back of the group, I needed to climb faster. So I pulled out and, after recovering from the hit of wind I took, was able to climb on. Bear caught up eventually and we each passed Samantha. Bear stopped at the top and so did Samantha and I. There was some talk about whether this was the top or not... Bear thought yes and Samantha thought no. So far Samantha has been pretty accurate in her memory of the ride from last year so I had to go with her. It was definitely NOT the end of the climb. This first climb just seemed to go on and on. I heard people yelling, singing, talking to themselves, etc. Eventually I started saying out loud, "This is vol-un-tary! This is my choice! I am not in prison!" This helped me to count my pedal strokes and made a couple people laugh, which is always helpful. Eventually made it to the actual top after a couple of false summits. Then a great downhill toward Rest Stop 2. Apparently I was taking a bit too much of the road because a car passenger gave me the finger when they passed by. A little horn toot and I would have moved over but I didn't know they were there. Ah well, they lost about 3 seconds in their drive.

Rest Stop 2 was a Bad Bride theme. Cute! More photos, food, and liquids then Perry and I took off to begin the second climb. This one was a switchback that is apparently supposed to look like a red ribbon as we ride. Of course it never crosses over itself so that's impossible but I'm sure it looks very cool from above! I didn't find this climb nearly as difficult as the first. I believe it was shorter so that was probably part of it. Or possibly I just blocked out the pain. (=

The lunch stop was about 3 miles from the end of the ride for the day. Gotta love that! I grabbed my food and sat in front of the "The Voice" stage and waited to see people I know. John E. showed up and sat with me but then the rest of Team Sacto showed up and sat elsewhere so we moved. "The Voice" was great lunchtime entertainment after which The Misfits got our Red Dress Day photo taken and then headed out for the 3-mile ride home.

Another Motel 6 but this one was quite far from ALC Camp. So we went there so I could shower and change before heading back for the Team Sacto "official" team photo. We got a little lost trying to get back to the park and they were not able to wait for me so I missed out on that photo. Bummer. But we went to the meal tent for dinner and I definitely ate my fair share.

There was a comedian for entertainment tonight, Shawn Pelofsky, who was very funny! With a hotel and a memory foam bed, she became the hottest chick in the place. A long day tomorrow so we didn't stay for the whole show. Back to Motel 6 for some Princess sleeping!

BWCA II - Day 5

Travel - None. Stayed on Heritage Lake.

Lorrie woke up in the middle of the night and saw the North Star. Then she woke up again to a very bright moon that lit up our whole tent. I wish she had woken me up to see them. But I'd had a difficult time falling asleep so I understand. Before that, we'd heard the most incredible 2 loon calls. I'm going to try and video tape those tomorrow night!

We got up pretty leisurely. Sue and Terry went fishing while we made breakfast - egg and hash brown scramble. Sue and Terry caught "Freddie," who we decided to eat for dinner. Yes, I'm a little uncomfortable naming my food. But that wasn't my choice! lol Anyway, breakfast was great!

Lorrie and I then decided to go explore the lake a little. We saw 2 deer pretty close up, checked out the other campsite on the lake, saw a loon, and basically just glided around. Nice pace. We wet our shirts to stay cool in the breeze. It was nice. "Nice" seems to be the key word. Terry and Sue went out exploring more so when we got back, we had camp to ourselves. Lunch was summer sausage wraps with cheese. Terry and Sue came back and we lounged around for the afternoon. Eventually Terry and Lorrie were in their tents, Sue was in her hammock, and I kept shifting around trying to get comfortable. I never really did. Too hot! I read some while sitting by the water. Then finally decided to go to the tent with Lorrie to get away from the bugs. She was reading and said it was comfortable (Mediterranean women!) I was burning up! I complained that I would never be able to sleep. Eventually she opened the bottom of the door a bit to let more breeze in and she laughs that I immediately fell asleep. For about an hour. lol Then it was "cocktail hour." Terry and Sue had a head start. Ha! So I mixed some propel and vodka into my water. Not bad! Lorrie and I made mac and cheese while Sue took Terry across the lake to clean Freddie for dinner. He tasted very good! We all said a blessing on him for being our sustenance for the evening. Still wasn't really comfortable with that. But really, he did taste good.

We have gotten along very well as a foursome. I can see why Sue limits her trips to 4 as I could see 6 potentially being a problem. Ya never know! Terry is hilarious with her little quips! She works as "the lunch lady" for an elementary school in Wisconsin. Sue has funny sarcasm that I can appreciate! She's done a great job organizing this trip. And I've definitely learned from her about some gadgets that we need to get (hammock from Sportsmans' Warehouse). No conflicts among us. That I know of anyway! Maybe *I'm* the problem! lol Just easy going and hard working! I would definitely do another trip as this foursome again. Preferably later in the summer and without the amount of portaging we did in one day yesterday! Just a preference! (=

So now the dishes are done, Terry and Sue are fishing some more, and we are watching the sunset on our last night deep within the Boundary Waters. Still beautiful! Even after all these hard days and millions of mosquitoes, gnats, and ticks. And even wearing a damn babushka. Ha! Tomorrow will be a hard day... 5 portages, 2 times each. But on the other end are hot or cold showers, cold beers for them and a cold coke for me. I am ready!

Fish caught and eaten - Freddie (RIP)
Fish caught and released - Helga, Gunther, and Isis

Boundary Waters (Day 5 - August 11, 2007)

Got up at the hotel around 8am and took our time getting ready to go. We went down and grabbed some food from the continental breakfast and brought it back to the room. By the time we left, I think we'd taken 6 bananas! Not sure why! lol Got back on the interstate and took I-94 over to Hwy 52 then to Hwy 19. That seemed a little faster since we avoided Mpls traffic. We got to the vet between 12 and 12:30. Perfect! I'm not sure I mentioned before that the reason we left the camp Friday night instead of today was because I had to pick up the dogs by 1pm today or they'd be there all weekend. I didn't want that so we needed to head out early. The only thing I regretted about that is that it would have been incredible to see the people who have been in the wilderness for a month or over to return. Anyway, the dogs were extremely happy to see us. I was very glad to see them too! We went to my house and unloaded then Lorrie went home to shower and get organized. I took a nap! lol I was exhausted for some reason. She came over later to watch a movie and relax more. Next we head back up to the North Shore for the Gitchi-Gami bike ride and camping.

Another aside that I didn't mention much was the fact that my friend Candace and her girlfriend were supposed to go on this trip with us. I met Candace when I was in Michigan but she now lives in North Carolina. They'd paid their deposit and bought their plane tickets. Then something happened at the hospital where Candace works and they took away her vacation time. It would definitely have been a different experience with them there. Good I'm sure! But I think we did okay for just the two of us with a guide! (=

TRAM (Day 5 - July 27, 2007)

Fergus Falls to Alexandria, MN

Distance = 47.07
Time = 3.32.45
Max speed = 20.5 mph
Avg speed = 13.3

Our last morning! We got everything packed up then headed down to the Viking Cafe from last night. The dive! They serve a pretty good breakfast! A bunch of old geezers hanging out eating breakfast and drinking coffee. You know it's good! We all took off together but were quickly separated again. Lorrie and I were just taking it easy and wanted to make sure we took in all the scenery. It was almost completely on a trail so the riding was nice. There were a few little hills but nothing major. We skipped the first rest stop and were promptly passed by Brian after he'd stopped there. A little while down the road Tim and Heidi passed us. It was weird to think we had been ahead of them at all! lol But they said they were taking it easy as well. We started seeing riddles along the sides of the trail. I was reading out the riddle and Lorrie was yelling out the answer. She was riding with Heidi and I was with Tim. It was still too fast to get all the answers. But they all had to do with Christmas and Santa Claus. We decided to stop at this rest area and get Lorrie's gears checked out one more time. The mechanic told her if that didn't work to check it out at the next one. lol Good quality work eh?! We also had our photo taken with the Claus Family. It had to have been hot in those outfits. But they looked pretty cool. I can't remember the name of the town but it was very cute. There was a bed and breakfast for sale as well. They were serving breakfast and coffee on their porch... or what it their patio? Got some food and water and took off again. The trail, I think it's the Heartland Trail, was really nice. I think I heard that it was relatively new, which explains the lack of cracking and such. The scenery was nice too! Yes, it was mainly still farmland. But I *am* in Minnesota ya know! And some of the are quite picturesque... if you ask me. The last rest area was very small but they had a lot of watermelon! Bonus! Lorrie had her bike checked out one more time since it was still making a chinking noise. He determined that it was the pedal and not the gears. Said she needed to have her bearings reset. Sheesh! So we decided to embrace the noise! lol I grabbed one of the milks they have been giving out the past few days and put it in my pocket to save for later. I had wanted some before but can't imagine how milk would sit in my stomach while cycling. It doesn't sound promising! Lorrie took one too but after about a mile stopped and drank it because it was harder to carry than to just drink! lol Nothing major happened between this point and the finish. We just took our time, talking, and enjoyed the end of the ride together. It was kindof exciting to get to the finish! We had to stop and take a few pictures of course! This was the entrance to the Douglas County Fairgrounds... and the unofficial finish. But we didn't know that. So we were excited! lol There was another gentleman who was also finishing so we took a photo of him as well! So we did it. Together. And we still like each other. That's pretty cool. We continued on that road and the official finish was there. They had an inflatable arch, cow bells, a radio announcer, etc. It was pretty cool. There was a small crowd but nothing major. Heidi came running out to greet us. She said they'd been waiting but got hungry so were in line for food. We put our finishing medals on and went to line up for food. It's always about the food eh!? lol Burgers, chicken, watermelon, salads... it was all there. So we all ate together and hung out. That was nice. I was under the impression that as soon as they got there they would disperse and we wouldn't see each other again. Nice surprise! They all left shortly after we finished eating. Except Jan. She had to wait for Brian to ride someplace else to pick up his van. Poor guy! We stuck around and waited for the last rider to finish. I thought maybe they would have something for the volunteers like at the AIDS Ride. We waited for quite some time. I did get a cowbell out of the deal. Some guy saw me dancing and said I could shake the bell too! lol Cool! A kid next to me wanted one too so I went and found one for him to keep. I wasn't giving up my swag!! Well... I would have. But I didn't want to! lol Anyway, the last riders were what I assume were a mother and her son. It was pretty cool but, I have to say, slightly anti-climactic. And then we headed home. And the
last photo on my little disposable camera was one of my trucks in a parking lot in Alexandria! (= Works for me! It's been a great week and I'm very glad that I got talked into doing this ride! I'd be happy to do it again next year. The Minnesota AIDS Ride, called the Red Ribbon Ride here, was the week before this year. Maybe I can do both and just ride all during July!

ALC/LifeCycle 5 - Day Five (June 8, 2006)

RED DRESS DAY!! This day is basically a blur! It was "only" about 44 miles. But there was one pretty good climb so it wasn't an easy day. I found out early in the morning that my tentmate had an accident the day before. Apparently she had run into a pole marking the entrance to a trail and hurt her ribs. She finished riding, which explains her stuff being in the tent, and then went to the med tent when they returned. They immediately to her to the hospital. And here I had thought maybe they'd gotten a hotel room again that night! I'm sortof glad I didn't know because I would have been worried. This way I was just jealous that she was sleeping in a bed... which she was... but in a hospital. So I packed all her stuff up for her and left it with her friend so they could get what they needed for her or take the whole thing if she was going home. They (her team, The Pee Team) were going to SAG for the day so they could stay at the hospital with her. Aside from that, the atmosphere was definitely festive. People had put a lot of thought, time, and energy into their attire for the day. *I* was not one of them! lol I had basically grabbed a nightie that I wear and decided to wear that over a red jersey and riding shorts. Ha! I'll be more creative next time! The picture is Khoa (who actually makes a pretty hot girl!), Kar, Elaine, Suzann, Kenny, and me. Kar was definitely one of the most creative! Though it wasn't technically a dress, he had taken ribbons and written all his donors names on them then pinned them to his traditional Chinese pants and shirt. SO many people wanted their pictures taken with him. It was very cute!! There was another guy who rode on 3-4 inch heels! He had his seat height fit professionally for the shoes and then had a clip put on one of the shoes so he could clip into his pedal! A little bit crazy if you ask me! But very cool! He got a standing ovation at lunch! Remember that climb I mentioned?? lol Yeah, he did that. How will he top that next year I wonder! A funny thing about this day is the rest stop at the Winifred Wollman School. I assume they stop there every year. So every year these kids come outside and see all these men and women in dresses riding their bikes. Obviously they haven't been traumatized or the school wouldn't have let us use their space. And they certainly wouldn't have had the kids outside talking to us and doing some roadie stuff for us. Tiny town in California and they're more open minded than some of the larger places. That was one of those times when I saw the impact of just riding. Nothing more... just ride. Show them who we are... that they are us too. Give them a little orange plastic bracelet to remember us by. And let them use their own brains to process it. The parents have to be supportive too... we all know how parents can affect things! Poignant! Another climb out of the rest stop. That was cool to see! All the red climbing up that hill... it really was like veins in the body. I'm sure they were hard but I don't remember the climbs being all that difficult. I'm sure that's partly due to my getting in better shape, also to the shorter day, and finally to the excitement of knowing it was a shorter day and the red dress thing. I do remember being pretty excited on that climb and just going for it though. Really the only reason I remember that at all is because I waited for awhile before my riding buddies showed up. We sat and relaxed while we ate together. There was only about 7 miles of riding left after lunch so we were in no hurry. I don't think any of us had plans to go into Lomoc (pronounced Lom-poke). There were shuttles taking people into town that wanted to go. Apparently there are some shopping and restaurants there. I guess if I was going, I would have just planned to ride in. But I just didn't have any interest. I thought being around camp sounded more attractive to me. Did the same stuff as usual. Got some more ice for my hand then headed over to dinner... kinda early. But Suzann was already there so I sat with her. I think we were both happy to have some time to just hang out. We basically just sat there the whole time... until the sun started going away and then we moved toward the middle to get some body heat going. Hung out there until announcements and stuff. I made a mistake in yesterday's blog. The talent show was tonight... and it was good. Before it started, I fell asleep with my head on the table! lol Guess I was a little tired. The picture was taken after I woke up! lol But I stayed awake for a few of the acts and then headed out. The Russian comedian was hysterical... and the singers were all quite talented. There was some good dancing too... including a Hula dancer (I think that's what she was). At some point I figured I would hear everything from my tent so I decided to leave. On my way I decided to check out my "Messages of Support" on the computers they had set up for just that purpose. It's cool to go see that people are thinking of me while I'm out there on the road sweating my ass off. It seems like such a small thing... but I tell you what, I cried quite a few times reading what people had written to me! Done with that... med tent for some more ice... and off to bed. Knowing that Sue was in the hospital, it wasn't quite as nice having the tent all to myself. /= Another thing that I forgot to mention... instead of bucket laundry, I have been washing my clothes in the shower. lol I just walk in with my clothes on, wash with laundry soap as if I'm washing my body... rinse and remove. lol Then I wash and rinse the insides and hang them on the little soap/shampoo shelf on the shower head. (= Much easier than the bucket!! Oh yeah, this was another phone charging location. Same system... plastic ziploc and leaving it out over night. Okay, but I have to tell this one last story... because I can! I was standing where I was going to plug my phone in. And while I was standing there, a woman was getting ready to go into the shower truck. No one was really around since most people had already showered awhile ago. So she's standing there... and she takes off her pants and underwear. So she's literally butt naked... though she still had a shirt on. She obviously realized what she had done and seemed to panic a little. Looked around and saw me... put her pants back on real quick. Then went into the shower. I felt bad for her because I would have been really embarrassed. But it was also quite humorous. Goes to show how comfortable we can get with our surroundings! Even if those surroundings are outside your shower truck!!