Simple Hobby Homesteading

For my fellow CCC riders reading this blog and completetly annoyed with the fact that my day 8 actually equates to day 6 on the ride I’ll clarify…. Today is day 6 of actually riding but because I icluded travel days in my narrative it is day 8 of our “adventure”.

We wake up in a hotel feeling rested and excited to jump on our bikes. We hop on a shuttle to go down to breakfast where I scarf down another big plate of potatoes… I think they put crack in those potates to make your body crave them. I cannot confirm this… I’m just sayin’.

There is marked improvement in Kevin’s neck and his headache is gone. His upper thigh issue is still painful but he thinks he’s able to ride. It’s Oceano to Buellton today and we have an extra special treat waiting for us in Buellton… a visit with a dear friend and coworker of Kevin’s from his time as a contractor at Vandenberg Air Force Base (you could say he was a rocket scientist of sorts while I was active duty Air Force there). Rich has been an incredible source of support and encouragement throughout our training, travels, and the ride thus far so I can’t wait to give him a big hug and catch up on life in person.

We head off and even though we have a long climb ahead of us today through 66 miles, I look forward to it because almost all of it is gradual. I can do gradual climbing all day long… it’s just those straight up climbs that are a challenge to me. There is a straight up part at the end of the gradual climb and it is called “the wall”. I will pretend “the wall” does not exist. That will work, right?

This is the day I can finally say I’m officially an expert in clipping out of my pedals. Kevin has been so insanely patient with me and has explained over and over again the mechanics of slowing down, getting off the seat, clipping out with one foot, leaning ever so slightly and then stopping (if need be) with one foot still clipped in so you can start off more solid and easily when needed or just keep going if the light changes before you get there. At the end of the day pulling into San Simeon (two days ago) I can say it all finally clicked (literally lol!). Today I am excited to stop and go as much as I need to with a new confidence in these wonderful speed play pedals! Kevin breathes a huge sigh of relief as well.

Kevin and I were both a bit giddy as we rode into Santa Maria. For eight years we would head to the mall in Santa Maria for a pretzel and a lemonade at Hot Dog on a Stick. This is the city where I gave birth to our oldest son 15 years ago! The memories flooded back and we just had to take a little detour and hit up our old Starbucks down the main strip. We both enjoyed some smoothies/frappucinos and then were on our way once again.

We rode past the hospital where I gave birth and I couldn’t wait to tell our son! Seeing that hospital took me back to the day he was born 15 years ago. I thought I was in labor but wasn’t exactly sure… it was the day after my due date and I thought it might all just be in my head because I was SO READY to have this kid! I talked Kevin into a walk around the block and about 2 minutes into it I realized that this was the real deal. We waddled (in truth, I waddled while Kevin walked quite normally) back to the house, grabbed my hospital bag and car seat and hopped into or little pickup truck to head to the hospital. It was a 30 minute drive and it seemed Kevin was going 15 miles under the speed limit. Halfway there we realized I forgot my purse. I was convinced they would not admit me unless I had identification so I talked Kevin into turning around to get it. We turned around, got back home, grabbed my purse and then on the way back to the hospital Kevin searched out every pothole to drive over just to make the drive interesting and painful (not really, but it sure seemed that way!). I was in full fledged labor with contractions coming two to three minutes apart so we did not have much time. I barely remember getting to the hospital but I do remember having our first baby boy within about an hour of walking through those doors. Memories 🙂

Sorry to all you guys who hate childbirth stories…Let me talk about canyons for a minute. Now don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I don’t like canyons. They are warm, pretty and fun to ride down into but did you know you have to ride back out of them? Yup, you do. There were many places to stop along the way in Foxen Canyon for wine tasting but neither Kevin nor I are huge wine drinkers so we rode on happily.

The long climb was not only easy but quite fun and “the wall” was most certainly a wall but we made it up.

We made it into Buellton in the late afternoon and happily messaged Rich (who had taken the day off work for us 🙂 ) that we were in. He came, picked us up, took us to our hotel to get cleaned up, and we went out to have a spectacular and very filling dinner at A.J Spurs. Conversation was delightful, food was great, and the company was beyond spectacular.

We returned to the hotel, said thank you and goodnight to Rich, and headed to our room for an early night to sleep. We called the boys, all was well and our oldest son was getting more and more excited to go and play air soft rifle wars on Saturday. I excitedly told him about passing teh hospital where he was born and oddly enough the fifteen year old boy was not ecstatic… weird. He simply said, “Cool.” Really… all I get is a “Cool”… did I need to retell the story of his birth? Before I could launch into it he gave me his typical, “Well, I just wanted to say goodnight and I love you, here’s Gunner.” Ok, on to our youngest son. I told him of our day’s adventures and he seemed almost genuinely interested. He was having a good time but admitted that he missed home, awwwww 🙂

It was a good day in which we both felt pretty darn good and got some extra miles under our belt with a couple detours. It felt wonderful to be back in the area we called home for quite a few years.

Tomorrow it is Buellton to Ventura and we get to battle cars, semis, and trucks on the 101 freeway! Will we make it unscathed? I certainly hope so…

~Jhenna