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Day 01

We're Off For Another Adventure

Yesterday Tomorrow

ROUTE: Costa Mesa CA to Palm Springs

DISTANCE: 112Miles

TOTAL CLIMBING: 4100 feet

DAILY REPORT: Great group to start our '09 adventure. We all got started this morning with a quick breakfast at Dennys...plenty of fuel to get us started. We needed plenty of fuel because the conditions today were forecast to be as bad as I've ever seen them...heat and headwinds...and the forecast wasn't off at all. Usually we have tailwinds the second half of the day to push us into town, but not today...not in the least.

We departed the motel en masse to our wheel dip to celebrate our departure. Sam (our youngest rider) did the honors of collecting the Pacific sea water for us to carry across the nation. We'll dump it in the Atlantic when we get there...it's just tradition. After our brief ceremony, we started our journey eastward.

Our first few miles were out the Santa Anna River Trail to get us out of the main part of town. Then over the mountains before dropping into Palm Springs. We shortened today's ride from previous rides by 8 miles to keep in town rather than ride on to Thousand Palms...a much better location.

Everyone seemed to be riding well and made the first 1/100th of the ride to the first SAG without incident...just think, we only have to do this another 99 times and we'll be in Amesbury. I hated to tell them that they had just ridden the easy part and it was going to get sporty the rest of the way as we were about to start climbing...two climbs of about 1000 feet each...one before lunch and one after...and that would only be one of the challenges they'd have to endure.

Our biggest challenge today was to battle a relentless wind that blew like a blow dryer almost directly into our face most of the day. Luckily, it got a little easier for the last few miles into town, but during the big climbs it made everyone feel its force. The wind would have been bad enough, but mother nature decided to add a little heat also. Three days ago when we drove out it was 60 here and the winds were howling out of the west, but today it was pushing 100 with the easterlys. Locals say, "But it's a dry heat." Yeah, the kind that singes your throat and makes one's jersey look like a Morton Salt lick. Think we got a tough start on our adventure? Yep, I'd agree. Last year I said it was the best conditions we'd ever had...well, I guess we are paying for that this year as I'm thinking I've never seen it like this before either. We did have one day in the 100s into Wickenburg a few years ago, but we're going to have this for the first 3 or 4 days.

But as tough as it was, we all got in safely...tired, but not whipped. We press on again tomorrow. We'll start at dawn to try to beat some heat, but it's supposed to be in the triple digits again as we enter Blythe. We're looking forward to some climbing on day 4 to get out of the heat, but until then, we'll press on and try to not become dry bones in a pile along the side of the road. See you tomorrow.

YOU DON'T SAY:

"How can it be so hot when we can see snow!?"

"Just know that every wind is a tailwind if you are going in the right direction."

"It's just a hill...get over it!"

"I've got to get my life in order and repent...I don't do well in this kind of heat."

"When we passed that feed lot there was enough methane in the air to blow up all of California!"

"I must have swallowed a thousand gnats on the bike path."

DID I REALLY DO THAT?: Mike is from Bermuda...an island 22 miles long and 1 mile wide. No wonder he was standing in awe after he'd ridden over 50 miles and couldn't see water in any direction. "If I tried to ride across my island, I wouldn't have to take vacation time. I can do it on a lunch break."

PHOTOS OF THE DAY
Now there's a face only a mother could love...or the gnats that are sticking in the zinc oxide.	"Oh Bessie, look at those cyclists riding by...I'm so envious." "Why's that Elsie?" "They have such nice calves."
Linda couldn't figure out why these macho men wouldn't pull through. She tried to convince them it was their turn to take the lead, but it was like talking to a stone wall.	I guess I failed to tell Sam about the drop off...when he dipped his wheel in the Pacific, it was a little deeper than he realized.
Are we there yet?	"How far is the other ocean from here?" Mike can ride from coast to coast where he's from on a lunch break...I think he's in for a looooong lunch on this trip.