Three Rides in Three Days

Well we rode Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Not what you are thinking.

On Friday we had a “Dave Ramsey” date night. Rode the Townies to the mall. Used gifts cards from Christmas to see a terrible movie. Rode to Outback Steakhouse and used a gift card for dinner. Rode back home in the dark with just a small headlamp. Ev was right we should have put the lights on. Great date night!

Saturday we rode over to Block Bikes for the Saturday ride. Good turnout with some new riders. We rode toward the aqueduct and split into the fast and not so fast group. Like last time we rode with the fast group but took a little shorter route. Rich still waxed all of us. We split off before they got back to the shop and registered 25 miles.

We slept in Sunday and by the time we might have thought about riding it was hot. We instead went to Pasadena to see Taylor and deliver Ev’s home-made yogurt. Back home and after dinner we did a neighborhood Townie ride.

We really plan to ride tomorrow morning. Bright and early, on the road before 5:30AM. We’ll see…

This summer's proposed route

We slept in a little today but we finally got on the bike around 10AM. We (actually I, since I have total control) did not have a plan. We ended up on Elizabeth Lake Road and stopped for breakfast in Leona Valley. Pancakes, eggs and bacon at Scramblez. We split one order. We then turned west and continued riding to Munz Ranch Road then rode along the aqueduct. It was a beautiful day in the high 50's and no wind. The snow-covered hills were in the distance. We saw a roadrunner, a couple of hawks, and lots of duck couples. We waved and said hi to many of the fisherman on the aqueduct. We were both pretty tired at the end and the odometer register 39.1 miles as we pulled up to the house. We really need to ride more during the week!

Riding along the aqueduct

Just a few poppies.

Later in the afternoon we got out the book, maps and the two dueling laptops to finalize our summer's trip. We think we have a plan. Hopefully California does not close all the State Parks that have Hiker/Biker sites. We have hosted many bike travelers through warmshowers.org but we have never stayed with anyone ourselves. Ev searched the site and we may stay with one in the San Diego Area. There is also one in Ensenada Mexico. We have a couple extra days at the end and this intrigues us. Ev emailed him to see if it is doable and safe. Our other option is to hit a few of the San Diego Co. breweries for a beer-tasting weekend. 

Even though I told Google Maps to find the bike route, when printed it still shows car driving time. Here is the map!

Kern County Ride

While we love riding in our desert, especially in the spring, you can go up to 90th Street West & Ave L only so many times and not get bored. We scanned the neighboring bike club web sites and found a ride with the Kern Wheelman, a club out of Bakersfield. This club has many rides on the weekends and we joined the Slow Spokes group riding from Caliente to Twin Oaks and back. We were, of course, the only tandem. We left at 8AM and rode with Joe and Raul at the head of the pack... well, we actually left the pack. It is a steady but moderate 15 mile climb to Twin Oaks. We dodged cattle and had a slight head wind but the ride was great.

We stopped at TOGS (Twin Oaks General Store) for breakfast. The four of us ordered while we waited for the others as we were warned about the prompt service. Pancakes and eggs. 

The ride down was sweet and fast. We dodged many more cows and averaged in the mid 20's most of the way down, hitting 30 mph a couple of times. The last 5 miles we faced a fierce headwind as the valley floor had heated up and the wind was racing back up into the canyon. We got caught by a train right at the end back in Caliente. We loaded our bike and said our good byes. Thanks to Richard, the ride leader, for letting us tag along. 

Rob, Joe and Raul.

Here it comes!

We then went to the Tehachapi Loop, an item on Evelyn's bucket list and another place that we have driven by hundreds of times but never stopped. This engineering marvel has a train go under itself around a big loop. We waited for about a 1/2 hour before a train came. It is pretty amazing.

The Loop!

On it's way.