the lowdown

Well, my clever idea of blogging via blackberry has had its challenges. But I'm back ...

We all arrived at the lovely Holiday Inn Express in Burlingame, just outside San Fran on Saturday. Lots of organizing and orienting.

There are 23 riders total. Only 4 of us are women, which really surprises me. Cycling still is about 2/3 men to women, but this is pretty low proportionately. But the good news is with so few women I paid for a three to a room and got upgraded to two and it's pretty amazing to see the men lined up for the restroom while the women just breeze on in. So that's good.

We have to ride leaders who deal with logistics, hotels, solving problems, etc. A wonderful bike mechanic who is also a professional bike racer and pretty interesting to talk to. My room mate is on staff and she is helping run the SAG (support van), etc. She's a former participant who has a real job doing IT. And one of the directors 20 year old son who is the gopher and bag loader. And I think along for the ride. All are nice and very capable and fun.
We are staying in hotels - Holiday Inn and Best Western types. Food is all about quantity and variety - not necessarily fine dining. And that makes sense, too given the quantities we are already putting down.

Folks are getting to know each other and naturally grouping together for rides by speed and ability. It's interesting to watch it happen. There a some guys who are bent to get in first, and a group that's already named itself the "stops a lot" group. I'm in the middle ... We can ride hard but take detours and photo and milk shake breaks.

The group is settling in. Trying to remember names. I keep getting confused with the other youngish woman :) and I can't keep all the white haired guys straight yet. But as I get to know them individually it helps. Most are pretty interesting
And have a story to tell. Most are going all the way across. We have 2 leaving in Salt Lake and are picking up more along the way. Around 40 riders total.

The routes have been beautiful so far - I don't know how they have strung together this crazy rides of bike paths,, highways, abandoned roads and country roads. Our first cue sheet was 8 pages long. I'm really happy with what were seeing and riding so far ... It holds we'll be in for a great trip.