This weekend I ventured north, escaping the confines of sunny So Cal for a weekend in Solvang, an old Danish mining town with lots of cool shops and what not. The second week of March every year there’s a huge bike ride with over 5,000 people in it. The population of Solvang is only 5,000 so bikers basically take the place over. Every hotel in town was booked solid so I stayed about 20 miles away in Lompoc. The ride headquarters is the Royal Scandinavian Inn and that place books up a full year in advance.
Not a whole lot in Lompoc other than an Air Force base and prison. I dragged the roommate and dog with me. He seemed to have as much as fun as I did and he didn’t crap or bark in the hotel room once.
I woke up Saturday morning for the ride and it’s about 40 degrees and raining. I actually like riding in the rain so this is not a problem for me. I expected a major hassle finding a parking spot near the start but it was cake…of course the spot I chose wasn’t really a parking place but I wasn’t ticketed so it’s all good. I roll out for the start and within three miles it starts hailing to beat the band! Man, that shit stung too! Now, understand the 6 miles were just down and back on one road so basically at Mile 6 I’m right back at the start line, feet and socks completely soaked, hands frozen and taking an ass whupping from Mother Nature. I seriously debated just packing it in but anybody who knows me knows I hate to quit so I marched onward.
It really warmed up later that morning so the rest of the ride was fairly nice. The route went thru the San Ynez Valley wine country. Anytime a bike ride goes thru a valley you can bet at some point you’re going to leave the valley, which means you’ll be going up some huge hills. Today was no exception. Thank God I got a compact crankset put on or I would have really been suffering. I made it up one very long climb at a good clip only to find that after an all too brief respite of about 100 yards it continued to go up another half mile or so. I did have to stop and walk about 100 yards at two points, once because I was cramping around Mile 30. You tend not to take in enough fluids when its rainy and cold so I paid the price. I took it easy until Mile 40, at which point I knew I was on the main road heading back into town. I knew it was a flat run-in so I started really hauling ass, only to find there’s one last wall of a road just as you hit city limits. It’s funny how gentle roads look when you’re in car. I had been down this road twice in the car and not even thought about it. Anyway, I finished feeling pretty good about myself and rode back to my car, put the bike in the trunk and close the lid with my car keys IN THE TRUNK thank you very much. Thankfully I had already unlocked the doors so I was safe.
I ended up taking over 400 pictures this weekend so I’ll probably put about 75-100 of them in the gallery eventually. I had a couple of good Danish meals, some of which I took pics of before I destroyed them. I figure I burned about 2,000 calories during the ride so I had to replenish my fat stores with plenty of beer.