Stefen Ray's Blog: AIDS/Lifecycle 12 - An Unforgettable Journey

I peddled 66 miles and climbed 2,669 vertical feet today.

I thought today was going to be easy-breezy considering I'd peddled close to 200 mile so far and the route sheet only said 62 miles. NOT!

It was still an amazing day despite the challenges the route and weather threw at us.

Today we passed a milestone for the California AIDS Ride and AIDS/Lifecycle. First, this is the 20th ride benefitting California AIDS Organizations. Eight were called the CA AIDS Ride, then AIDS/Lifecycle was born and this was the twelfth ride. Today's milestone was that we surpassed 20,000,000 miles of riding since the beginning. Can you imagine? Wow!

Today was the day of the infamous "Quad-Buster" hill that everyone talks about and rookies fear. The route the whole morning was all uphill until we hit this Quad-Buster thing. I'd say it was about 2 miles of 5-8% grade. To put this into perspective, that's a tad less steep than Tram Road and 1/3 the distance. The gradual increase of grade was not big deal to me and once I got to the bottom of the hill, I swear I was thinking, "Is that all you got!" I was not impressed or concerned. Heck we'd already climbed hills steeper than this supposed monster. Ha!

The rest of the day was rather uneventful with the exception of going through historic Mission County and the town of Bradley. Every rest stop was a historical point of interest. There was the Salinan Nation Cultural Center, St. Luke's Episcopal Church, Pleyto Plaza Country Store and Mission San Miguel. Really beautiful places to take a quick break. And as usual, all the themes and costumes were present to keep us entertained.

The highlight of the day was lunch in the town of Bradley. This town rolls out the red carpet for us. The school district gets their funding for supplies and field trips from the AIDS/Lifecycle participants every year. Why? Well, they have a burger BBQ and nick-nack sale to raise money. The burgers are reasonably priced and I got there early enough that I didn't have to wait too long in line.

They also were selling buttons the kids made for us with messages of love and appreciation for annual generosity. I picked up a button and this neck thingie that you soak in cold water to keep cool. It worked! I've seen them before, but I wanted to contribute as much as possible to these energetic and enthusiatic kids and chaperones.

It was an AWESOME lunch experience AND I got to make a difference to this town while I was making a difference in the fight to end AIDS and HIV. Yay!

The day ended with 20 miles of headwinds and upper 70 temperatures. Not a fun combination! I drank soooo much water I thought my bladder would explode at EVERY rest stop.

I've posted more pics of the day below...