Day 3

On big rides, calender day and date, fade into another universe. It's just Day X (of the ride). Today is day 3. The first half of the ride was 35 miles (almost as long as the whole Delaware & Raritan)on the American River Parkway. The parkway is a half a mile wide multi use (hiking, jogging, cycling, birding) park with a paved path and full facilities. It lies on a Sacramento River flood plain and is constructed to withstand the occasional flood. (For example, the toilets are those stainless steel indestructible prison toilets and the toilet paper holders are four feet off the ground so that the paper doesn't get soggy.) It is, I have to admit, even nicer than the Capital crescent Trail. After a bit of highway riding, we had a 9% grade hill for 1.4 miles. That should have been the big hill for the day, bring our total climb to ~1500 feet. The operative word is "should." I made a wrong turn and found my self going up and down the side of the mountain. It was one of those deals where you know pretty quick that it was a wrong turn, but don't want to go back up the hill you just came down. (Note that two different people told me that I could get to my destination this way. Operative word, "could." I should have asked them if I "should" go that way. To make a long story short (I know, too late for that), I added an extra 9 miles and 1600 feet of climb to my day. It was a beautiful route looking over the valley to the mountains on the other side of the valley and gave me another chance to work on my hill climbing skills. (How's that for a positive attitude? Average speed, 13.2. 4,732 calories burned- think I'll have desert.

All that having been said, I got to the hotel by 1:00. Our room wasn't ready, but the desk person gave me a towel and the key to the pool. So I swam and laid in the sun for an hour. Bonus- since I swam, I didn't need to wash my cycling shorts and I don't need to shower. (Bob will understand this- when we were kids, if we went swimming, even in the Mud-hole (a real place), we'd argue that we didn't need to shower.) Now the pool was chlorinated, and so was the hot tub, so that really should be enough. Am I kidding? Only Bob knows.

b/t/w, I'm in Auburn, CA