July 29 Santa Rosa, CA to San Francisco, CA

Santa Rosa, CA to San Francisco, CA 72.3 miles 5:28:10

Today's ride was one of my most anticipated days on the bike. I love the city of San Francisco and the opportunity to cross the Golden Gate Bridge on bicycle is truly special.

The ride out of Santa Rosa was much different than the ride in. The ride in was hilly. The ride out was completely flat. Me thinks it would have been possible to reach the church yesterday without climbing two hills. When this ride started a 72 mile day seemed like a long ride, but as the days of riding have turned into weeks 72 miles has become a short day or at least a very manageable day.

The first 50 miles of the ride were pleasant and mostly uneventful. Passed through a few vineyards. In the town of Ross, where the last rest stop of the day was, a friend of Chris C, Moe joined us. Moe is a writer for one of the national cycling magazines and the editor of Dirt Rag, a mountain biking magazine. Moe and Chris used to work together at the cycling magazine.

Leaving Ross on our way to Sausalito there was a long climb. The hill went on for more than a mile. It's never a good sign when you are chugging up the hill and you the top is just around the next corner and on the opposite side of the road a cyclist comes whizing down—a tell tale sign that there is much more hill to climb. This happened on more than one occasion climbing this hill. Finally, the top and now the drop. It was a fast descent, but probably not as fast as someone who knows the road well.

Rolling into Sausalito brought back fond memories of the last time I was there in 1999. Stopped in for ice cream near the maria. Time for the Golden Gate bridge. The road up to the Golden Gate is a twisty one with lots of dust, which is surprising with all the moisture from the Bay. Almost the entire group gathered to take photos of the bridge and the group before venturing across the bridge. There was fog, but I could still see the city and all of the bridge. One side of the bridge is for foot traffic and the other side bicycle traffic. It took a good ten minutes to cross the bridge. I have some great photos and video of the crossing.

Once on the other side, it was time for the hills of San Francisco. I went up. I went down. I went up again. I went down again. And without fail the church hosting us sat halfway up a hill, although some people rode through Golden Gate park, which meant they avoided most of the hills. Our host church is Armenian Orthodox Church.

The priest is a relatively young guy. He lives with his family on the second floor of the church. Oh, how thankful I am that I have my own place. Living in a parsonage, especially one connected to the church means the pastor is “always” available.

The church cooked dinner for us. The folks cooking dinner were very funny. They had planned on cooking an Armenian feast for us, until they received a letter from the Fuller Center stating that the riders on the trip eat healthy. The letter included a few pages of food suggestions with things like Quinua. The folks cooking admited to us they had never heard of Quinua and had no idea how to cook, but I must say they did a great job with. Those of us that heard the food cooking story laughed a bit. It was too bad they did not cook Armenian food, but the meal was wonderful nonetheless.

A group of us went out that evening to say good bye to Hannah and Pete. This was the end of the ride for the two of them. The look establishment we went to had the Olympics on. It was nice to be able to see some of the swimming events and gymnastics. Several of us took a cab back to the church because it was chilly and we did not feel like walking a mile and a half up hill to reach the church. Tomorrow is a free day in San Fran. I'm going to go to an Urgent Care to have my infection checked. The meds I got in Crescent City don't seem to be working. The infection is holding on and my ankle is still swollen and starting to hurt again. Not good signs.