19&20) Rest stop candids
21) Metcalf - you know this s.o.b! Well, after parting company with Sheila, I hooked up with two guys for
a tight paceline over a long flat, into the wind. That was fun! Of course, each of us "didn't want to let
the other guys down," and rode too goddam fast! I lost them on the turn up, but we saw each other
again and again. Metcalf is maybe 1200 feet in a few miles, and at the time I got there, a few hundred
people ruining their cleats, walking up. With my mountain gears, I pedaled it, and talked **** the whole
way. This crew was in the shade about halfway up- I stopped for a pic and a laugh.
22-24) At the top of Metcalf, still feelin' good.
25-26) About 70 in, the dark is ahead, but I didn't know it yet! Folk are walkin' funny by this time... this
guy boils in, slinging gravel to a sliding stop, startled several folk, then stood over the mech while he
adjusted his front derailleur, something a six year old could do for themself... of course, by now, we each
have had an aho moment... or two!
No more stopping for pics! Charlie horse has come to roost, kicking my left calf, I agonize the next
twenty or so. Like life, there are those times that you just have to figure it out yourself; we are each
alone, and, not alone, at the same time. I cry, moan, I miss my Dad. I blubbered, literally sobbing, like a
baby. Ahem, but only for a "little while." At the last stop, I meet Motrin, the lil' pill from heaven. Everyone
still on the course, all the volunteers, we're all a bit weary by now, but chins up!