I took Saturday off and went to Mexico. Not a far trip, but a long one. We went to the Guadalupe Valley (route of the Tecate-Ensenada Bike Ride) and tasted wine.
I don't remember seeing any bicycles, at all. The roads are fearsome and the dry heat can be dangerous. But the country is beautiful and the wine is quite enjoyable.
I did ride my bike the next day and I did see another Mustang Convertible. I've been researching the total population of Mustangs and will report back when I've learned what percentage of them are driving around looking for me on my bike.
Then we went hiking very near our house, and got smacked in the face with a fog bank. Soon it was a sea of gray. A mile away it remained sunny and hot. The sign here says Rattlesnakes, and it was right. We found an excited 7-year-old boy saying there was a snake and could he poke it with a stick! NO is the right answer. We called the rangers and they shooed the snake away from the main path.
Look carefully and you can see the rattle in the middle. Since I didn't have a zoom lens, this was done the old fashioned way, by sticking my hand carefully down to the bush.
Anyway, this morning came bright and early, so I was up and out by 7 or so. The street guys are tearing up our roads again, the trash men are banging and clanging in reply due to being inconvenienced by the tractors, and the school run is frightening.
So I took the road less traveled, through RV Canyon. This wide but seldom-used road is where apartment and condo-dwellers park their gigantic beasts for 72 hours. Then they go fire them up, move around a few hundred yards and stroll home. It's a bit of a blight on the neighborhood, but what can you do? The city keeps tweaking its parking ordinances, but the general population seems to tolerate it as long as the RVs aren't parked in their front yards. Since no one actually lives on this street, everyone is happy, except cyclists squeezing through.
In my case, I have been getting used to squeezing, due to sewer construction on our streets. I just object to having to ride my clean bike through muddy gutters to get home. I prefer the roads dry, thank you.
Did I mention I saw another Mustang Convertible?
