Four days in the saddle

Being insanely stubborn can carry you a long ways. But at some point your butt and the bike seat are going to be unhappy with each other and let you know about it. That was today. I'm hoping day 5 will magically be like day one. We rolled into the forested campground of Lake Solano yesterday afternoon after a hellishly windy exit from Ryde. Jeff, Andrew and I teamed up with a group at first to fight against the invisible enemy - at least to the first ferry crossing. Riding with strangers in a group in the wind is a mixed blessing. You don't know for sure anyone's skills but you're all desperate to mooch off each other to stay alive against the blast all day so you brave it. And when one of your party is 7 feet tall, everyone wants to be his friend. (or shadow) Evan, you are a rock star. But since the main group was churning at a faster pace than I could hold, I dropped back and Jeff and Andrew did too. We crawled across the middle of the state, especially a treacherous section of hwy 12. Almost lost one of our group when he hit the rumble strips and was thrown down into the road. Luckily for him there was no traffic just then. Considering that there was a cement median wall 12 feet from him, that could have gone very badly. Heard someone else went down too. Folks are getting tired but we still have three and a half days to go. (and while sunday is a short ride into golden gate park, crossing the bridge against international tourists on rental bikes is more nerve wracking to me than any mountainous descent.) Today was cooler as we slogged up Ink Grade and then down and into Calistoga. Did some laundry, grabbed some food and now it's time to sleep - in a real bed! Back to camping and massaging tomorrow....