Today was a long ride - so long that even I got a teeny bit bored at times. So I decided to shoot pics out the window without looking and see what I got. Yeah, I know - simple minds, etc. etc. Actually, they aren’t any worse than what I usually do... HA! I am putting them up in my smugmug gallery and if you go look at them, you are as big a cycling nut as I am...

We headed out at 10am, toward Santa Ynez and turned down the closed highway for a while then off onto more gorgeous little roads. We headed up to Gibralter and encountered lots of roadwork - there were slides all over the place. We went thru one construction site, and as I went past this big, burly construction guy, I heard him shout to a guy up on a huge backhoe thingy, ”It WAS HIM - It was Lance!!! He said, “Howdy, how ya doing’” to me! - No shit - he spoke to me!” I grinned and waved to the guy.

Up closer to the top, someone had painted “LANCE” across the road in huge, fresh, white letters. Then in a flash, we were descending real fast, given that the road was covered with potholes. We suddenly came up on a flagman with the STOP side turned to us. There was a huge truck and frontloader in the road. We had to wait until they moved off.

We headed down again, and the road was covered with deep, silty dust. We got to the part of the road where civilization had crept up and some luxurious houses had been built. Flying around a corner, what did we see but a huge water truck, carefully watering all the curves, turning the dust into slick-as-snot mud. Our descent slowed considerably as the guys slipped and slid down that part of the winding road.

We returned about 3-ish and I noticed that Lance was laughing and talking with Johan The Boss hadn’t even breathed hard the whole day, I think. I saw him get some food from Johan and stick it in his back pocket. I knew that he wasn’t done for the day! Away he went, and for all I know, he may have done the whole damn ride again.

So, goodbye to Solvang until next time. Thank you, people of Solvang, for your gracious hospitality, your friendliness, and your patience and tolerance while we were on the roads. Thanks for all your waves, honks and friendly smiles. Thank you, Barbara, and your family and staff at The Bulldog Coffehouse. We’ll miss having coffee with you!