Hey it's me, I'm still alive, been a bit busy lately hence the silence.
I have recently returned from a monstrous bike trip up the coast of California, and find myself writing from my grandparent's home in Cupertino, CA. As a man who can write thousands of words to describe a single day (and does so regularly on this blog) I now find myself struggling to overcome the ultimate blogging challenge; brevity. In lieu of a more detailed account of events that occurred on this trip, I shall merely impart a few excerpts of particularly memorable instances on the tour.
One of the primary by-products of the great and worthy adventure from which I have just returned is the acquisition of a road bike. I was assisted in my online search for a bike by Becky Morrow, Julie Baweja, and Danny Sudman, the latter of whom can claim the honor of locating my bike in Mission Viejo. I purchased it for a wallet-compressing 500 dollars, which admittedly was less than most of the other people on the tour were forced to spend. The bike which came to rule the next 18 days of my life following its purchase was painted a distinctive blue and white, with red accents and red tires, thus making it the most patriotic of the vehicles on the trip. Being the incorrigible ass that I am, I promptly named the bike in honor of the most reviled American politician in recent history; Richard D. Nixon, Tricky Dick for short.
Having never ridden a road bike before, I had little concept of what to expect upon mounting up for the first time, on the second day of the trip after a few minor repairs were made (new clamp for seat pole and new bottom bracket). I will say I was somewhat apprehensive about the diminutive size of the seat that came with it, but my comrades assured me that such frugal seating technology is the mark of a truly exceptional cyclist. And so I mounted up on my bike that day in the bright sunshine of Santa Monica. We then rode off to the North, passing through the luxurious residences that dot the coast of Malibu, the cliffs soaring overhead. Some other stuff happened, and then...
