Evening ride to Seal Beach

I haven't been riding much this week because of the half-marathon last weekend. It took two full days before I could walk normally. Yesterday was my father-in-law's birthday so I waited until the celebrations were over before heading over to Anaheim to meet Amber for a 50 miles ride to Seal Beach and back.

We started at 4pm and for some reason I was lulled into a false sense of security by the fact it was nearly 90F outside as I drove down. This is the middle of January for goodness sake. Anyhow I left my arm-warmers and leg-warmers in my car and as soon as the sun went down I began to regret it. Stupid mistake for an experienced Randonneur to make.

We got down to Seal Beach at a leisurely pace and decided to wait the 15-20 minutes estimated time to get into Beachwood BBQ. That place is always busy. I had a pulled pork sandwich and smoked asparagus, Amber had buffalo sloppy-joe and cornbread. Both meals were outstanding as usual.

Walking out of the restaurant we were both cold. It was down to about 55F but after a few miles we climbed a short hill and warmed up nicely. I was surprised at how comfortable I was in shorts and short sleeves. We saw fireworks over Disneyland and a blimp over the Anaheim stadium. Plenty to look at and lots of fun.

Helen's bikes is building Amber's new dynamo wheel which should be ready in time for next weekend. Can't wait to see how she likes having a dynamo light.

I read the latest edition of American Randonneur from rusa.org last week. I see Willie got a shout-out in the article about Bill Russell's Velomobile. Apparently Willie was the first person to complete a Super Randonneur series on a velomobile. What's even more cool is that he completed it on my 600k brevet.

Also there was an interview with Oregon RBA Susan France. Amber and I have been thinking about riding her 600k this year but there's no information and she won't commit to providing information more than one month before the ride. I don't know how she expects people to plan their Rando year with such little notice. Amber needs to give more that a month's notice to get vacation time and we have no intention of committing to a 600k blind.

At this time, we're not sure what rides we'll be doing this year.