Well Tuesday was a bust for me. Seems a new medication change has brought along with it excess stomach acid, causing acid reflux. This is not pleasant and when it happens during sleep I’m no longer sleeping. Monday night was such a night and the prospect of only getting about 5 hours of sleep meant that I would not be riding the hill on Tuesday morning.
Anyway, Thursday was on and the time moved back some so I could meet Penny and Sharon at 7 Cats. We are getting ready and who shows up, Bob Koomar! I haven’t ridden with Bob since I can’t remember when. Bob says he will be the slowest before we even head out. The four of us start up the hill, but as we hit milepost 10 I realize I’ve gapped the other three. I head back down and Penny and Sharon are riding together not too far back. True to his word, Bob is trailing the ladies. I u-turn and start riding with him. We chat for a few minutes, and he tells me to go on, as he will only be riding a mile and a half or two. So I ride up ahead to meet the ladies again. We are riding together but today Sharon seems to be on fire. So I’m riding with Penny and I see a shadow come up on my left and Penny sends out a welcoming ‘Hi there’. The shadow precedes me and I realize the shadow owner is Larry Lousey. There’s a short discussion between Penny, Larry and I about how long I’ve known Larry. We decide it must be 15 years.
Larry is riding strong and shortly gets up to Sharon. Sharon picks up her pace to match Larry’s and Penny and I see them twice before Windy Point and then not again until we reach Geology Vista and they are well up the road as an apparition by HooDoo rocks. Penny and I cheer for the downhill just after the vista and then start trudging up the hill to the rocks. We make it to milepost 16 and I tell Penny that I will need to turn around to be back down to 7 Cats by 9. I still work part time and have a meeting at 10 that I should attend. We get to Rose Canyon and it’s time for me to turn around.
Great day on the mountain with very active water falls at 7 Cats and along the way owing to the rainfall the previous evening. Very little water on the road, but the inevitable fractured rocks along the sides. On my way back down I pass the rock plow pickup truck and give the drivers a big thumbs up.