Day 5

Today's ride was 45 miles. There were a lot of hills. One hill had a 2 mile climb. Hills are not Deanne's favorite part of the ride. When I asked how she was doing she said "I'm still alive". That was nice to hear.
Today was the traditional "red dress day" where, as you can imagine, everyone tries to wear some sort of red outfit. I hear that there were some pretty funny get ups.
Tonight's camp is set up in Lompoc where they had a talent show and some guest speakers. The lights out curfew at 9:30 pm makes for a lot of last minute scrambling but everyone is glad to turn in since they have to get up around 4:00 am every day. Tents need to be broken down and luggage needs to be packed and ready to be loaded up for the trip to the next camp site.
The ride consists of somewhere around 1,800 bikers and about 450 roadies. Thats a lot of people, tents, and equipment to coordinate. Sounds like the ALC staff and orginizeers know what they are doing. All the roadies have several jobs. Tsufit, Deanne's tent mate, helps man road stop #2 each day. D says that Tsufit wears a different costume each day. It's all part of the fun attitude everyone seems to have.
I'm sure Deanne will have lots more to share when she gets home on Saturday.
Tomorrow night is a candle light vigil on the beach, in Ventura, to honor those that have died or are suffering from this dreadful disease. It is a very moving and solmen event.
Well, as for tonight, that's all folks.
D's mom