Cinderella Classic

Well, I’d met some great folks the previous night, and it was on to my next adventure–the Cinderella Classic.  This ride, an event which was started 32 years ago, attracts 2500 women each year.  It’s a woman only ride, so it has a very different feel to it than any other ride.  A lot of the riders wear costumes, and everyone has fun.   

From the start at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, the Cinderella Classic circles through town, out through the vineyards of Livermore, then north and along the base of beautiful Mt. Diablo to Danville, where it turns south and winds back to the Fairgrounds.

I had arranged to try to meet a few more BikeForums members on the ride.  I got off to an earlier start than they did, which was good for me in the long run.  The day started off with some cloud cover, which made for a nice cool start.  Me being from the Pacific Northwest, the coolness of the morning did not bother me one bit, but I could tell that many of my fellow riders were more than a little bothered by the chill!  I registered, got my number for my bicycle, and got ready to head out.

Off we went, many of us rather more stylishly than I. I was adequately dressed for the weather though, and that was the important thing. I didn’t linger long at the first rest stop, about 20 miles into the ride. For one thing, the queues at the port-a-loos were enormously long, and I knew that I could manage to make it to the next rest stop without danger. I stopped just long enough to admire some of the costumes as they zoomed by, and I also took a photo of a different sort of ride occurring just on the other side of the road from the rest stop:

If you didn’t feel like riding a bicycle that day, ride a horse instead!

The next rest stop was the big one. That’s where the cold lunch was being served, and it’s also where I arranged to stop just long enough to meet up with my friends who had not made it early enough to the ride start. The queues at the loos were small, too!

Among the many costumes was Wonder Woman:

It’s impossible to describe the sight of that many women, riding that many bicycles! My friends caught up to me at this rest stop, and we managed to get a quick photo in:

Then it was back to the ride, heading to the finish. I got back to the Fairgrounds just before 2.00 pm, where I took just a short break before heading out on the road to my next destination.

My Sachs and I were rather tired at the end, but I had more miles to go (although, in the car). I drove to Walnut Creek, where I met another BikeForums member, Siu Blue Wind. We had a great lunch of pizza, and I gave her some of my now world famous macadamia nut shortbread…

After a great, but all too short couple of hours of talking, it was time for me to hit the road again. Sadly, all the miles I would accumulate from here on out were homeward bound. It was late in the day, so I drove to Santa Rosa, where I had lived so many years ago. I found a motel, and checked in. Naturally, I was not about to leave the Sachs in the car, so into the room she came. I’d stocked up on hard cider when in San Jose, and I decided that I would have a cider to celebrate my successful ride. Apparently the cheerfulness got into Bittersweet, and she decided to climb on the furniture!

(Actually, I found it terribly amusing that the table lamp in the room was as tall as I was, and put the Sachs up there to show exactly how tall the lamp was.)

The next day I went exploring the back roads of Sonoma County. I got some lovely photos of Bennett Valley, which backs up onto Annadel State Park.

A view of a very typical California hillside–California Live Oaks, in a field of mixed grass, California Poppies, and Lupins.

Had I been lucky, there would have been either deer, or perhaps a coyote to be seen on the hillside, but not today. I visited a few old familiar places, then off again I went. I spotted this Osprey nest just as I turned off Highway 101 onto Highway 128.

Finally I was starting to see some wildlife, and interesting plants. This is a very bad photo of Camas.

I was now entering prime territory for Sequoias–which is why I stopped and rode along a paved forest road and took a photo showing the size of some of the smaller ‘Big Trees’.

My plan for the day was to get at least to the city of Eureka, and perhaps even to Crescent City. Crescent City is just on the border of California and Oregon, so I knew that if I made it that far, I would be able to get home the following day without having to stop overnight again.

Hurrah, I made it to the Pacific Ocean. Naturally, I stopped and went for a short ride!
Highway 1 generally follows the California coastline, but it does go back inland in certain sections. I took this photo of a Trillium in Humboldt Redwoods State Park, along with a photo of an unidentified yellow violet…

Highway 1 also goes through Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, which contains the largest free roaming herd of Roosevelt Elk in California…

I reached my destination of Crescent City, and called it a day…