petaluma is pretty.

But Petaluma is far, far away- 95 miles roundtrip from San Francisco! So we went over the Golden Gate Bridge (btw, I'm so over riding that bridge), over Camino Alto, stopped for coffee in Fairfax, climbed over White's Hill, went over the unnamed Nicasio 
hill...

13 miles to Petaluma!

Are you ready to take it to the limit, one more time? Yes, he really said that.

And then we went over that damn cheese factory hill: Alpe du 

Fromage and this was the 1st time I have ever gone over these

hills without stopping. I'm a little embarrassed to admit it took

me so long, but it felt pretty amazing! And that's the truth,

Ruth!

Dave checkin' the route sheet at the Cheese Factory

some of my much faster co-workers... it's not a race. it's a ride. i know.

And just when I felt fantastic, we added another climber- the Wilson Wall

Dave is the little white jersey, up near the cows. I stopped & stretched.

But I got back on the bike & climbed up w/one of my favorite training ride leaders, Joseph. I love him! Doing AIDS/Lifecycle (ALC) is obviously very important to him since he volunteers this time, but it is also part of his training- he has done many marathons, just recently completed his first triathlon, and will be participating in the Gay Games in Cologne in July! Oh, and he's lost like 80 lbs since my first blog post. Go, Joseph!!!! 

Smogivars

The descent was TERRIFYING! I could smell my rims burning.

Dave with llama- you can click these pictures to make them bigger. That llama's cuuuute! And then we finally got to lunch and let's not talk about the rest. I did not eat enough or something (and lady stuff- blah, blah- I'll spare you the deets) so I called it a day around mile 50? Dave went 95 MILES!!!! And then we showered & went to a party as total zombies. Sorry, Stephanie. We tried.