Climb to the Bridge

On the 6th of September I wrote that at 230 the previous Friday I went to a picnic with the coworkers.  My work partner I played frisbee with a really tall guy and a very short girl. We all lost.  I noted that my boss was there too.

I took the shuttle to MV and had a juice at Red Rock.  I bumped my arm running to Caltrain. I transferred to BART and rode home. That was a breath of fresh air.  Some guy yelled at me on 44th. I did a quick review of my list  and then checked in with my sister. I was proud of myself. I rode up to 9 then and then I went to my friend’s.

We were late for Bike Party. My friend said he was there. I dropped my bag at my freind’s and she was wearing a wig. We went to Potrero del Sol, but the skaters said we missed the party. We rode up Chavez until we bumped into some MTA people.

We saw the lady’s on the ride and entered India Basin.  My friend and I found ourselves at a park.  We met my riding partner and his wife.  We also talked with our acquaintances and looked at their bikes. We talked to the guys too.  Eventually my riding partner indicated we needed to go so I said bye to to people and and left.

My friend had trouble with her wheel for a second.  Later I also saw a friend from school. I told him we were not leading but going home.  Our companions went ahead so we gave up and left them.  We went to Schmidt’s and had food. Then we rode to Shotwell and over to my friend’s and I helped her pack.  I was asleep late.

On the morning of the day that I wrote this I was up at 6:00. It was easy start out of the Mission district by 710 we talked about bike stuff as we rode up the wiggle and through the park.  At Cabrillo a woman in a Mercedes ran a stop sign.  She said sorry. The climb to the Bridge was hard-- an older man like my friend’s outfit. We made photos on the way and had breakfast at Cibo. That was a breath of fresh air.  We rode Bridgeway to Corte Madera and then to larkspur.  By then we were hot and tired, but in good spirits.

We were early. We passed through San Rafael and went through Northgate and Miller Creek. At the top of the bike path there were some older man catching their breath.  They said to take I Street in Petaluma. We made good time without stopping at the Marin Inn or on Redwood Road until Peet’s in Novato where I used Twitter and had coffee. We headed out to Petaluma with a lot of time ahead of us.  My college buddy sent me a message to meet him at 5 or 6.

The climb to the Novato Narrows had a great view of bad traffic but our ride was fine once we passed the on ramp. I noted that Olampali was a good route. I stopped us in some shade so we could catch our breath there. Then we headed out to San Antonio and the climb up I street. We were able to watch the cars and keep pace around the turns.  We were paired with a man on a bike.  It turned out I street wasn't the best choice in town.

We went to Della Fattoria to have an expensive lunch.  I ended up by myself in the back stealing towels. I noted that the meal was delicious. When we were done we rode across the river and saw some ladies playing ukulele.  Then we rode under the freeway where we took pictures on our way to a bike path near Sonoma Mountain Road.  We got a little lost looking for Ely street but managed to take it to Old Highway.  Some lady was snotty to me.

Later at the Cotati Plaza we rested and I was alone enjoying the wind.  We went under the freeway and took Redwood drive and some pathways along the creeks until we got to Stony Point.  Then we rode north until we found the path behind the girls high school. After that we ended up on a path which took us back to Stony Point. We stayed on that road until it turned into  Marlow near the place where my college buddy lives.  He gave us directions.

I introduced my friend to my buddy and his girlfriend.  We put the bikes away and unpacked. When we had gotten ourselves settled we went to an area near downtown Sebastopol to have dinner at Woodfour Brewing. I thought the finger potatoes were really good.  We had the beer taster and the chicken. I was really tired and just tried to keep up with the conversation. After that we went to downtown Sebastopol. We had a drink at Old Main Street Saloon--my friend half expected to see her uncle there.  Later we went back and went to the bar across the street from my buddy’s to play pool.  I was really tired when I fell asleep at my buddy’s house later.

In the morning of the day that I wrote this my alarm went off at 7:30 but we got up at 8:15.  We did breathing exercises and stretched.  Then the four of us got into my buddy’s car and drove to Flying Goat Coffee. I used the wi-fi to look at look for his girl friend on Facebook but couldn't find her.  Later we went to the local bike shop but they were closed.  It was a little later that that we returned, packed and said bye.

Once we got on the road we arrived at my friend's mom's house in less than 5 minutes. they already knew that we had gone on a long cycling trip.  We started the laundry and looked at their knick knack collection.  Later we discussed the day with her and then borrowed the car to visit grandma’s house. On the way we talked about coding projects for optimization. We also tried to go shopping.  At Grandma's family were making making lunch.

I got to know all of them for 45 minutes.  Grandma was sad to be moving but was looking forward to living with her new daughter-in-law in Montana. We had a great buffet lunch with everyone and I helped Charlie pack.  Eventually I went out back to write.

This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.