Through Fairfax on “Slowmingo”

On June 17 I wrote that I finished writing at Naves and went to the liquor store and 7-Eleven for stuff before riding the short way to the house on the hill POE. The ride was very steep in places but took less time than the long way.

When I got there they were already making dinner which was supposed to have been my job. They ceded the job of cooking to me and I got it done. My friend was winding down and I convinced her to quit for a while. The meal was great. When we were done she and I wound the house down together.

An hour later we were all in the living room together again. I had picked up beer and whiskey so was trying to finish it. There was a pie and I had gotten ice cream. We sat and ate our dessert. I had joked that we had to eat a quarter slice each.

A while later we were getting ready for bed. Two of us slept in the living room. I woke up only once. I was pretty sure there was something in the middle of the night but I didn’t do anything with it.

The next morning I awoke to noise about the house and pancakes. My friend had gotten up first and attended to noise. Our companions had slept an extra hour and my friend had made breakfast. The meal was great and while we got cleaned up I took care of things around the house until we got dressed and went for a walk up the hill.

I wanted to look at Ridge Road and we got pretty far up that way before the noise was too much. We had to turn back. It was mainly on me to assuage the noise so I headed back first. Once there we sat for a short bit but quickly started quiet time.

I was on my walk on for a short bit and a bit later I returned to where we had walked and continued with my bike to wear the road ended. I found a trail inclined to the base of Pam’s Blue Ridge. Then I headed down to Holly and Scenic on the other road. I determined that the pass in there would likely lead to Tamarancho.

I returned to the house and the girls were getting ready to go to town for lunch. We packed the bikes up and got the trailer is out. I had initially wanted to descend on scenic but I was overruled on account that it was one way.

We took Tamalpais down and locked up at the park. Initially that worked out but we wanted to eat so we took what was left of our equipment to a few restaurants and settled in for pizza.

The meal was noisy but good. We had a couple of moments but afterward we went to the Mountain Bike Museum and Fairfax Market where we saw our hostess’ mother again. She had been calling our group “bakfiets.” It was a short moment later at around 530 when we were heading back to the bikes. The last part of the trip was a different difficult task on account of the noise.

We went from the park to the Tamalpais entrance but this time we took Scenic. I had thought it would be less steep but I was wrong. My friend pushed herself to the first landing but it was impossible. At some point we switched and helped each other climb. My friend had also switched with our companions – one of whole had never pulled the trailer before.

When we got to the top we locked up and went down to the rental house. My friend and I got loud in the living room and our companions made roasted veggies in the kitchen. I did some research on the pictures on the walls. I discovered that the neighborhood had been served during the 20s by a funicular.

We wound the house down then. I was still trying to drink all of the beer at that point so as the time ticked away I was falling asleep. My friend noticed that and told us to sit for the pie she had made. She also opened the chocolate wine she had found in in the cupboard. I thought it tasted a little bit like a Bailey’s knock off.

I passed out after our companions went to bed and didn’t recall my friend getting up although I did wake to some strange noises.

In the morning she told me she had been up since 530. I woke up at 7:30 when everyone else had gotten up. This time we had quiche and I thought the meal was exquisite. We had given up on the possibility of having good coffee and had been allowing ourselves to drink the K-cup coffee.

It was cleanup time after that. Initially I was slow to help. I left my friend alone for a bit. When we were all getting ready it was nearly 10 and I estimated 40 minutes to the ferry. My friend checked what it was to get out of the house. Then we dickered over the bags, packing, cleaning and other stuff.

Once we were on the road we took some pictures and I tried to find the old funicular route. However it was too difficult. We did see a site with potential along Sequoia near Manor.

It was quiet time through Fairfax on “Slowmingo” and I got honked at on Center. The ride through San Anselmo was tough because I had turned onto a side street to avoid a car and it end up following us for several blocks. Also I experimented riding through places in Ross which didn’t turn out perfect.

Through Kentfield and Larkspur we searched for a park at which we could picnic and had a hard time. We followed the slough and also took a wrong turn but eventually found Heatherwood Park. The stairs to the east had made the search really difficult. There were interesting structures and I climbed them with my beer. We ate leftovers and had a good time.

We returned to Lucky Drive then. Then we had intended to stop at Pete’s we went to the bike shop instead – they made us coffee! We quietly surveyed the offerings and interviewed a mechanic.

We made the ferry fine. My friend hid herself away in the hold where we hung out for the duration. I had a couple of drinks and when we got off we had a bit of trouble with our trailers.

We all rode up Market Street – there was very little traffic – very quiet. We said bye at Valencia and I carried as much into the apartment as possible. It was quiet time. I left my friend alone and we unpacked. Then I noisily entertained. She went to the burrito place and when she returned we ate before we wound down for the night.

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.