Mark’s Blog

May 26, 2008

Adventure Ride for the Arts II

San Ramon to San Diego June 29, 2008

As I’m writing this I’m feeling the small little tingles and butterflies that I felt last year as the big ride approached. Terry and I are anticipating an uneventful ride, but knowing from my experience there will be plenty of adventure and excitement over the course of the ride.

We have now trained 1730 miles since February, and are ready for the trip, however June 29^th is still more than a month away and we need to ride at least 6 days a week to maintain our conditioning. I predict that by June 29^th we will have ridden 2400 miles translated into hours that’s approximately 192 hours in the saddle (“ouch!”) Only kidding, we can’t feel a thing, at least that’s what we tell ourselves.

There have been a lot of people who’ve been asking about the route we are taking from San Ramon so here’s the short version, and you can follow our ride log after June 29^th for the exact version.

After a nice breakfast June 29^th in San Ramon we will head south to Dublin then West to Palomares Canyon, and south to Fremont crossing the Dumbarton Bridge using the pedestrian foot path, and into downtown Palo Alto for lunch. After lunch, it is up over the mountains using Sandhill Rd. and Pescadero Rd. dropping us into Loma Mar where we will spend the night in a campground ten miles from the Pacific Coast. The rest of the trip will be on Hwy 1 and secondary roads paralleling Hwy 1 all the way to San Diego. We will take a few side trips along the way for interest, but every side trip on a bicycle needs to be calculated carefully with a payoff or point of interest worth the trip. Our daily mileage will be approximately 70 to 80 miles on average, and some days will be longer and some days shorter with 6 to 7 hours in the saddle. At least four nights will be camping and four or five nights will be up in the air, winging it wherever we are. After completing the ride in San Diego (Imperial Beach to be exact) my wife (who will have loosely followed us in the van) will be there to pick us up for the drive back home.

This ride is about raising funds for the San Ramon Arts Foundation, which supports Cultural Arts Programs in San Ramon. We are asking people to donate $.10 cents per mile or a $65.00 for the entire ride payable to the San Ramon Arts Foundation. You can mail a check to SRAF 231 Market Pl. #378, San Ramon California 94583 or click on the Donate button on our website www.sanramonarts.org . Please feel free to contact Mark or Terry through the website if you have questions about the ride.

I want to thank all the people who have come forward in support of this ride with donations and kind words of encouragement. Through your generosity, the arts will continue to be a source of inspiration to the residents in San Ramon and the San Ramon Valley.

Thanks again for your support.