I went on a long-ish ride this morning: 50 miles out to Esparto and back. I started out with a Davis Bike Club weekly ride, but wasn’t able to convince anyone to go out there with me. Maybe because it was cloudy and 42º at the ride start?
There is not much in Esparto, but it does have Lucy’s Cafe and Farm Pantry, a place where you can get coffee and a pastry, top off your water bottle, and use the bathroom. Pretty much everything a cyclist needs to make any out-of-the-way spot a viable destination.
While I took a break there, I called Kathy—who should have been riding with me but instead was wasting a good riding opportunity to drive back to LA from doing something unimportant in the Bay Area in order to take care of something equally unimportant at home . . . Importance being determined by the degree to which said activity relates to training for the AIDS/LifeCycle (ALC) in June. While we talked, she asked how the ride was: Good, boring, lonely? “Probably all three at different times,” she said in answer to her own question.
I thought about that on the ride home. The going was a little tough because there was a headwind on the southerly legs and an unfavorable crosswind on the easterly—Davisville being pretty much east-southeast from Esparto. And I thought, No . . . It’s neither boring nor lonely, but actually, just fun. In some ways it reminded me of my Pony Express ride. Long stretches in Yolo County, where I live, aren’t all that much more interesting than parts of Nebraska. And as for loneliness, I am accustomed to riding alone (again, see the Pony Express ride) and on days like this when I’m fighting a wind, I rather prefer not to have to keep up with or wait for other riders.
The ride also reminded me of the time ten or fifteen years ago when I rode out to Esparto more regularly with the Over the Hill Gang, a group of DBC weekday riders who were all older than me and still kicked my ass. They were a fun group. A few are still around and I get to enjoy their company on rides, but a few are missing as well, which makes me miss those earlier days.
The ride took about four hours, break included. (For those who are interested, the ride map and stats are here.) That’s a lot of time to think, which isn’t necessarily a good thing for me. But on this cold, breezy winter day, I found a lot to be grateful for . . . fond memories not being the least of those blessings.
