Saturday

As much as we would have LOVED to stay another night in Oceano, we packed up for the short trip to Solvang. In Solvang there was a cute little Dutch-like town for the kids to explore while Jamey, Mark and I rode “The Big Fig.” The “Fig” is a 50mile loop through/over Mt. Figuera. It is Lance Armstrong’s favorite ride outside of Europe! Going into it, I wasn’t convinced it was such a good idea. Being from Florida and all, our climbing skills are probably par at best. Also, if this is Lance’s favorite ride, that means it is a climb which is not for the weak in quads! The guy at the bike shop had us worried too. He showed us his leg, which had been partially ripped off while doing this ride. (WHAT!?!) He misjudged a switchback turn going downhill at 62mph and went over the edge! That was enough to convince ME that it was not a good idea (I think it made Mark a little nervous too), but the story only fueled Jamey and made him more anxious to get going. How do I always get roped into doing these crazy things?

I have to say, the ride was beautiful! The bad part…the batteries in my camera were dead. Sad. It took us about 2hours to climb to the top. It was amazing up there. At the summit you could look down and it seemed as if you could see the ocean, but it was really just the clouds. We had climbed above the cloud line! It was so peaceful. You felt as if you were in another world.
What a relief to finally be going downhill! Our legs were on fire and we were completely out of water. We finished the ride in about 3hours and 20min. It was almost 8pm by the time we rolled back into town and we were freezing! I had started the day in a tank top and shorts, and thankfully had brought my arm warmers which offered some warmth. Not enough though. To shake the chill, we were booking it into town at about 27.5mph to stay warm. I don’t know that I have ever kept that fast of a pace before in my life!! We were flying!

When we got back to town, we were cold, tired, and hungry….so much for making it into Santa Barbara for the night. Luckily, we found an RV park about 5min down the road that had a hot tub and clean showers! We would just have to make the log trip to L.A. tomorrow.