Dipping my tire in the Pacific Ocean at Dog Beach, San Diego, CA

Peninsular Range in California.
As you can see we are all in full rain gear.  It didn't rain all day but it was heavy at times and cold.  The good news is that all my rain gear kept me completely dry but it was a very hard ride with long climbs.
Today we went from Alpine, CA to Boulevard, CA.  Again the weather was very cold, 40 degrees most of the day.  The hills were long and steep.  I only rode in the afternoon as I was very tired from the first day.  I did not get many long outside rides in this winter!  I plan to make up the 25 miles that I skipped today on my rest days.
We have a wonderful group of woman and everyone is settling into our daily routine.  

We are getting closer to Florida!
Thank you to everyone for all your support.

Here is Luc (Lucy) the Moose in the airport in San Diego.  Lucy will be riding on my bike and I will post her location.  She has already been called a reindeer by the JetBlue flight attendant.  The flight attendant was from New York.  Mainers know what moose look like.

The weather is cool and three of us went for shake-down ride yesterday.  Carla, from Brazil and Barb from Maine were my fellow riders after we picked up our bikes from Bernie's bike shop.

He instructed us on how to avoid a seriously steep hill to get up the road that would take us out to Point Loma and  Cabrillo National Monument.  Somehow the person (who shall be nameless) getting directions from Roger at Bernies managed to lead us straight up the hill which looked like something out of San Francisco.  Baptism by fire.  The rest of the ride went well.

It is four days away from my leaving for San Diego.  Barb and I leave at 6 AM from Portland.  We fly to NY and then to San Diego.
I have struggled the last few days with a stomach virus which may have been as much stress as virus but I am now feeling well and back to eating good food.

I contributed to my own stress by deciding to buy a rental property which was supposed to close (at the government's request) at the end of January and of course still has not.  I had to get a power of attorney for son Ben (who is renting said house from me) but everything is lined up. He and his cousin and a contractor will be doing some renovations on the house.  They won't have me to micromanage.  I also made a reservation deposit on a condo to be built this summer.  The snow really convinced me that my house is too big and the stairs to the back door just too much.

I had a wine tasting fundraiser with all my wonderful friends and family. They generously contributed almost $500.  What friends.   They also helped cook, clean and just have a good time.
It was a good send off.

I hope that I will be open to all that this trip will offer.  I came across this quote "Traveling lightly leaves room for mystery and miracle to happen."  (Fr. Anthony Oelrich).  I am not sure how "lightly" I am traveling but certainly I will be leaving  most day-today activities behind.  

Nancy and Barb K. at our bike class at Papa Wheelies, Portsmouth, NH

We start riding three weeks from today out of San Diego.  At least it won't be snowing (I hope) but we will be heading into the mountains on that first day.
My training is going well but now I am concentrating on getting everything organized at home before I  leave.

I am having a wine-tasting fundraiser next Saturday for my Pedal with a Heart fund.  I also wish to thank everyone who has contributed.  We are doing well, over $1,600 which will be matched 1:1.  If you haven't pledged, don't worry you can do so anytime during my tour.  I have a new pledger who is pledging 3 cents a mile but says  I can't sag.  SAG stands for support and gear and is a short way of saying that you can take a van/car ride if you need to.

Barb (a fellow rider on the WomanTour) and I took the first of two classes on bike maintenance.  We spent most of the time on tires.  I   discovered that my tires are very tight on my rim and I had a bit of difficulty with this.  I am sure I will get some more practice on the trip.  It was a very helpful class and we continue next week with work on our drive train. (Note to other riders on the Tour: Barb and I are not yet experts.)

The trip is only 60 days away!  My training is going well.  I work out with my personal trainer, Mark, twice a week and ride my bike on the trainer about 5 or 6 days a week.  I have done a couple of two hour stints.  These are boring!  I plan to do some longer rides starting next week.
This past weekend I went cross country skiing.  We have about 15" of snow and it was wonderful.  The workouts I have been doing really helped my skiing.  I also went downhill skiing this week and felt stronger doing that too.
I also packed my luggage.  We are allowed 50 lbs total with each bag not exceeding 30 lbs.  I did very well getting all my clothes into a duffle and small suitcase.  The total was 40 lbs.   This is great as I am sure that I will add more things before I am done.

Our group of 30 women is sending lots of emails with all kinds of advice and concerns.  I feel like I know many of them already.  It is good to know that the other ladies have the same apprehensions that I do. We are all in it together.

I just returned from a trip to Florida with WomanTours and did about 180 miles on the bike.  I used about 3 gears the whole time.
Florida is very flat!
The group was great and out trip leaders were wonderful.  

I did meet two women who had done the Northern Tier ride from North Dakota to Bar Harbor and loved it.  They said the time went by very fast.  One of the women said she rode with different people everyday and a couple of times alone.  She was very encouraging about doing the trip and did say that most days you are so tired you just eat dinner and get to bed.

On the biggest hill, actually a long bridge going into Sarasota,
I had a blow out part way up the bridge.  I was able to walk my bike back to the bottom of the bridge and called our guide who showed up almost immediately.  I had already determined that I had a nice cut in my tire.  She gave me a demonstration on tire changing!  I have done it but I am very slow.  She patched the hole with a heavy patch and I set off.  It was a short day and the tire stayed together.  It gave me some confidence in that I was able to unclip and my bike was very stable.  I do hope I don't have too many flats on our Cross Country Trip but I will practice tire changing and repair.

I spent the next week with my sister, niece and daughter at the Innisbrook resort where we golfed, swam, went to the beach and the spa.  I did do one short bike ride around the resort before I returned to the bike shop to have my bike shipped home.

NOW for the real training to begin...  I plan to put my bike up the trainer and start spinning.

We have received our route maps and they are a bit scary but we will do it!

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My trip is scheduled to begin on March 7th.  It doesn't seem so far away.

Next week I will being doing a WomanTours trip out of Tampa so I will be able to get in some fall training.  I sent my bike down there ahead of me.

Then my plan is to set my bike up on a trainer at home.  My personal trainer, Mark, is going to help with a program.  I think this will be the toughest part of training as it is very boring riding inside but it must be done.

I plan to post from my Florida trip and will hopefully be able to post some photos.

The second week in Florida will be at the Innisbrook resort with my sister, daughter and niece for a little R&R.  I have wonderful relatives and look forward to being with them.