AIDS Lifecycle Day 5: 45 miles Santa Maria to Lompoc

After four days of riding hard, I was looking forward to today's ride - a short 45 mile ride.

Thursday:
Because you rode, today in San Francisco – and all over the world, 40,000 people will receive BETA: The Bulletin of Experimental Treatments for AIDS. Published three times a year in English and in Spanish, BETA is widely regarded as one of the ways we learn about new treatments for HIV in the pipeline, and new biomedical interventions that prevent HIV transmission.

Day 5 was "Dress In Red Day" to create a trail of red along the route, as in the red ribbon signifying the fight against AIDS. The name, not surprisingly, was unofficially changed to "Red Dress Day."

I took a few pictures right from my tent...


This guy (notice he's smoking a cirgarette) had bolted clips on the bottom of his platform, high heel, leather boots to clip into his bike pedals. That's dedication!









I don't think this guy's shoes go with his outfit.














Morning yoga...






Since it was a short day of riding, I left camp at the latest time possible - 8:30am. The route looped out of and back into Santa Maria before the first rest stop. At the first stop, I sat and iced both achilles at the medical tent. While resting, I overheard the Physical Therapist talking about volunteering in Nicaragua last summer. Of course, I immediately struck up a conversation with her. Then, a guy who had just sat down next to me said he had volunteered north of Managua, Nicaragua for six months in 2005. To add another level of small worldness, another guy!!! sat down and overhead us talking about Nicaragua. He jumped into our conversation and said his parents were from Nandaime, a town about 10 miles from where I lived while in the Peace Corps in Nicaragua. Before anymore Nica connections appeared, I decided it was time to get going.

Heading out of Santa Maria, the route turned into a series of short, steep climbs in the California sun out of the Santa Maria River Valley. At the bottom of each climb, you could see a stream of riders all in red, and indeed, it did look like one long red ribbon. But with the climbs it was quickly turning into a tough day of riding.

I thought these were the most creative outfits of the day.


Rolling into Lompoc, I felt like I needed to sleep in a normal bed for just one night. So, I decided to walk into town and "princess it" for the night. I was asleep by 4pm.