41

Today is my 41st birthday. It's not an interesting age, but at least it's a prime number. I also realized that 41 in hexadecimal just happens to be 29, which means that i'm the world's largest geek.

I did my annual birthday bike ride today, joined this time by my friends Cathy and Mark. I think this is the 13th straight year i've done the ride, excepting my 33rd birthday when i was in the Philippines. We rode from my house northward through the town of Escondido and then up Old Highway 395. The initial plan was to go to Temecula, but after encountering some much larger than expected hills on the way north, we decided to stop at the quaintly named town of Rainbow, just south of the San Diego-Riverside county line.

We had lunch at the restaurant in Rainbow and got some water at the neighboring market. The folks in Rainbow were pretty nice, given that we were dressed in goofy spandex outfits and probably didn't smell that good. And lord, what a beautiful day it was. Blue skies, warm air, and the whole of north county is green where it's supposed to be and autumnal where it's not.

We started south around noon. It was mostly downhill for the first few miles, until just past the Pala reservation. If you know the approach to San Diego on the 15 you'll probably recall a huge, arcing bridge that crosses over the freeway as you're driving up a long, steep hill. Riding up the corresponding hill on 395 was fairly tough. There's another hard hill, less steep but very long, just after you pass the Lawrence Welk resort (yeah, the guy on TV with the bubbles that your grandma watches). After that it was a fairly easy ride, except i think this must have been Official Freaky Shit in the Bike Lane day in Escondido. There were big holes, tree limbs, parts of a screen door, and a large young gentlemen who looked like a cross between Edgar Winter and Frankenstein (at least he did at 40 miles/hour).

A pretty good ride, though to paraphrase a bumper sticker the worst day biking beats the best day working. We did about 70 miles, climbed some decent hills, suffered no road rash or redneck rage, and had only one flat. Not an epic-size ride, but a decent workout in preparation for the Palms Spring Century in February.