A not-so-easy ride. Tour De Bike Shops.

There was a torrential downpour all day Friday and I was super bummed I couldn't ride Santa Monica Critical Mass so I walked into Cynergy Cycles thinking I was going to pick up one small item but apparently, I fixed my rainy day blues by making a dent in my wallet...Who said retail therapy doesn't work? Oh, I did because this lack of riding affected me the next day...

I woke up Saturday morning to the sunshine of Southern California and decided to dedicate the day to some EASY riding--I was even mentally prepared to ride in the rain, just in case. I had to be in Huntington Beach to pick up my race packet for my half marathon on Sunday so I decided to take my bike with me and ride to avoid all the traffic in the Expo area. This obviously wasn't enough of a bike fix so Eric came down to join me for a CRUISE around town. He too needed new gear, has been looking into buying some spandex for our 102 mile ride ride in Palm Springs next weekend and ended up at a few different bike shops.

First stop (approx 5.61 miles from start), Surf City Cyclery in Huntington Beach, another Specialized shop. The store was huge and had a lot of gear but the women's selection was small and frankly a little disappointing. Eric said, "Let me guess, you know about Surf City Cyclery because it's a Specialized store." Smart kid.

Next stop (approx 18.32 miles from start), Kings Bike Shop in Seal Beach. I really have no comment about this shop except that one of the employees there was totally checking out my Roll 2. I think he drooled on it just a bit.

At this point, the dark clouds were following us but I didn't have enough riding in for the day so after a quick stop at Starbucks, we kept riding north not really thinking of the ride back. (Blame my lack of planning on Gattaca, my favorite movie of all time. Check out the movie reference here.)

We ended up in Long Beach at LBFG, short for Long Beach Fixed Gear (approx 25 miles from start). A shop geared toward the urban rider and not the spandex wearing rider. Look what I found, a Roll 2! :)

Apparently, the best part of the ride was still to come. It started to get dark but there was one more stop we had to make. The sunset was beautiful and the seagulls were enjoying the view too. We decided to set ourselves back about 20 years and act like we could still tell you how old we were by holding up our fingers. "You want to make the seagulls fly?" Um, well, that's a silly question because HECK YES, I DO.

The look of satisfaction. (It's not that difficult to act like your five years old after a long ride.)

By the time we got back, it was dark, we rode approximately 48 miles, escaped the rain that had falled in Huntington Beach while we were north, and of course, we were hungry. Oh, and we did manage to pick up some spandex. :) So much for an easy ride the day before my half marathon!!