Good day sunshine - Chualar 200k Permanent: 3/15/09

This was my preparation ride for the SCR 300k, which was the following weekend. I woke up to a misty wet morning up in the mountains, but was happy to see that down in Santa Cruz where the ride started it was still dry. I headed south and east out of town, but started noticing more ominous creaking noises from my seat. After the destruction of my seat pivot bolt and quick release in the SCR 200k I had received and installed new parts from Rans Bicycles, but it was apparent that there was still a problem going on.
I snapped a couple of pictures of the farm scenery off of San Andreas Road while stopping every now and then to fiddle with the seat. First was some kind of flower or herb farm.

Shortly afterward marked the beginning of the descent to the Pajaro Valley, featuring the latest edition of Strawberry Fields Forever.

With more seat creaking and adjustment I got to the final downhill at the end of San Andreas Road.At this point I had figured out what the problem was. The original hardware for my seat had a bolt which the seat pivoted around (for angle adjustment) and a quick release to clamp it in place at the chosen angle. The new hardware now enclosed the pivot bolt inside a sleeve and the sleeve was slightly longer than the distance it spanned between the seat brackets. This meant that when I tightened the nut on the seat pivot bolt it was compressing the sleeve instead of clamping the seat brackets against the seat post, hence lots of ominous creaking noises and a high chance of shearing through the sleeve and the bolt. I knew there was a hardware store in Buena Vista (my first control) and made a conscious effort to take it easy on the seat until then. Luckily the weather was fairly nice for March in the Monterey Bay, and I was happy to have a ride where my main concern was not how long I would stay dry.
I finished working my way onto Highway 1 and cruised through Moss Landing, checking out the Elkhorn Slough on one side...
and the harbor on the other.
After a bit of zigzagging on roads mostly used to access farms (including artichokes)
I got onto River Road, which heads south along the west side of the Salinas Valley.
A couple of miles later I reached the Buena Vista control and restocked at the food mart, then popped in to the Ace Hardware next door. With some help from one of the salespeople I picked up a couple of different sizes of washers. The largest washer fit over the sleeve and allowed the nut to now compress my seat brackets against the seat post. Hurray! We are eternally grateful! (Random movie reference there...)
From Buena Vista it was a short 10 miles or so to the approximate halfway point in the little town of Chualar, where I only had to mail a postcard. While I was filling in my arrival time on the postcard I noticed that the fire station just down the street seemed to be having some kind of fire truck driving practice.
The fire truck would head down the street and turn right, then apparently make a U-turn, come barreling back along the side street, make a left turn and end up between the cones as shown above, then make another U-turn and repeat the whole thing.
I didn't stay to watch long, as the Salinas Valley is notorious for a predictable northwest wind which can easily hit 20 mph in the afternoon, and as I was now heading back north I would have to fight it for some miles before I climbed out of the valley. At least the spring flowers were out to help distract me.
At the north-east end of the valley I started climbing up Old San Juan Grade (towards the town of San Juan Bautista).
The temperature climbed 20 degrees F during the first 10 minutes or so, from the 60s into the 80s. Spring was definitely around the corner. Near the top I took a farewell shot of the Salinas Valley
and a few minutes later snapped a welcome shot of San Juan Bautista.
I was ready for some tacos at this point, and after a typically bumpy and twisty descent (this is far from the smoothest road in the world) I reached the Windmill Market which was the control for San Juan Bautista.
Three yummy tacos later I headed out for the climb into Aromas, passing by several examples of one of my favorite roadside flowers
and heading through a grove of Eucalyptus trees near the top of the Carr/Anzar road climb.
Along the way between Aromas and Watsonville I came across a sheep farm which featured several lambs, including this brand new one trying to figure out how to get some milk from mommy (the lamb is all black just to the left of the mommy sheep in the foreground).
A few more short climbs made the way back into Santa Cruz interesting, but fairly uneventful and in due time I was back at the car.
Between the general lack of other training rides and the fiddling with my seat during the first half it hadn't been as fast as I had hoped for, but I had finished withing the time limits which is all a randonneur can ask for. Hopefully I would do the same next weekend at the SCR 300k.