Here are the bike ride pictures-proof that I was there! 

Top picture: Elwood Brown, Brett Olsen, Me and Minda Pacheco  Elwood is Brett’s father-in-law and Brett is Shireen’s husband.  Shireen is Minda and my friend.  Did you catch all that.  The Brown’s hosted the lovely weekend-allowed us to stay at their home, mapped out the ride and took great care of us!  Shireen was the “get away” car.  She dropped us off at the start line and picked us up 3 hours away from her parent’s home in San Diego.  She was a warrior!

Above we are getting ready to hit the road.  Notice we are all a little giddy…

above picture:  I had to stop and take a picture.  It was so beautiful, the coast, the shoreline, the waves crashing, etc.  We were about to ride by but the hill ahead was a little too steep so I knew I couldn’t stop at the bottom and take photos-I was counting on all the momentum I could get!Minda had an insatiable hunger!  She went through many bananas and PB&J’s along the way.  She was enjoying one of those in the picture above.

This picture showed a bit of the trail.  No people, no cars, just us…    I couldn’t have asked for a better route (minus the slight necessary detour thanks to the closed Base-we had to venture about 10 miles ON THE INTERSTATE 5.  I was a bit of a mess!)

Here, we stopped on the pier in Oceanside, grabbed some food and I needed a picture.  I mean really-water views (and surfer views) the whole way!

And FINALLY… completion, victory, success!

And now for my post ride thoughts: 

I am large and in charge.  My upper half is well, ummm a little big.   But then again, so is my lower half.  I determined that my century was the ride to kick off my health and happiness goal.  To see pictures is to see the truth.  Time for me to focus (dang I hate this part), time for me to get real about my weight (ok, I hate this part too) and do something about it instead of talking about it (the hardest part). 

And, I am short!