Jacquie Phelan's Weblog

Charcoal drawing by Rob Eder

Often sleepless Thursday morning from 2 am til 6, as Kevin  Vance hosts “Nonfiction Music”.

I can’t hear the radio when we play it (too softly) in the treehouse,  so I tiptoed down to the house to listen.  This night featuring a trove of Delta Blues,  plus lots of ‘nod to Bob‘ it being Dylan’s 70th b.d. next week.

Sleep? I’ll do that at six.

Oh, I have to write about bikes, eh?

My calendar said “Ride w/CK” but no explanation, and  I called my not-husband for a hint as to how he was penned in on May 15.
“I’m riding with a British guy, something about a lifetime dream to ride Repack.”
“I’ll be there….he needs a bonus legend, eh?” I said, sensing an innocent young guy getting blown sideways by SeeKay’s gale force charm.  With me along, there would be an equal, opposing force.

It was 42 degrees F. Chilliest May on record.

Decked out in my warmest, I called out to my Charlie, “Back in fifteen minutes!”, convinced I’d just  say hello at the Java Hut, then head home to some nice cocoa and a warm fire.

But.

The.

Sun.

Came out.

Along with U.C. Davis student Sarah McCullough, who’s doing a paper on “our” sport.

We took off when Jamie B. of Kent got a rental sorted out, and I immediately got dropped when I stopped to talk to a friend ( a very common motif when CC and I ride), only I didn’t know their route round to Repack…luckily I knew a shortcut.

Caught ’em studying an orchid at the top of the ridge overlooking Fairfax.  Had everyone pose for a shot:

CK probably has the orchid on HIS blog…er, site…so yeah, he’s a born-again botanist, specializing in Iris douglasii, with a minor in orchis….
Verily, the hills did ring with SeeKay’s geological wisdom (“That blue stuff’s serpentine, it erodes slower than the surrounding chert…”) and my helpful addenda which was 77% accurate.

Might have terrified Jamie about the ticks, which he knew nothing about.  While we rode, the rain clouds circled us and dumped everywhere but on us. Rain ‘cells’ do that around here–CC was at home thinking we were getting soaked.

After a brilliant and very safe, mellow descent down the legendary dirt road, (Jamie expertly commanding a rented bike with the brakes in unfamiliar set-up) we repaired to Iron Springs Brewing Co for their Casey Jones IPA and some nachos.  More stories from the Garrulous One.

Iris hunter

~ by jacquiephelan on May 19, 2011.

Posted in "knobby nobility", Fairfax, heinous name dropping, music
Tags: Iron Springs Brewery, Kevin Vance rules, Marc Burckhardt, Ride with British kid, Rob Eder, Robert Johnson Centennial, Sarah McCullough, SeeKay, Support KPFA