aka The Melinda Platt Memorial Double Century. 🤣 Last year, Melinda and I were going to do more or less do this route for our annual solstice double century. Unfortunately, we had to bail and it was always my hope that we’d get to try again. Sadly, Melinda wasn’t able to join. 🥺 Several people expressed interest but Bob was the only one who made it. It was actually pretty warm at the start and my legs felt great. A much better start to the day than Davis. Anthony rode from the start with us out to Pescadero. Then Sonny met us at Gayle’s and rode back to Los Gatos. Once we got up to Skyline, it was foggy and drizzly. And on the coast side it was much colder. It was a good thing Bob brought his vest and arm warmers. He almost didn't. Besides be gray and blah at the coast, we also had a not normal headwind. Luckily it wasn't very strong. After we left Pescadero, we saw so many tiny cute bunnies by the roadside. They could’ve fit in the palm of your hand. We were making pretty good time and almost 2 1/2 hours faster than last year. As we got to Wilder Ranch, Bob asked me what the ticking noise coming from my bike was. I didn't hear anything so I stopped and checked once we got on the bike path. I had a screw in my rear tire, on the left shoulder. I didn't realize it was a screw at first, I thought it was a nail and I was trying to pull it while twisting it the wrong way. Once I figured it out, I unscrewed it and with one revolution, the tire sealed. I remarked to Bob later, every time I get a flat, it's usually some big nail or screw but it's super fast to fix - less than 5s. Every time he gets a flat, we can't figure out what caused it and because he has tubes instead of tubeless like Sonny and I, it takes a lot longer. We couldn't have timed meeting Sonny any better. He got to Gayle's just a couple minutes before we did. They were crazy busy though. We got numbers 59, 60, and 61 but they were on 16. This is the longest we ever had to wait to get food. Once we got our food, there were no tables. That's also never happened to us before. Eventually one opened up. After lunch, my legs didn't feel as good. I was having a bit of pain in the back of my left knee connecting to my hamstring. And on the way up Eureka Canyon Rd. I was reminiscing about the one time the air was filled with ladybugs in a ladybug apocalypse. Well on the descent down Highland Way, the aiir was filled with ladybugs and they really hurt when I ran into them. There didn't seem to be a way to avoid them. Not only were there a lot of them, they were also flying side-to-side across the road. I don't know why but they mostly seemed to be hitting me in the neck (as well as my arms and sometimes eyes). Eureka Canyon has also gotten a lot more beat up. A lot of the roads were more beat up and there seemed to be a lot of traffic today too. It was like I was riding in Marin and the North Bay. It was also getting warm so we stopped at the Summit Store for some ice cream and water. Once we dropped down to Los Gatos, it was even warmer. We parted ways with Sonny and on the way down to Morgan Hill on McKean Rd. we had an amazing tailwind. We know that wasn't going to be great when we had to turn around and come back up Coyote Creek Trail. Before heading back, we stopped at Starbucks in Morgan Hill for some food and I introduced Bob to the Frappucino. He asked me what was in them and I told him Frappucino of course! The food helped because even though it was a pretty strong headwind, my legs were feeling good again. Along the first section of Coyote Creek Trail, I saw a tiny dark animal crawling across my side of the trail. I couldn't tell what it was. I thought maybe it was a lizard but the way it moved and its silhouette looked weird. It looked like a tiny, tiny, Godzilla. Like a chubby cartoony version. Then a couple seconds later, I saw something hopping across the trail. I thought it was a tiny frog but unsure. I saw some more and thought maybe it was a cricket. I told Bob but he didn't believe me. He couldn't see them because he didn't know what he was looking for but once he did, they seemed to be everywhere. For a good stretch of the trail, we'd come across groups of tiny frogs hopping across the trail that we'd frantically try to avoid squishing. I wanted to stop to take a photo of one but by the time I was ready to, we'd passed all of them already. Sadness. Later, we were swarmed by gnats that seemed to fly into our moths and eyes. Why did the ladybugs attack my neck but the gnats went for my face? In all we had a ladybug, frog, and gnat apocalyses. Apocalyi? Somewhere after lunch, we must have slowed down or something because we started to miss the ETAs on our milestones. We originally though we could make it to American Bistro at Shoreline just before it closed at 6:30p. But we knew that was going to happen when we got to Morgan Hill... late. By the time we got to San Tomas Aquino Creek Trail, it was already dark and past sunset (but what a beautiful sunset we had). It's a nice trail. Shoreline in the dark and with no one else around but us was pretty interesting. We kind of slowed down. I think it was a combo of me being hungry and running our lights on low and not being able to see far enough ahead. My original route continued along the bay all way to Redwood Shores but I made a game time decision to go back through Redwood City instead. I figured it was more direct and would get us home faster. The final mileage was a little more than predicted, which was unexpected. We were so happy to be home and I'm thankful Bob was there. I definitely wouldn't have or could've done it without him. Also unlike Davis, all the touch points (sit bones, feet, hands) felt pretty good today all the way to the end. Pretty happy about that.