In which none of my wishes came true. I really wanted to do a dirt epic for my birthday. It's become a tradition and it's National Trails Day no less. Unfortunately everyone I asked was busy or out of town and eventually I got so bummed and discouraged about it, I stopped asking. Sadly, dirt is not Bob and Sonny's thing. I considered doing a solo dirt epic but I'm pretty sure that would've just bummed me out even more. Bob wanted to check out Dirt Alpine and since we were doing it on road bikes that kind of makes it epic dirt, right? Bob took us through the "back way" of Los Altos Hills and we made a wrong turn into this neighborhood with a steep climb and road that just a circle. We nearly got trapped in there. This morning, I thought maybe we'd run into Kate Courtney on Dirt Alpine and I'd see if I could get a photo with her. I usually run into her 1 out every 10 rides in the area. Well Sonny and I were at the top waiting for Bob when Kate rolled up. She kept going and felt weird about asking her to stop but then also immediately regretted not doing it. What could be a better time to ask then on my birthday. It had been nice and warm in the valley but on the way up, it cooled. And on Skyline, it was very windy and the wind was very cold. On the way over to Bob's, I could see the fog hugging the ridge but luckily it had burned off by the time we got up there. Stopped off at Alice's for the 2nd time this week. It was nice in the sun and out of the wind but we were sitting in the shade outside and there was enough of a breeze that I was starting to shiver by the time we were ready to leave. There was an opening on 84 so I sprinted, both to warm up and to make sure no cars got in front of me. I had a clear run the whole way down but I had a stupid headwind so I was actually working. Seriously? Most of the roads were surprisingly quiet today but on the way through Portola it was busier than usual. There was some sort of a festival or concert being held at the Town Center. We did some nice house hunting in Westridge before stopping off for a giant cookie at Little Sky (unplanned). For the first time, I wasn't assaulted by blaring Caltrain horns while in Menlo Park. On Bay Trail, just before the Palo Alto Municipal Golf Course, I felt a sting in my neck. It was weird because I didn't feel a bug hit me but it did have that burning pain of a thorn or stinger in my skin. But I couldn't feel anything there. I stopped to have the guys look at it but they didn't see anything either. They claimed there wasn't even a mark but I looked later and there was totally a red spot. A crazy squirrel or ground hog doing crazy rodent things started to run across the trail and then got trapped between Bob and I so it started to run with us. It thought about crossing in front of me and nearly went into my wheel but thankfully thought better of it and escaped the other way. The plan was to have dessert at Shoreline and on the way over, I asked the guys if they still wanted to stop since I got my cookie for later. It was a dessert at American Bistro that I really wanted. So we stopped and had dessert while we watched beginners learning how to wing foil. We had such a beautiful tail wind most of the way once we hit the Bay. It was very nice.