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| Nice guys on nice bikes. Rest stop in Rancho Santa Fe. Ryan Brown photo. |
Monday, I had the pleasure to meet some of my first Texans, and their friends from Ohio and Kansas. All eight were in town for a conference to do with wiring/electrical work at the local luxury resort, La Costa. Every year the conference goes someplace new, and so every year, this merry peleton rents bikes, hires a guide and tours the local roads and thoroughfares. (It sure beats golf, am I right?!)
This year, those lucky roads were in SoCal, and the lucky guide was me. I was ably assisted by fellow mountain biker Ryan Brown, but we donned our roadie disguises and headed off to meet my old friend Joe (you may remember him from such blog posts as this one) of Synaptic Cycles. He was providing the fleet, which included high-end rides by Volagi, Focus and Calfee.
We headed out towards San Elijo Hills where my electrically-minded crew were quick to point out the lovely copper we have strewn about the hills in the area. My understanding from San Elijo Hills resident, Nick, is that the area was originally based on the mining of copper -- however that quickly ran its course. From there, we continued inland via Elfin Forest Road before stopping for water at famed Swami's rest stop, "The Church of God" -- featuring a potable water faucet in its parking lot.
We rolled into Rancho Santa Fe via the breathtaking Del Dios Hwy, taking in the views of Lake Hodges and marvelling at the increasingly green and lush gardens as we got closer to RSF. One of the most wealthy zip codes in America, they can afford to have water pumped in for such pursuits as golfing, gardening and pretend-orchards (I say pretend because I think most of them exist to bring down the property taxes, rather than out of enthusiasm for lemons and oranges ... they're farmers, dontchaknow).
We rolled out of RSF with Pizza Port in our sights at its original Solana Beach location. It's known for its delicious pizza pies and even better known for its delicious contributions to the hopping (see what I did there?) craft beer scene in San Diego.
Luckily, by this time, the climbs were all finished and we enjoyed a nice little tailwind along the coast, all the way back through Cardiff, downtown Encinitas, Leucadia and then back up alongside the Batiquitos Lagoon to the La Costa resort.
This loop is one of my favourites, so I was really happy to share it with such a fun group of visitors. Word has it that later that night, they became award winners with their conference, so I trust that all in all, it was a good day for Encore Wire and friends.
If you're from out of town and would like to head out on a road ride without the irritation of packing up your bike, give Synaptic Cycles a call and Joe will get you set up. Tell him I sent you :)
