Saturday, June 9 was a rest day, but we drove to Monte Rio to pick up our race packets and have a little time there before our triathlon on Sunday. Cami had connected with the principal at the elementary school months back to see if it was ok for us to park in the parking lot there overnight prior to the triathlon. When -- we pulled in "Rob," the neighbor to the parking lot stopped by. He made sure we weren't pulling in with a whole group because "tonight is the biggest party I host all year and I have a lot of folks who will be parking here tonight, including a souped up bus turned into a camper. In fact, stop by later for a beer. I'm going to be showing two movies in my backyard, too, so it might be a late night!" Great. Sounds like a good night for sleep. (But it actually was surprisingly quiet and didn't bother our slumber.)
Now...the reason we even planned this triathlon into our schedule is that months back Chris told us the he and his daughter Charis were going to do this race and it wasn't far from where and when we were going to start the bike across America. Thus, Chris rode out to CA with me...and Friday night Chris joined Charis and wife Julie in Monte Rio. After the tri Cami and I would be on our own!
We had let Cami's cousin Linda from Alameda/San Fran know that we were going to be in the general area. It worked out beautifully well that they had a grandson's graduation near there so not only did we get to have dinner with Dan and LInda on Friday night, but they stayed in the rental two doors over from Chris, Julie and Charis!
Sunday was the Monte Rio Sprint Triathlon. A fun race that started in the Russian River, where we swam up current half way then downstream back for 750m. The bike was through rolling hills and then the race was along the shaded river. Chris took first in his age group, Charis took 2nd in her age group; Cami and I were in 6th and 7th in our age groups. A fine day was had by all, then Cami and I drove to Napa, where I finished the ride on Friday and stayed overnight at a "warmshowers" host. You can google search that if you want. Tomorrow/Monday June 11 begins the nearly daily riding on my own.
Camping spot at Monte Rio Union Elementary...with "Rob's" guests in their camper bus nearby
