Our team has shrunk by one - Roy has to have back surgery! He won't be recovered in time for the ride. We will miss his company. He is a very agreeable companion. Not least, he is a reliable navigator. I tend to gawk at the scenery or doze off while I ride so I roll right past the intended turns. On our previous coast-to-coast ride, we would have ended up at Hudson Bay instead of Boston if we hadn't had Roy to correct our course. Roy has an engineer's eccentricities. For example, when Michele and I stopped to take a picture of a verdant valley, we might discover Roy taking a picture of the farmer's irrigation equipment instead. Roy's good-natured acceptance of our teasing made the trip go faster. Readers may recall that I explained previously that I didn't feel a need to train because, as long as there's somebody slower than I am, what's the hurry?! I'll miss Roy even more because now I don't have someone who is reliably slower than me. Roy promises to ride the East coast when we do that.

No ride last weekend because we were birding in the Panoche Valley east of Paicines and aroundLos Banos. We saw a lot of beautiful birds, but most striking was seeing thousands of Ross's geese rising as a mass in response to a predator flying overhead. I'm thinking about making a ride out of this next year. Hollister to Paicines, then out J1 to Mercey Hot Springs. Overnight at the hot springs and then back the same way. Who's in?