Drinking and biking Day 2
Day 2 of drinking and biking was full of drama and high adventure. It began with lightning warnings in the forecast, which is really ideal when one plans on riding around outside on a piece of metal. Bearing in mind the lightning warnings, when we saw a hint of sun earlier in the morning we decided to make a prompt start to the day.
On our drive to the start point of our bike excursion for the day, just as we were chatting about how cost efficient our trip had been so far, we encountered vehicle trouble that resulted in a fairly prompt determination that my van would have to stay in the as yet undisclosed location which we were visiting for about a week before it would be ready to come home. That was super convenient since we planned on being in town for another 2-3 days.
Next stop was a rental car agency, since we had no other means of getting around (except our bikes, but they’re not great for carrying large quantities of wine on. Or traveling distances that take five hours by car). Anyway, so much for cost efficiency. Oh, and I get to make a return trip in a week! Awesome!
When we got to the start point for the bike trip, we discovered beautiful clear skies ahead of us. And massive dark storm clouds behind us:
Undaunted, we decided to try and outride the clouds, and went on with drinking and biking. This was a strategy doomed to failure. We were on a ridge looking down into the valley. The plan was to bike along the ridge, visiting the wineries along the way, then come down into the valley to visit the wineries there. In short, it was a loop, which meant inevitably we’d be biking back into the rain.
We made it to our fourth winery of the day when we decided to stop for lunch:
Given the rapidly approaching black storm clouds of doom:
and the lightning warnings, we decided around this point that biking back to the rental vehicle would be prudent. The wind was again challenging, largely on account of our having to bike directly into it. The rain was just starting to fall when we got back to the car. We never did see the lightning.
In all we got in about an hour of riding before giving up for the warm, dry, non-windy inside of the vehicle. We hit up the wineries we’d rode to earlier, bought some more bottles, and then hit up a couple of new ones by car. On the way back we stopped at the wineries we’d biked to the day before to pick up the bottles we liked.
By the end of the day, I was the proud owner of 24 bottles of wine, and girlfriend was rounding out her third case of 12. All in all, vehicle trouble and weather aside, Day 2 was a rousing success. We celebrated by having a lovely dinner of wine, cheese, bread, and meat:
Then we walked down to the Local restaurant (that’s not a typo) for dessert: berry creme brulee, mason jar tiramisu, port, and coffee with Amarula cream.
ifuckinghaterunning 