Sunday, February 15, 2009

Le Tour De California...Yippee! and Brrrrrr

Well we ventured out this morning at about 1130 to travel some 24 miles thru the driving winds, rain, hail and sleet...yes sleet to witness the passing of the peloton once again, this time on California soil...er pavement near Lake Berryessa.
We arrived at high noon, the time the riders had left Davis about 25 miles away in pouring rain. How nice. We drove to the junction of highways 121 and 128 to the General Store there amid firemen, policemen, California Highway Patrol and many other brave, frozen souls to see the bikers pass some hour and a half from then.
We parked in a lot adjacent to Highway 128 and ventured out to find just the right spot to photo this great event. The wind nearly blew us off our feet and the rain, sleet and hail poured down. Waiting seemed an eternity, first the police cars to clear the roadway, the CHP directing traffic off of 128 and back towards either the parking lots or Highway 121 towards Napa and Fairfield. Brrrrr, Audrey and I shivered as we huddled against an oak tree and tried to stay warm and unfrozen. Time went by in small increments of shaking and pulling one's self further into the ever soaking clothing. This was NOT Le Tour in Chateauroux last July...this was California's own tour in Mid February! I wonder how the Spaniards and Italians are taking it? Brrrrrrr. 12:30 and then 12:45, weather actually worsened, now the sleet was continuous and actually forming little mounds in the middle of the roadway.
Brrrrr. 1:00 came and went without a glimpse of our expected valiant riders, many cars began to show, their windshields covered with sleet and hail. We trod back over to the Prius with the ever wise and courageous Kelly inside keeping the fires of warmth alive for us her idiot brood. We armed ourselves for about 10 minutes and then ventured back to the roadway, I readied the ever trusty Nikon for the velo shot of the century, in RAW mode no less, a money shot coming up! I'm ready! Then a roar from the frozen mouths of the crowd and three riders sped into view, pedalling with great fury as they sped by, I pushed the buttons though I couldn't feel them at all to see what I shot then take another and another in hurried succession. At then end the Peloton was some 12 minutes behind the leaders, we moved the car closer as our interest subsided. I check the Nikon...now it says low battery and the @#$##!@ counter shows I only took 2 images! Oh shit! Merde! My god, all of this for that? Then the screen said FOR...which means that the memory card needs formatting! Oh no...NOTHING?! Who knows, I changed the battery and the error message remained, oh grrrrrr. Then I reseated the card and found that the FOR message was gone and the count showed I had taken exactly two images of something...I wonder what? Here's the miserable results!
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