I’m riding with old friends (or friends of long standing) Ivan and his partner, Jean, who is our support – or as she calls herself, the sag hag..His training over the last six months has proved successful and I had a hard time keeping up with him from the get-go. Fortunately living at altitude gives me an slight advantage on the hills.

We hit the road early this morning to knock off some of the climb out of. San Diego. Trying to beat the heat and wind, we calculated to leave at 5 AM and – I set my iPhone alarm for 4:30.  It wasn’t until two hours later that Ivan realized my iPhone must still be on MST. We actually started a 4 AM and none of the breakfast restaurants we planned on were open yet. It worked out great because there was hardly a soul on the highway and we certainly beat the heat, just not the winds. Easily, 25 knot winds were coming down from the mountains, but we only went over 4,000′ a couple of times.

We finally found the Descanso Diner along the Old Hwy 80 road whose breakfast special was the Country Style Biscuits and Gravy – scrambled eggs between the sausage gravy and biscuits. Plenty food for the climbs ahead.