Mike's Adventures: Carmel to San Simeon

Today was a Jekyl and Hyde kind of day. Oh wait, that was yesterday. Today was incredible on so many levels. This was the day I was fearing the most. It had climbing and distance. Both of which are fine, but can get me into trouble. Here is how it unfolded.
The day started cool, but "dry". We were on the coast so it was a little wet. We were riding from Carmel to San Simeon which includes the Big Sur region and all of those beautiful spots you see in coffee table books. Dionne and I rode with Delta group again. Slow and steady is the rule of Delta Force. We rode the first 15 or so miles as a group. Well actually after about 7 miles, they broke Delta into two groups. Thank goodness. At 10 mph we would still be riding! After 15 miles, our group leader kind of gave us some rope and three of us jumped off the front. We rode the next 35 or so miles on our own. We got into a great paceline and chewed up the miles to the first rest stop which was at 25ish miles. Unfortunately, one of the guys thought the stop was up the hill so we blew by the rest stop without seeing it. Our plan was to meet up with our group again and continue on with them. We waited and waited for about 20 minutes without them showing up. So we set out to the next stop, lunch. We added a couple more guys to the group and pushed on to lunch at the 50 mile mark. Dionne didn't arrive until I was basically done eating lunch. My intention was to leave with Delta to finish the day. Didn't happen.
Thea, the paraplegic I told you about, has a "pusher" who helps her up the hills by using his front wheel to push against a bar on the back of her chariot. His name is Jorge. Pushing is heavy work. He says it is like riding with your brakes rubbing on your wheel. Anyway, he has lower back issues and the extra effort had his low back in a foul mood. I took him to the big USO motorhome that provides us lunch and he laid down on a bench so that I could release his low back (strain-counterstrain style). He was amazed and grateful for the relief. Upon exiting the motorhome, my group had left the feed zone. Instead of chasing them down, I decided to stay with Jorge, Thea and Ed (aka: Ricky Ricardo) to get to the finish. We climbed a ton, but it wasn't bad because my pace was slow. I became the pilot for Thea. On downhills, she gets to zipping pretty fast and since she is low to the ground it is helpful to have a rider in front of her to show her the way down the hill. So, I tried to stay 50 or so yards in front of her, calling out obstacles and giving her a path to follow. The four of us stayed together to the finish. We didn't end up doing the extra eight miles for the full 100. My compatriots didn't want to do it and I thought a nice shower sounded good.
Tin-Tin update: He only rode a few miles today. His knees are "killing" him. He is going to give it a go at some point tomorrow. We are traveling past an elementary school that is planning to welcome us along the road. He wants to be a part of that. Even though he didn't ride, when I pulled in to the hotel at the end of the ride, I heard "Way to go, Mike". I looked around and there he was. All smiles and happy for me that I made it safe. He is a good kid.