Half Moon Bay to Santa Cruz

So, we got through the first day of riding.  We were split up into four groups Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta.  Thats A, B, C, D, for us civilians.  The A(advanced)  group was for people who ride a lot.  The D group (novice) was for those who have never ridden bikes before.  NO, I am not kidding. The A and B groups rode 80 miles today and the C and D groups rode 53 miles.  Dionne and I rode with the D group because we were only going to ride the 53 miles. We started in Half Moon Bay after being bussed over from near the San Fran airport.  It was coolish, but nice.  It was cool having guys on Harley's be our gurardian angels as we rode along.  They blocked intersections for us so that we wouldn't have to stop.  I have to admit the pace was slow, but kept telling myself its about the long haul.
Now about Chris, aka "Tin-Tin".  Dionne named him that because he has a "wave" with his hair in the middle of his head.  He is cool kid who announced to a number of us last night that he had never ridden more than 25 miles at a time.  EVER.  We all went, "What?"  He is just one of those happy, naive, no worries kind of kid.  Dionne and I have adopted him to make sure he is taken care of.   He came up to me before we left today asking me when we put "these things on" referring to his cycling shoes.  I told him to wait until we were outside.  Then when we got to our starting point, i noticed that he didn't have a water bottle.  He had left it with his bag at the hotel.  No problem, he thought, he could just wait for the rest stop 27 miles down the road.  We found him a bottle and he was fine.  He was glad when we arrived in Santa Cruz and pleased that he had just doubled his distance on a bike.
We ate dinner at the Santa Cruz chapter of the Elks Lodge.  We arrived in a couple of buses at the lodge and were greeted by Boy and Girl Scouts waving flags and thanking all of the vets.  Even though I am not a vet, I was proud for them.
Tomorrow, we head to Carmel.  This includes the famous 17-Mile Drive.  Sounds like it could be a little wet, but so be it.  Until tomorrow.  Mike