Wine tasting in Napa Valley...or not...

This past Saturday, I did a fantastic ride out in Napa and Sonoma County. What made the ride so wonderful was not the beautiful mid 60's weather and bright sun, not the beautiful climbs with the green trees and the wildflowers, nor the wildlife that we saw all around us. What made the ride perfect was the company that I was riding with.

First, there was our heroic guide for the ride, Buehler. Yes, that's right, as in Ferris Buehler. We all thought he was a fictional character, right? Well, I was proven wrong this weekend. He really exists! Buehler was an admierable leader. He took us on a tour of a few mountain passes and on the way, showed us the commodities that Northern California is known for. It's amazing how proliferous weeds can grow in that region!

The next crazy fool that I happened to be lucky enough to ride with was a crazy cross dressing Kiwi from Colorado Springs named Conrad. No joke, he showed up on his bike wearing a tigress spandex suit! (Apparently it's the latest style down under.) It was a pain riding behind him on the long descents because the tail of his costume would whip you in the face. Also, instead of purring like a tigress, he would hum as the rest of us were huffing and puffing up the climbs.

Last but not least, Daryl S. Vickers made an appearance for the ride on that fancy green bike of his. We rode through his "hood" of Sonoma County where he showed the rest of us his double wide with the plastic flowers (pansies) on the front porch. Oh my gosh! I think he must've had ants in his pants because the last mountain pass that we did, he took off like there was no tomorrow! Daryl kept looking back and laughing in an evil way at the rest of us as we were suffering and slobbering on ourselves just trying to not fall over. Maybe it was the Oklahoma style mullett that made him go so fast?

So, I didn't do any wine tasting, but I thought the heading would get attention. None of the vineyards were offering free bottles of wine, or else I would've definetly been in line!