OK, now the bike season is fully underway.  We are well past the Monster Cookie, and Ride Around Clark County. The weather is turning nice, and it’s time to get serious.  Actually the ride has snuck up on us this year.  We registered late, spontaneous , oh heck why not register  type of moment. No matter that is has been two years since we have done a century, and given our schedule now, no chance of doing more than 62 miles previous to it.  We have jumped in and seem to be destined to give it a go this year.  Slightly new starting location this year, which they promise will skirt around the steep climbing that started this ride in previous years.  And, they promise better food which has always been the the number one problem with this ride in years past.  Or, is the big problem the bus rides back home, I can’t decide.  Anyway, we have our numbers, bus tickets, and most importantly, our T shirts.  We can’t keep the shirts if we don’t do the ride, so stay tuned.  This century doesn’t include a great deal of climbing which seems odd for a ride to the coast, but there are winds.  Looks like maybe rain this year. In years past we have had hail.  The rain can’t possibly hurt more than that.  7:00 bus reservations back home insure that we aren’t over stressed about the time.  This will be my 5th Reach the Beach. And the 4th time for the Century route.  Last time we did the metric century and felt so guilty about all the applause we got at the finish, we vowed to never do the short routes again.  The full century to the coast feels like a great personal accomplishment.  All the shorter routes just leave us unfulfilled.