Today on this ol' server

foggy on the bridge

Some winters back I crossed the Golden Gate Bridge on my old (Bianchi) Trofeo. It was truly one of those clasic dark and stormy mights. I knew kcbs had announced high wind advisory for the bridge that night. I thought, naw it's only raining a little bit. I've cycled in the rain before, this isn't going to be that big of a deal. Ahaha. That's like popping the cork before Mendoza gets confirmed. I tempted fate. That was the wettest rides I have ever done. My only saving grace, was that I had a wool sweater on over the jersey, on under the vest, jacket liner, and windbreaker. Of course that sweater came from England, an average sweater there, none of that flimsy cheep crap we have here, on the west coast. I remember coming up to the North Tower, riding through the pathway sheltered by headlands. (What was weird was that I must have been before 9pm, because I was on the west walkway. The west walkway is open to cyclists only Mon-Fri during commute hours and, till 9pm, or Sat. and Sun till 9pm.) I was thrown hard and fast at the North Tower, as the west walkway goes west around the tower completely exposed. Of course this was before they put up the saftey rails, they only had the two foot barrier between the walkway and the 45mph-and-up-car-fury roadbed. I made it around the tower to the hard right turn back to the path. Now on the path parallel to the roadbed, I was flung about 30 degrees off of vertical. It was awesome. The rain had been light in Mill Valley, heavy in Sausalito and continued through the approach to the bridge. In the unsheltered areas the wind had been forceful, but on the bridge the wind, the rain, the environment took on a whole new meaning. I rallied my way diving and weaving through the streaming gusts. Reached the city side, touch the gate, and trekked back.

I made it back home safely. If I had talked to anyone, they would have talked me out of it. Oh, you're just a girl, you can't do that. But I didn't and I'll always remember as one of my most favorite rides of all time.

I wanted to wait till I had a bunch of system admin articles before posting this. I had this very narrow view that if the blog-o-sphere knew that I was a woman people wouldn't take my articles seriously. That was before I read Dr. Ivan E. Sutherland paper on Technology and Courage. It's a great inspirational paper. Husband your courage. I had to ask what that meant, as I wasn't familiar with that context. It means to take care of your courage, to tend to it like horse or in a more modern sense like you would take care of a beloved vehicle (bike, etc...). I and my trusty steed go out in to the wild blue yonder. Go out with your courage. Take care of it and it will take you places you've never been before.
I'm not sure if my view of the blog-o-sphere has changed. But I'll give it an honest shot at changing it.

Posted at 06:41PM Aug 13, 2007 by saf in cycling  |  Comments[2]