A perfect start to the New Year

When I awoke at 5:45 AM this morning, I was shocked to see the temperature was a balmy 58.8°F. Considering yesterday was 40.5°F, around the same time, you can certainly understand my delight at the thought of doing the traditional New Year's Day bike ride, without any winter gear.

It was a little windy, but nothing that was unmanageable, especially with about 400 other cyclists shielding me from any wind that was blowing.

Today was the kind of day you just dream of, and can only be described as a day that comes as close to perfect as possible. (Keeping in mind nothing is ever perfect.)

As we headed south towards Newport Beach, the pack was operating like a well oiled machine, reaching speeds approaching 30 mph, sometimes even in excess of that.

There were 3 minor crashes (one in front and two in back of me), which is to be expected when there are that many riders, and there are traffic laws to obey, but nothing more serious than some minor bumps and bruises, and best of all, I wasn't involved in any of them.

While the full ride is a 100 miles, not everyone goes that far, including myself. I went as far as Newport Coast Road in Newport Beach, turning around with a few other riders to keep me company, and stopping for tea and coffee at the Starbucks in Huntington Beach, to unwind and prepare for the final 13 miles home at a semi leisurely pace.

Total ride 49 miles! A perfect distance to start off the new year.

It was a little tougher going back, because there weren't as many riders shielding me from the north wind, but that didn't matter, as this was a near perfect day.

And the view coming back was just spectacular. Conditions, best described as 'severe clear', afforded views of Catalina (23 miles to the south) and Palos Verde (about 30 miles west), rarely experienced anytime during the year.

And from there it only got better.

Since it was apparent that hot dogs and saurerkraut weren't cutting it as a good luck tradition for the new year, I decided this would be the first year of a new tradition, consisting of wine, cheese and football.

So I opened a bottle of '03 Lange (Oregon, Willamette Valley) Pinot Noir, and along with a selection of three cheeses, recently purchased at Costco, Edie and I both settled down in front of the TV for a relaxing day of college football.

And alas, not even that could disappoint. Mostly because my team, the University of Pittsburgh, wasn't participating in any games, and because I was able to watch an exciting Michigan/Florida game, in addition to watching USC defeat Illinois in an equally exciting game, that is up until mid way through the 3rd quarter.

At least all the Illinois faithful, got to experience why I love southern California so much. I just hope they don't all decide to move here now.

So now that this day is coming to an end, and even though the weather forecast for the remainder of the week doesn't look that great, I'm confident this unexpectedly great start to the new year, will bode well for the remainder of 2008, and Edie and I would like to extend our best wishes to everyone for a healthy and prosperous new year!