Day 03 - Boulevard to Brawley

Yea!!!!! Finally some serious descending. Dropped from over 3500 feet to -137 today. Almost all of it in one 13-mile stretch. The only downside was that we had to descend I-8 in the freeway shoulder so the grade was never steeper than 6%, couldn't get any real speed going. Topped out at around 35-mph.

The weather changed to day to. Up to the mid 80s. A welcome change.

The day started out with breakfast in the hotel room and a short climb among red boulders, we then had a nice descent down to the town of Jacumba. Jacumba is right on the border and we stopped to check out the border fence just before town, big fence - what else is there to say?

One final climb up to I-8 and we were ready for our big descent around 11:00.

Unfortunately, this last climb revealed that a thorough chain cleaning was not sufficient to resolve the chain suck problem. We stopped in at The Finish Line Pro bike Shop in El Centro and I installed a new chain. The guys at Finish Line were very helpful, they let me use the shop tools and shop rags to make my repairs without ever coming over to see what I was up to. it's nice to work in peace and quiet.

We'll see if the new chain helps. If any of you cyclists out there have any ideas let me know. The problem is not related to shifting, I'll be riding along, climbing at a steady pace in the small ring (24) then CRUNCH! Chain suck! I checked for burrs on the chainring and saw none.

That's enough Velo, time for Mange. Not much to report today, cereal for breakfast and a sub, bag of chips, and soda from Von's for dinner. Lunch was tasty though.

We had planned on eating sandwiches for lunch, but Michele dropped her tent and sleeping bag at some point. We sent Jerry back to find the lost items and took the opportunity for tacos in Seeley. By the time Jerry caught up it was too late. Tacos had been ordered. They were tasty too, pollo asado, carne asada and deep fried camaron. Yum, way better than Von's.

Ride Stats:
Miles: 71.9
Start Elevation: 3542
End Elevation: -137
Total Climbing: 581