Registration went much more smoothly this year. Its a series of stations, each of which can have long lines. First there is a Safety Video which you must watch to ride, shown every half hour. (The first year I did this I was the last person in, the last showing of the video (at 4 PM) - somehow, with last minute packing, purchases, chores, and traffic, we didn't leave Healdsburg until after 1 PM. If I hadn't watched the video, I wouldn't have been able to ride!)
This year there were virtually no lines. After watching the 1 PM showing of the safety video, my "e-ticket" let me go straight to registration. It documented that I had completed the medical questionnaire (one line skipped), had raised the minimum to ride (skipped the Pledge line), and had a tent-mate (an online simplification instituted this year). And so, after registration I only had to put my rider number on my bike and was free to leave!.
The safety video emphasizes that bicycles are vehicles and must obey all traffic laws, the interdependence of all the riders, the importance of behaving responsibly in the communities we travel through, and that riders must "Drink before they are thirsty and eat before they are hungry." Dehydration is the single most common problem experienced by riders.
At registration I got my ID tags - one for me to wear around my neck, one for my tent, and one for my gear bag. If you visit one of the camps, I am in D 007. Come find me! (Santa Cruz, King City, Paso Robles, Santa Maria, Lompoc, Ventura)
I think tomorrow morning will be a Mark Twain winter - summer in San Francisco. A slow, foggy, chilly departure out Geneva Avenue, wending our way to Lake Merced and Skyline.
Brrrrr..... 6:30 AM departure.
And now it is time to give it up and hit the sack.
