Crap – I heard Gary yell from 20 yards behind me. I stopped and turned around and found him in pain on the side of the road. What happened I asked? It's a repeat of an injury I had a few years ago - it's my soles – the muscle that runs between my Achilles and my calf and it hurts. I knew our ride would be ending soon.
We left Santa Maria after having breakfast with my brother Larry who works at Fess Parker winery in Los Olivos, but had work in Santa Maria today. After a hearty meal of pancakes and sausage, we began our journey to Santa Barbara – a planned ride of 80 miles. After heading down hwy 135 to Orcutt – we headed south into the mountains over the pass into Lompoc where we planned to have coffee and rest. Halfway up the hill is when I heard Gary yell in pain – he wanted to keep it going, but I knew we would be ending our ride today. We limped up over the hill and down and over and across fields for another 13 miles and soon we were sitting at Starbucks in Lompoc.
I'm afraid Gary came up lame – my decision was whether to take him out back and shoot him, or let him live to enjoy another day. OK I said, you pay for business class tickets on Amtrak and we are done. Gary didn't want to stop, but he knew the last time he had the same injury, he was off his feet for 4 months. “This does not mean I can't stand at a craps table for three or four hours” he said. I nodded in agreement and we both agreed our journey was over – for this time. Gary has a sports doctor who resides at the Palms Hotel in Vegas at Craps table 6. Sunday, we fly in to have him examined.
Tomorrow, I'll add my post-mortum and things I learned along the way.
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