highway 9 is all kinds of good.
On weekdays, that is. I hate that road on the weekends. Too many idiots.

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better living through chemistry.
The last time that I washed the bike, I noticed that the bungee hooks on my tailbag were finally starting to chip through the paint. Nothing major, but I really didn't want to make it any worse. Peter had the good suggestion of using Poly-Shield, which is basically a container of liquid rubber. I removed the plastic hooks from the tailbag (they were just tied onto the ends of cords), ran dental floss through the holes where the cords usually go, and dipped each one in the rubber. After four dips each, I hung them from the dental floss on the underside of the bush right outside my apartment (oh, like you have a better idea of where to hang dripping wet chemically plastic hooks), and let them dry for a couple of days. So, now the offending plastic hooks are rubber coated and no longer scratch up the paint. Yay!

Poly-Shield, for those interested, costs $6 for a 14.5 fluid oz. container, and is available in the paint section of hardware stores. The OSH we went to had red, yellow, and clear. It stains porous materials fairly well -- there's a nice red splotch on my concrete step now -- so don't say I don't warn you about these things.

autumn, courtesy of highway 9.
Because I know y'all just can't get enough of those personal details that make up my life, I'll tell you that I spent most of the night last night feeling really incredibly ill. Just in case anyone was considering it, I really can't recommend trying to be sick when you haven't eaten anything. You'll just lay on your couch making funny noises and feeling like you want to die. This segues into motorcycling (no, really, promise) because after sleeping in a bit this morning, I felt much better physically, but still pretty horrific mentally. And what better for perking one up than a nice autumn ride?

I hopped on the freeway and rode down to Saratoga, where the famous Highway 9 goes up into the foothills and meets up with the famous Highway 35 (aka Skyline Boulevard). I took 35 to Page Mill Road, which in turn heads straight into Palo Alto, mere blocks from my workplace. All in all, it took about an hour from my driveway to my desk, and it was well worth it.

Highway 9 was really gorgeous today, aside from some construction at the bottom. One lane was closed off, and they had that annoying temporary stop light setup, where you just sit there forever and maybe one car comes through towards you in the 5 minutes you're stuck there. To make it even more fun, they put the stop light around a blind curve, where the road is off-camber. Yay! Once I got past that little bit of joy, though, it was a great ride. Not much traffic, no squids, and some gorgeous scenery. Some tree in the area sheds orange leaves, and the sides of 9 were covered with scattered bits of orange mixed in with the usual brown dirt and green plants. It was really pretty, and looked very "autumn".

Highway 35 was pretty nice, but since it runs up along the summit, it was pretty darn cold, and foggier than I'd expected. It wasn't a "oh crap, I can't see anything!" kind of fog, but for some reason I was still surprised to see it. Whereas 9 looked like autumn, 35 felt like it. I had to stop and close up the vents of my jacket. I didn't take any pictures along 35, partially because the fog hid most of the views of the Bay, and partially because by the time I realized I should just take a picture of the fog, I was already at Page Mill Road.

Page Mill was pretty interesting. I hadn't ridden it up by 35 before -- I had assumed that it was the same type of road that it is down in Palo Alto (where Peter and I have ridden before). No. It's not. Up by 35, Page Mill is narrow and has some really evil hairpins, and also has the worst road conditions of any road I've ridden on (and that includes Empire Grade in Felton, Oakville Grade near Napa, and backroads up near Redding -- names that should strike fear into the hearts of mortals). Loose gravel? Check. Off-camber? Check. Tar snakes? Check. Big ruts in the pavement? Check. Huge variances in grade? Check. At one point, the road seemed to be running more or less parallel to the earth, so I figured I'd stop around the next curve for a picture. I went around the curve...and found myself looking straight into the Bay. From the top. I shit you not. I was looking down at the rooftops in Palo Alto. All while looking straight ahead of the bike. I said something to the effect of "erk" and decided not to stop after all. Page Mill sorted itself out and calmed itself down a few miles north of downtown Palo Alto, and life lost a bit of its "I really hope I don't die here since no one knows where I am" feeling.

All in all, though, it was pretty cool, seeing as though I used to pucker up pretty badly just going up 9. 9's pretty much a big relaxing breeze to me now, so who knows? Maybe in a few months I'll talk about how relaxing and serene Page Mill is, and have to find a new road to find Jesus on.

The first pic below is just my bikes in my parking lot. :) The second one is Saratoga Avenue, which turns into Highway 9. The hill in the background is the one I go up. I also thought that the reddish tree on the righthand side of this picture was really pretty. :) Next is a view of the Bay from a curve on 9, and finally, the SVS along 9.