A couple months ago, I read Harriet Brown’s write-up of her Paris-Brest-Paris ride, where she brought along a whole roast chicken in her handlebar bag. Inspired, I made a Brooks-look-alike handlebar bag for myself…a boxy old-style camera bag secured to my bars with a piece of belt, pop-rivets and a velcro strap. I had already ascertained that the bag would hold a whole raw chicken. The road-test, however, came to me rather suddenly over Labor Day weekend.
Vajda whooped and hollered us with emails for a while, as the last of August dwindled away. Saturday before Labor Day, the East Bay contigent met at MacArthur BART for an overnighter ride down to Half Moon Bay. We caught the single San Fran representative over at the Ferry Building Farmer’s Market, and scattered for caffeine and provisions.
That was when fate loudly slapped me over the head in the form of Roli-Roti Gourmet Rotisserie. A constellation of whole roast chickens rotated blissfully over a glistening bed of creamy gold potatos, while a trio of pork knuckles orbited like fat Italian putti. I shared a porchetta sandwich for breakfast, sopping with pork juice and parsley, and stuffed an herb-encrusted chicken into my handlebar feedbag.
The ride was fantastic, as usual. I think we took Market to Valencia to San Jose, a jig jog through the traffic cones at SF State, swung around Lake Merced, and powered past the Lycra-crowd onto Skyline Blvd. A bit of a high-road shortcut shot us straight into Pacifica, where we took elevensies and tore into roast chicken, still hot off the spit.
Andre stopped in at the smokeshop and, fortunately, met a pair of mountain bikers. They led us, 6 touring bikes, 2 X-tracycles and less than a full complement of brakes, over the pass at Old Pedro’s Mountain. We bombed down the dirt into Montara and cruised Hwy 1 past three-day-weekend traffic straight into Half Moon Bay.
Someone else will have to fill in the ride back. I hitched a ride with my folks to Millbrae for dimsum, but I hear there was a beautiful slog up Tunitas Creek and Sunday worship at the water temple.
Flaming Bike 
2 thoughts on “Half Moon Bay Overnight”