Bike building, getting guests started, and a family tour in the Cascine.

Interesting and busy day yesterday.  We have visitors for a few weeks, and yesterday was their first day here.  Late sleep, giving them both a solid 14 hours for the night had us getting started around 10:30.  The cafe, bike building, as they bring really cool Ritchey Break-a-ways.  We had an interesting time when Don broke a bolt tightening it, and had an hour and a half of figuring out how to get it out and replaced.  It was right at the time that things close for lunch here, so we did some good, creative engineering to get it done.  By the time we were ready to roll, I had received a call to see if I could take a family out from the shop at 4:45, and I said yes, so our time riding together was limited.  They know the roads pretty well around here, so we went a direction they knew but did one of my favorite wrinkles climbing up to Vacciano.

I returned to the shop to meet the family, a nice Mexican family with a Father and 5 children, aging from 12 to 20.  All was good, but one of the girls, around 15 years old, had basically only ridden a bike once in her life, around 8 years ago.  So, getting her on the bike and from the shop in the city center to the Cascine was difficult.  It was a challenging but very reasonable tour, because she simply had a hard time being on the bike for more than a minute or so.  Bottom line is that other than chasing down the kids who wanted to go fast and keeping the group together and safe, everyone was very nice, agreeable, and did their best to have a good time.  I told Carla, the 15 year old, that I was impressed that she stayed with it, kept a good attitude, and persevered to have a good time.  It was impressive that she hung in there.  It is not easy getting a group out of the city center when they are good cyclists.

Overall, 45.4 kilometers in 2:50 with 307 meters of climbing.  More today with Don and Kay!

Kay looking at the flowers and the views beyond at Piazzale Michaelangelo.

Awesome tulips at Piazzale Michaelangelo.

Don and Kay climbing together toward Vacciano, right before I turned around.