Aladdin

“Come down and ride with us, you'll meet Aladdin!” my comrades said. “Who's Aladdin?” I asked. (I chuckled this morning when one of the words in the NY Times Spelling Bee game was C-A-M-E-L.)

Like cyclists in Le Tour de France, we pedaled past a field of sunflowers. I've biked through this intersection many times before, but always in the cooler months when the ground is bare.

Continuing on our way, we found a couple of four-legged critters who represent the very essence of the adage “Eat to live, live to eat.” With all that body mass, it's understandable that they don't move around much.

Getting to Aladdin entailed some hill-climbing. [Well worth it.] His buddy gave up grazing the dry grass to join the party. (The congnoscenti had come bearing gifts: fresh carrots.)

The photo is akilter because you'd better be quick when you poke your phone through the fence for a clear shot. It was jarring when he'd bang into the fence, but that didn't seem to bother him. (Don't you know the reach of those massive pointy things attached to your skull?!)

And now for Aladdin's glamour shot:

With no magic carpet to transport us back to the start (and our lunch), we pedaled onward. A fun-filled 31 miles, 880 feet of climbing on the outer reaches of Silicon Valley.