Made it.

Here's our destination

 Before

After

Truth told, it wasn't nearly as horrible horrific hideous heinous hard as I had built it up to be in my mind.  Ain't that always the case. As far as cycling climbs go, it's the baby hill.  But it's still a hill.

David's clever.  He's been trying to get me to cycle with him for years.  I kind of thought that I had been cycling with him for years but he insisted that riding a 4 wheeled bike on the  path along the sea to the nearest bar for a coffee is not technically cycling.  "you have to start doing some climbs.", he would say.  "yeah, that's just not going to happen."  I'd say.

So he just waited.  And waited.  Then one day we weren't on 4 wheels any more but on two (well, 4 together but 2 each).  And we rode our two-wheeled bikes on the bike path to the nearest coffee.

And he waited.  Then one day I noticed that I wasn't wearing a cute floral print skirt and top anymore on these rides but rather I was donning the uglyass requisite gear....riding on the bike path to the nearest cafe.

So he waited and waited until a couple nights ago when I said, "I think we should ride to Badalucco!"

This "climb" was just challenging enough that it felt like a huge accomplishment and was easy enough that I actually made it.  Now I want to do longer and harder climbs.  That dude is clever....or at least very patient.

In Badalucco we had a welcome party waiting for us (at the nearest bar).  I suspect they are there every morning, not just anticipating our arrival, but it was nice just the same.

And Pino the Barber was just taking a break from making the inhabitants of Badalucco beautiful so he bought us breakfast.

David is still waiting for me to believe him decide that I need those dumbass cycling shoes that clip you to the pedals.  But now that I've got that nice cyclist's tattoo....

I might need those shoes for the next ride to Molini di Triora.