Val and David met on a college outing to Death Valley that was sponsored by San Jose State. They were in the same cooking group. They were married in San Jose, and moved to Santa Cruz. Val had to give up her college studies of microbiology one year short of graduating.

Val has been working primarily in the Evaluations section of Cal Poly's administration. She describes her job as being an academic accountant for students, where she checks on their progress toward graduation. She deals with all students, including international students and Cal Poly students that go on exchange. After the Barbozas moved to San Luis Obispo 16 years ago, and Val took her job at Cal Poly, she decided to go to school part time to earn her degrees. She has a bachelors and a masters degree in English. She has also taught part time in the English department. She enjoys all of teaching except the continual grading of papers.

David worked for an automobile dealer in Santa Cruz. He was also in the reserve city police. When they moved to San Luis Obispo, he got a job with a dealership. An opportunity arose within the ranks of the Sheriff's department. He made the transition to deputy sheriff, and has been very happy with the outcome. About eight years ago, in the Sheriff's rotation, David got an assignment in the county courthouse. He decided to cycle to work, which he did regularly. Currently he is stationed in Los Osos and is not cycling to work. He has ridden in both the Lighthouse and Wildflower rides.

Jim, their twenty-nine year old son, lives in Los Osos. He also cycles, but really prefers off road riding. He pedals to Cuesta and will continue his studies at Cal Poly soon. He has cycled often with Val.

Val has been riding the Wildflower and Lighthouse since 1993, riding in at least one of our events annually. In 1994, after getting her masters degree, she toured with a bicycle group for two weeks in Southern France. Val wanted to get some training in for the 1999 Aids Ride, so she decided to ride with the club. She liked the people and decided to join the ranks of being a SLOB. Carolyn Walters was extremely inspiring, and support from the rest of the membership was greatly appreciated. She worked at the Wildflower, 1999 with the clean-up crew.

Val cycles to work typically four days a week. When she doesn't use her bicycle, she rides the bus. She is Captain of the Wildflower 2000 pre-ride. David is helping her. She decided to get active, and is currently a member at large on the board. She hasn't started serious training for this year's California Aids Ride (San Francisco to Los Angeles - June 4 to June 10). Currently she rides about fifty miles a week but will up that to around 250 miles a week when she starts training. (She would be very appreciative of any donations, she needs to raise $2500 to participate.)

Val and David are also involved in other activities. Both are in the Sierra Club and in SOAR (Save Our Open Spaces and Agricultural Resources). Val is on the Sierra Club board. She has strong feelings about giving back to the community.

Sewing clothing used to be one of Val's past times, but she finds that she doesn't have time for that anymore, but does quilting with a local quilting guild. David loves working with his hands. He spends many hours working in their garden (we have a yard David can come and play in). Val claims David is quite handy and can fix anything, including their cars and bicycles. They also are involved in the San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden which is at El Chorro Regional Park.

The Barbozas are planning a bicycling vacation for the near future, with eyes possibly on Germany.