Day 44, 9/27/08

Well, today is our last day of the tour. We wanted to break camp and get out early to avoid our low-life campground neighbors. We left at 7:30 am, our earliest start. I wanted our last ride to be an easy one and it couldn't have turned out any better. The ride from Mission Beach to Imperial Beach was mostly along boardwalks, no hills, gorgeous weather, and only about 32 miles. We rode slowly, taking it all in.

We took a ferry from San Diego to Coronado. We stopped in Imperial Beach and bought some champagne glasses and a bottle of Moet & Chandon White Star champagne. Riding towards the border, it was noticeably hotter and more arid. We found the Border Field State Park easily enough but it took us a little while to locate the border fence and monument we were looking for. We had discussed this place with a couple people we met along the way and they told us about the fence and that families from both sides meet there to visit.

The Italian marble survey monument, originally placed in 1851, defines that part of the border between Mexico and the United States. The fence runs West down to the ocean where we could see people going back and forth around the end of the fence. I was hoping we could go down to the beach and cross over the border, just to say we rode into Mexico. I asked a U.S. border agent who was sitting in his truck if we could and he said no. Oh well.

After we checked things out, we moved over to a picnic table near the bathroom and washed our champagne glasses. We sat at the picnic table and opened the champagne. It was still chilled and tasted oh, so good. We took off our cycling shoes and socks and basked in the moment, reflecting on our journey and on our accomplishment while we sipped champagne in the hot sun. A mariachi band was playing on the other side of the fence in Tijuana. Brother Dan called and we all visited for a few minutes.

Shoua and her sister, Lindsey showed up shortly after that with my car. Shoua presented Sam and I with finisher medals she had custom made commemorating our tour of the Pacific coast. The medals turned out great. We were touched. She also gave each of us a sheet of US postage stamps customized with a picture of us taken earlier in the tour. While we were taking pictures, we discovered that there were large patches of tread missing from Sam's rear tire. We did bring spare tires with us, but talk about just making it!

After taking a few pictures at the monument, we loaded our bikes on my bike rack, packed up our gear, and headed back home...but first we stopped in San Diego and sent Alan Jackson a postcard letting him know that we made it.

Day 43, 9/26/08

We tried oatmeal again today for breakfast. Oatmeal just doesn't cut it. On the days that we've oatmeal for breakfast, we're almost hungry again before we've left our campsite. We're even eating two packets each plus a banana. Today we rode from San Clemente through Camp Pendleton then through Oceanside, Carlsbad, and stopping for lunch in Encinitas. The fish tacos and taquitos we ate at a Mexican restaurant there was among the best food we have had on the tour. And cheap, too - $5/person.

After lunch, we rode through Cardiff by the Sea, Solana Beach, Del Mar, La Jolla, and finally reaching our campground near Mission Beach. The campground, Campland on the Bay, was pretty interesting. It's a private campground which is more like a small city. It's like an amusement park version of a campground. It had a lot of RV campers, some tent campers and people were packed in like sardines and at $50/night for our tent site, was the most expensive place we have camped at. But at least the amenities were nice. The swimming pools and jacuzzis were resort quality. We enjoyed a nice soak and swim before dinner.

For our last dinner, we had one of our favorites - Tasty Bite & cheddar broccoli rice combo. Once again we had some inconsiderate neighbors who carried on loud, drunken conversations late into the night until around 4-5 am even after security told them to cut it out. Sam did not get much sleep. Once again, I slept fine in my coma-like state.

Day 42, 9/25/08

We turned in a pretty good day today, riding from Hermosa Beach to San Clemente. Helped by tailwinds, we covered the 72 miles in a little over 5 hours for an average of 14 mph, our fastest day yet. We rode an extra 2-3 miles when we first got started and failed to turn off the bike path in Redondo Beach where we should have. It's an easy mistake to make, as you can't always see street signs from down on a bike path.


We took it easy getting ready in the morning, walking along the boardwalk and out to the end of the pier. The weather was gorgeous. Went to a restaurant on the strand that I used to like. What a big disapointment that turned out to be.

Riding through the cities of Redondo Beach, Torrance, and Carson will surely not make the highlight reel. The ride south along the Los Angeles river through Long Beach was pretty gross. A bee flew into my helmet in Torrance and stung me as I was trying to get him out. Sam removed the stinger for me. Hurt like hell for a couple of hours. In Torrance we met a couple from Switzerland in the beginning stages of their tour from San Francisco to Buenos Aires, Argentina. They estimated it will take them a year to finish. Their bikes looked really loaded down with gear and that's after they had already shipped 40 lbs of gear back home.

After Long Beach, we rode through Seal Beach, then Sunset Beach and broke for a small lunch of peanut butter sandwich and chips in Hungtington Beach. It was the last of our bread and honey. We're also out of bananas. Back on the road we blazed through Huntington Beach, Newport, Laguna, Dana Point, stopping in San Clemente. It was nostalgic for me to ride down the strand in Manhattan, Hermosa and Redondo then the LA river and Bolsa Chica Beach strand in Huntington, and finally San Clemente, all places where I used to do my long distance runing when I lived in Southern California.

We picked up groceries in San Clemente. A woman came up to us as we were loading the groceries into our panniers because she had overheard us in the store attemping to get directions to our camground. The directions we received in the store were a bit shaky. She said "look, here is how you get there" and gave us precise, easy to follow directions. We arrived at our campground, the San Clemente State Park, at dusk. Pretty nice place, right on the ocean.

We first went to the hiker/biker area but there was only 1 picnic table and it was already occupied. The campground had a lot of vacancy, so we rode around looking for another site. We decided to set up camp under a community picnic area, knowing full well it was not a campsite. Sure enough, we received a visit from the ranger late at night informing us that we were not in the hiker/biker area. He said he wasn't going to make us move. We thanked him for that. Dinner was a small batch of fingerling yams Shoua gave us mixed with the rest of an onion we had on hand, chicken, and instant potatoes. Tasted great. Cake for desert.

Day 41, 9/24/08

We had another great day today. Well, all but for a couple hours towards the end of our day. After a hot breakfast, which was included in the price of our hotel room, we got rolling around 11:00 am. The weather was incredibly nice. Our route was on Pacific Coast Highway right along the coast. Riding through Malibu, we hit some tough rollers. We broke for lunch of fish tacos at a seafood grill in Malibu.

Back on the road, we rode through Santa Monica on bike paths on the beach. Then we had fun riding through Venice beach. It was around 4:30 pm when we left the boardwalk south of Venice. I followed the route sheet which directed us to turn onto a street but I didn't notice that the map depicted that we should be on a bike path which would have taken us around Marina Del Rey. Anyway, this caused us to be off route by a long way, winding up in Culver City. Recovering from my mistake, we headed south on Sepulveda towards Manhattan Beach.

At LAX, Supulveda goes into a tunnel under some runways. As we approached the tunnel, it didn't seem like it was that cycling friendly, but neither did bailing onto Century Blvd. So I decided we'd keep going and get through the tunnel as quick as we could. Big mistake. As soon as we were in the tunnel we hit a very large drainage grate in the road with holes large enough to swallow cats and dogs. Sam said when he saw me hit the grate, stuff went flying off my bike in different directions and he braked and hoped for the best. The force of impact stopped us dead in our tracks and luckily were not thrown into the traffic. Thankfully, the car behind us was following at a safe distance and was able to stop in time. Immediately after we crashed into the grates, we got off our bikes and pulled them to safety onto the walking path. Shaken, we took a few moments to get a grip on what just happened. I lost a water bottle and rear flashing light. All 4 of my panniers had their bottom hook come undone from the impact. The angle of my seat had been forced down also.

We walked the rest of the way through the tunnel with 4 lanes of traffic whizzing by. Clearly not a good place for cyclists. Out the other side we took stock of the damage to our bikes. Both of our rear wheels had their rims dented. Sam's was worse. His rim was dented bad enough that we had to release the brake calipers in order for it to be rideable. His rear derailer also suffered damage. After we adjusted what we could, we got off Sepulveda in El Segundo and made it back to the bike path and the main route.

A few miles later we got a room at the Sea Sprite, a motel right on the strand in Hermosa Beach. We determine that both bikes will make it the rest of the way without requiring any further repairs. We'll keep our fingers crossed. We are grateful, as things could have been so much worse. After we got settled, we walked out to the boardwalk to catch the last few minutes of the sunset. When we left the room, I slid the glass door shut. Sam was not aware of this important fact when he headed back into our room at full stride. Yep, crashed right into the glass door. The impact raised a nice knot on his forehead. Like I pointed out at the beginning of this post, the last couple hours of our day today were not that great.

Dinner was pizza, which was very good. We also tried the deep fried macaroni as an appetizer. It was incredible. Mileage today was 68 mile, including the 3-4 miles off route.

Day 40/ 9/23/08

We had a great day today beginning with our 8:45 am departure, our earliest start so far. On our way out of town, we rode a couple miles west to see the Lompoc flower fields. Unfortunately, except for a few marigold fields, all of the flowers had been harvested already. But the early morning sun and crisp air was a good way to start our ride today.

Leaving Lompoc we faced the toughest climb on our central California coast route. But the climb was very gradual so was actually kind of easy. The descent, however, was steep and long. What a blast! We broke for lunch at a rest stop north of Gaviota State Beach, just inland from where the 101 starts heading south along the coast.

After lunch, our route took us

through Santa Barbara, Summerland, then Carpenteria. Just south of Carpinteria we were on the 101 for a few miles. The shoulders were wide and smooth, but the traffic was just too heavy to make it a comfortable bike ride. At Seacliff we were back on HWY1. After that we rode through Ventura, Oxnard and ended the day in Port Hueneme, where we stayed in a hotel. Today's mileage was 102 miles.

We picked up Chinese takeout from The Mandarin House restaurant, just a short walk away from our hotel. It was our goal to put in 100 miles today. We knew we could pull off a century ride if we got an early enough start and if the route didn't have a lot of climbing. So we were pretty satisfied. If only the front desk clerk would have informed us that our inn had a pool and jacuzzi.

Day 39, 9/22/08

We decided that our campsite was too dewy to make breakfast so we broke camp and went to look for a place to eat. Every cafe or diner we found in Grover Beach was closed so we headed down the main route to Oceano where we initially also came up empty handed. Then Sam spotted a really cool diner made out of a couple of old passenger rail cars. It was open and we enjoyed an excellent breakfast there.

Our route today went through a lot of agricultural areas - vineyards, fields of strawberries, cauliflower, and broccoli. We made a stop at Little Pete's Strawberry stand and bought a couple baskets of strawberries for $2. We had a bit of a close call today on HWY1. We were riding southbound on the shoulder of HWY1 which was 2 lanes wide at that point. A northbound van was in the process of passing a semi, so it was driving north in the southbound lane which made it appear that it was heading right at us. Once he finally noticed us on the shoulder, which wasn't until we were very close, he then moved over to the right, dangerously narrowing the gap between him and the semi. Then he sped up making it seem even more dangerous. The semi driver honked at the van passed and we were relieved it was all over safely.

By early afternoon, we were ready for lunch. It was hot out and we were not finding any shady spots as we rode along HWY 135. We finally spied the stone and masonry sign out front of Meridian winery where we were able to sit on a ledge on the back side of the sign under the shade from a couple of small trees and eat our lunch. After lunch we had a tough climb up Harris Grade Road on our way into Lompoc. But again we were able to handle it easily.

We got a hotel room in Lompoc because it would work out better for our visit with my daughter Elisa. We met up with her as she was heading back to Santa Maria from LA via Santa Barbara. We had a fun visit then went to dinner at Baker's Square. It was great to see her again. I still wonder if the rift Elisa created when she bit the head off Sam's Skeletor action figure when she was a toddler has ever been completely mended. Today's mileage was 50 miles.

Day 38, 9/21/08

We awoke at 6:00 am and were on the road at 7:00 to ride back up to Hearst Castle and catch the 8:20 am tour. We locked our bikes up at a rack outside the ranger's office and they said they'd keep an eye on our stuff for us while we went on the tour. We had just enough time for some coffee and a quick bite to eat before we boarded the bus that took us up to the top of "La Cuesta Encantada" and our tour.

The tour was great. Like I mentioned yesterday, I have been on several tours of the castle and don't think I could ever tire of it. Sam thought it was really cool. It was nice to enjoy the early morning tour before the temperature got hot. We wore our "civilian" clothes then changed back into our cycling clothes at the visitor center once we returned from the tour. The "touristy" pictures that were taken of us earlier in the day just before we boarded the tour bus looked like a couple of escaped convicts. The weather was great for our ride today. Blue skies, warm temperatures, slight breeze. Total mileage was 70 miles, but that includes the 10 miles of backtracking we had to put in to accommodate the tour of the castle.

We rolled into Pismo Beach looking to either camp or stay in a motel, whichever was going to make it easier to do our laundry. We called a couple motels then rode through town and stopped to check out North Beach Pismo State Park just south of town. As we entered the park near the check in booth, a guy who was getting his RV ready to leave shouted out to me that he was leaving early and if we planned to stay there for the night, we could have his site which was paid up for another night. We said sure and asked if the camground had showers and if he was aware of a nearby laundromat. He said the campground had hot showers and told us how we would find a laundromat a few blocks away. He asked us about our ride. So we told him about about our bike tour. He was impressed and offered us a couple of cold beers. His name was Javier.

As we were sitting on the picnic table at our campsite enjoying our cold beers and contemplating our good fortune, Javier's wife and daughter walked by on their way back to the RV and told us the same thing that Javier had said. That we could have their site as it was paid up for another night and they were leaving early. We explained that Javier had already hooked us up and that she was married to a sweet guy. It wasn't long after that and here comes Javier with his first of 2 armloads of firewood. It turned out his wife told him to get out there and leave the rest of their firewood with us. We thanked him and asked how he knew it was my birthday. Thanks to you Mr. & Mrs. Javier.

We did our laundry then picked up a pizza and wings from Pappa John's which we ate back at our campsite in front of a warm campfire. What a great day.

Day 37, 9/20/08

Another day of this incredible tour. Riding along the gorgeous Pacific coastline...in late summer weather...in good health...with your brother...you almost have to pinch yourself to see if it is really happening. A lot of climbing today. But we have gotten a lot stronger and we are not having any problems with the climbing. Stopped several times to take in the views.

We broke for lunch around 3 pm at Ragged Point. Made it to Hearst Castle in San Simeon around 4. Tours were all sold out for today, but we decided to spend the night in the area and catch a tour tomorrow morning at 8:20. We camped at San Simeon State Beach, approximately 5 miles south of San Simeon which would mean a very early start and a good 10 miles of cycling off-route. Fitting in the tour of the castle also puts pressure on our schedule to arrive in Imperial Beach & the border with Mexico on Saturday. But I have been to Hearst Castle many times and know that it is a must-see, especially when we are this close and Sam has never seen it.

The campground at San Simeon State Beach was...let's just say difficult to find much to write home about. What a zoo. It was crawling with people and our tent was only about 10 yards from the HWY 1. At least the place had showers. We also had one of those campground neighbors who plays loud music and has loud, drunken conversations late into the night. Dinner concoction was pasta, chicken breast, and cream of mushroom soup. Forty three miles today.

Day 36, 9/1908

Wow! What a day! It was such a good move to stay in Carmel last night and get an early start towards Big Sur. Blue skies, warm sunshine, cool ocean breezes. And if you have ever been to Big Sur, you know how stunning the views are. I think we stopped at almost every vista point along the Big Sur coast. We broke for lunch at Nepenthe in Big Sur and had burgers and a giant basket of fries while we took in the views of the Pacific coast.

We camped at Kirk Creek campground (US Forest Service). The hiker/biker sites were right next to the ocean and one of the most beautiful sites we have camped at. Just gorgeous. No showers, so we "guerrilla showered" at our site. Dinner was a concoction of rice, red beans, and spam. Big Sur cookie bar. Mileage today was 55 miles and a very tough day of climbing.