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.