RideHard: 01.08

MON.JAN.28

So, here is a state of the union address for Dom and Meers and Colins West coast expedition...

We flew into San Francisco and enjoyed a brief few hectic days with Mary, living in her cozy, sun-starved, yet oh-so-accomodating apartment. We ran around the city gathering last minute supplies, packing our bags, tuning our bikes and eating cheeseburgers. Colin and Meers sampled their first In&Out Burgers, but certainly not their last.

We left San Fran on a beautiful sunny day, pedaled 7 miles in the wrong direction just to cross the golden gate bridge, and then it was onward to our first stop; half moon bay. Aunt Cathy graciously let us stay @ her beach house and we enjoyed pasta w/Mary, burritos with uncle rich, and the Mavericks surf contest.

The next two weeks were a blur of struggling up hills, yes i know what you're thinking, California? Hills? i couldn't believe it either, but let me assure you they are there, right on the coast. We rode our bikes and camped from Half Moon Bay, down to Santa Cruz, then Monterey, where we were attacked all night by thieving raccoons who ate parts of my delicious helmet and invaded our camp. Then it was off to climbing the cliffs and beautiful vistas of Big Sur and the coast to SanLuis Obisbo. We saw sunsets and giant elephant seals, fighting and burbing on the beach. We enjoyed a great rest day of football and food with the priests at the Monastery of the Risen Christ in SanLuis Obisbo. We left SLO and had our best day yet on bikes, covering 95 miles in under 10 hours. Then came the rain. The next two days saw little more than cold rain and pedaling. We stopped in coffee shops to warm our toes and briefly dry off. We got to see all of Santa Monica and the beaches, but nobody was out since it was downpouring. We spent 2 awesome days eating massive amounts of food in Hollywood with xBradx and his roomate Mike. We saw the hollywood sign, cloverfield, but no hilary duff yet. And we ended our riding for the week in downtown L.A. where we caught a train 50 miles south to Aunt Barbaras welcoming and fully stocked house.

Colin has left and headed back to cold, snowy Boston and he and his constant humor will be missed. Now its up to us, Dom and Meers to try to carry on the jokes and laughter while biking over hills, through rain, raccoons and seedy last minute motels.

The mighty white unicorn (the bike Matt lent me) has held up well but proves to be made for racing rather than bike touring (i.e. hauling a trailer with 70lbs of food and gear hundreds of miles) so i will be picking up a new bike at REI in San Diego. The biking itself isn't really that hard and the people we meet along the way are all willing to help us out with directions, food, or just a smile and a story.

We have already learned much on our 2 week shakedown cruise.
1. We eat twice as much as i expected and 3 times more than we budgetted for.
2. Biking is easy and fun, bike touring is tiring and an "enjoyable challenge"
3. when hauling gear your mileage is much less than 100 miles/day
4. People are friendly and willing to help us out.
5. expect the un-expected
6. you CAN get sick of PB&J.

Dom.