It was a little chilly this morning, but it didn't take long for it to warm up, so that was nice. All night we could hear trains way off in the distance and just in the time we were packing up and making breakfast we must have seen 3-4 trains going in different directions. We had our oatmeal and then got back on to Old Rt. 66 and continued riding through another never ending valley. After a while, we came to the "town" of Essex, which doesn't really have anything in it except a couple old buildings and a little tiny post office. This was one of the towns that was booming in the 50's. As we kept riding, we were drawing closer to interstate 40. The train tracks had also gotten closer to the road at that point. Just like this morning, the trains kept coming. Right after we crossed under the I-40 bridge, only about 17 miles into our ride, we saw something amazing-- a gas station that was open!! As we got closer, we could see a whole bunch of fountains in front of the station. We knew they would have water! At that point, we weren't out of water, but getting to re-fill all the empty bottles made it so that we wouldn't have to worry at all about running out of water before we go to Vegas. The gas station also had a little cafe where you could order food. We thought about getting a bag of Doritos for a snack, but since they were 6 bucks a bag, we decided to order 3 orders of french fries instead since it would be cheaper and it would be enough to keep us full for a while. We had a pretty long break, so we decided that would be our lunch break unless for some reason we got really hungry. Within the first 5 miles of leaving the gas station, we saw our first tarantula running across the road. I couldn't believe how fast it was! I said, "Look Joey, there's a tarantula!" He said where... and then next thing we knew he ran over one of it's legs because he didn't see it. Despite having a crippled leg, the spider started running back across the road in the opposite direction, still pretty fast. To make me feel better, Joe said he "ran over it to protect me," even though we both knew it was an accident. A couple times today we had a little "flashback on rt. 66" because there were old cars cruising down the highway. That was pretty neat to see just because it's such a historic highway. Even though the first 16 miles seemed to take forever because they were all on a slight uphill, the next 16-20 miles flew by! Again and again, we saw trains, so many trains. At one point it was less than 5 minutes between when one train would pass and when we would see the next one off in the distance. It was pretty amazing because you could see the train in it's entirety way off in the distance. As it was going by, you could look all the way down the road and see train cars and look behind you and see train cars as far as you could see. Eventually we made it to the intersection of Rt. 66 and 95, which would take us into Nevada and close to Las Vegas. Once we turned, we had a little bit of a tail wind, but were going up a slight uphill for quite a while again. We knew from the turn that we wouldn't have to ride more than 20 miles from the border of CA/NV. That was our goal for today, to get into Nevada. After a while, we came around the corner of a hill and could see the border off in the distance. We could see the color of the road change and could see the state signs. As we left California after quite a long time, we crossed over a set of cattle guards into Nevada. We've never crossed into a new state like that before. From there, we took our usual picture at the sign and then continued on. The road was nicer and even turned into a 4 lane road with a nice big shoulder. About 3 miles into the state, we found another gas station! By that time we were pretty hungry, so we decided to have our sandwiches for dinner at the bench outside. Having our sandwiches saved us in terms of not having to cook, which saved us on water, but because it is just so dry, our bread was rock solid by the time we had our sandwiches today. The sun was already going down by the time we were done with dinner. We figured we would ride for a few more miles and find a place to camp. The only problem was that since we got into the state, there was a fence off the side of the road about 50 feet, which would make it so we couldn't get very far away from the road. There were no trees or anything, so there wasn't a way to really hide ourselves. However, as we were riding, we saw a sign that said "rest area." From where we were, the rest area had a huge building along with a whole bunch of little shelters and picnic tables. When we got there, we found out that the rest area was closed. It looked brand new and probably wasn't finished yet. There were barricades blocking the driveway, but we could easily go around them with our bikes. We tossed and turned around the idea of camping behind the building, but since that would be the only place to "hide" we decided to go for it-especially since no cars would be coming in because of the barricades. We rode around the barricades and around the back of the building, which we found out was a huge bathroom house. There wasn't any water on yet, and everything was indeed brand new. We tucked ourselves away in the corner behind the building and felt like we would be nice and safe there. Although we would be camping on rocks, we figured we would be ok since we have our sleeping pads. There were also some great picnic tables close by along with security lights around the building. It was nice not to be sitting there in the dark. We're getting excited because we only have a couple more days to get to Las Vegas! Our miles totaled 62.16 today.
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We were up and moving by around 6:15am this morning. As we were packing up, I noticed a rainbow in the sky, something not all that common in the desert. That started my day off great, just seeing the rainbow. We enjoyed the cereal and milk Joey picked up from the store yesterday while saying goodbye to the chief and the two fireman since it was shift change at 7am. We hit the road about 7:30 and continued to enjoy the flat-downhillish ride that we had at the end of yesterday's ride. That took us right out of town. Just as we were making our turn to head towards Amboy, we saw Gary again. He was right at the corner of the road fixing a flat. It's pretty funny because he was just saying yesterday how he hadn't had a flat in such a long time- he must have jinxed himself on that one. The rainbow was still out for the first part of our ride as we continued on down the amazing flat road. Like yesterday afternoon, the miles really flew by. The only part that wasn't as good was that it was really cold this morning. I had my "skinny" gloves on and wanted to stop to put my pants on too, but instead kept riding and waiting for it to warm up. It would have been much more pleasant if I had just stopped and put them on because it seemed like it never would warm up. It took about an hour and a half for me to feel comfortable. After an amazing downhill of about 20 miles, we started to climb and did so for about 6-7 miles. It wasn't as hard of a climb as a lot of the ones we've done lately where we can only go 3-4 mph. This one we could at least go between 5 and 7 mph as it was more long and gradual. Once we were over the pass we saw such a spectacular view. There were mountains way off in the distance in each direction and in the middle was a section of the Mojave Dessert. You could see forever, it was unbelievable. The road stretched out so far that you couldn't even see the end of it; it just got lost in the distance. More wonderful downhill- we rode down for about 6 miles at a very comfortable coasting speed of 18-20 mph, without having to even pedal. It was so great to be able to just sit back and take in the surroundings. It was a little overwhelming to sit there and look around at the vast empty space around you. I went a little picture crazy because it was just so pretty. Eventually the gradual downhill turned into just a flat road. At one point, a guy in a pickup truck decided it would be a good time to pass, when I was right there. He pretty much tried to run me off the road. I don't know whether or not he would have actually hit me, but I do know that I was glad I was paying attention and saw him coming. I stopped riding right away and pushed my bike into the sand. Either way, he was way closer (and going much faster) than I ever care to have a vehicle coming at me on a road that doesn't have a shoulder. Now normally I wouldn't have gotten upset that he wanted to pass, but this is such a flat, straight road, with not a whole lot of traffic- he could have passed at any time- he didn't have to do it when he was so close to me. On top of that, the guy was very immature. I gave him a look of disapproval and in return he made a very inappropriate gesture. It's these kind of people that make me nervous to be on the roads- on a bike or in a car- those people that just don't care. As upset as I was, I got over the issue pretty quick because once I started riding again, I got in the groove of riding on the super long, flat road, and lost in my surroundings again. I just couldn't believe that we could see so far. The road looked like it just disappeared. Yesterday when we were having dinner with the fireman, the chief told us how we would pass the fields where they 'harvested' sodium chloride/ calcium chloride. He explained how they flood the fields and in doing so all the minerals float to the top. When the water dries, they scrape the top layer to get the chloride. Sure enough, the last 8-10 miles before we reached the "town" of Amboy, we were surrounded by these fields. We were also very close to a Marine base and we could hear them doing target practice. I had my headphones on to try to make the time go faster (although the roads were flat, it felt like we weren't getting anywhere very fast because we were in the middle of such a vast empty area). At some point as we were riding near the base, I heard a loud boom over my music (which is never very loud anyways). It startled me pretty good and made me jump as a result of it. When I looked back I could see a cloud of smoke over near one of the mountains where they had set off some kind of explosive. Also as we were riding the long stretch of road to Amboy, we saw the Amboy Crater off in the distance. We kept riding and riding and it didn't seem like we were ever going to pass it. Eventually, 10 miles later, we finally did pass it when we finally got to the junction of old Route 66. A mile or so down 66 from where we turned was the little "town" of Amboy. At one time, when 66 was in it's prime, this little town was one that got a lot of business. By the time we got there, we were really hungry, but were glad that we held off having lunch so that there would be a bench or some kind of table to eat on. Although the flat miles felt like they took forever to get anywhere on because of the roads going on forever, we actually covered a lot of miles in a pretty short time. Before we stopped for lunch around noon, we had already done 51 miles. We ate our lunch at the little benches outside the old cafe/hotel/gas station that was there in town. The fireman told us that that place has appeared in a number of movies, which is kind of neat. Before leaving town, we saw a semi that was transporting vehicles that said "North Tonawanda, NY" on the door. It was from SO close to home!! We stopped and talked to the guy, but he wasn't in a very good mood. Either way, it made us pretty excited to see that. Before leaving the tiny town, we stopped at the tiny post office to see if it was open, but it was closed. It's business hours read 9am-1pm, but they weren't open even though they were supposed to be. It is a long story, but a couple days ago-the day we had all of the wind, we found a cell phone on the ground. It still kind of worked, except for the screen. We tried to figure out a way to call someone to figure out who's phone it was, but with the strong wind, we knew we had to keep riding or we would never make it where we wanted to go. So, we just put it in our handle bar bag and figured we would figure it out later. Anyway, time passed and we forgot about it until yesterday. As we were setting up our tent at the fire station, we heard a phone ringing- it was the cell phone. We answered it and explained how we had found it. The lady on the other end gave us an address to send it to, so once we get somewhere with a post office that is open, we will mail it to her- we found the owner- mission accomplished. After lunch, we continued down another incredibly long road, but were excited to be on Old Route 66. Unfortunately the road had a bit more traffic that the road we turned off of, but it wasn't too bad. When we came to the road that turned to go into the Mojave Dessert Preserve, we tossed and turned over the idea of going through the preserve or staying on Rt.66. We had some great suggestions from William to go through the preserve because of how pretty it was. But at the same time, we knew we had an extra 4,000+ climbing to do if we went that way. On top of that as we were sitting at the intersection, 90% of the cars went that way. We originally planned on riding on 66 for as long as we could and we knew the pass with the narrow road wouldn't be very fun with all the cars. In the end we decided to stay on Old 66. We continued on down the road and got to see some old abandoned restaurants and gas stations that would be left from when the road was booming back in the 50s. Eventually we climbed another long hill. When we got to the top we saw the sun setting behind us and the next valley ahead of us- this one seemed even bigger than the last one. It is truly amazing how far you can see-probably for 30-40 miles. Each valley seems to get bigger and bigger with every set of mountains we go over. We enjoyed the downhill and then, since it was already dark, found a spot to camp on side of road. After the tent was set up, and I was making some mac and cheese in the dark, I somehow managed to dump the pan off the stove. We lost some of the noodles, but not so much that we wouldn't have enough for dinner. It's definitely a pain to cook in the dark on a little stove, but I'm just glad this is the first time in 8 months that I've spilled any dinner like that. After we ate, we talked on the phone for quite a while. We are out there in the middle of the desert with nothing around for miles and we have cell reception- we couldn't believe it! The one great thing about being out there in the middle of no where is that the view of the stars is just amazing- I don't know if I've ever seen that many at one time before. I bet it's even better in Alaska when it's dark up there- especially with the Northern Lights (too bad we didn't get to see that....). Although it didn't feel like we rode as many miles as we did, they totaled 73.09 in the end, most of which were in the valley we crossed into after the first hill today.
The last couple days we've been doing pretty good about getting up nice and early so we can get a good start since the days are so short now. It helps quite a bit that we end up going to sleep around 7:30-8:30 almost every night since it is dark and there isn't much else to do. We had some oatmeal, a can of peaches each and an orange each for breakfast. I was in a way dreading the ride today because I knew we had a lot of climbing ahead of us and from what it looked like, we would be climbing all day. We continued on the same road with the same gradual climb to start off. Eventually the road we were on met up with a busier 4 lane road. Joe was waiting for me at the corner and said that while he was standing there, someone offered us a ride up the hill. He turned the offer down because there wasn't any real reason we shouldn't ride up it. But in any case, that made me a little worried because if someone in a car thinks its a tough hill, then it's got to be even worse for us cyclists (a whole lot of people in cars don't notice how steep or long a hill is because it doesn't take them any effort to get up it- in fact sometimes when it is a gradual climb, they don't even realize they are going up). Now I was a bit intimidated by the thought of climbing that hill. But, the road had a fairly big shoulder, so that made things a little better. The climbing really began. Joe rode behind me for a little while but eventually went ahead and waited for me at the top of the hill. Surprisingly, it wasn't nearly as bad as I had made it out to be in my head. It was steep and long, but nothing harder than we've done in the last few days. After a little downhill, we made it to Morango Valley, the town we were hoping to make it to last night. It definitely wouldn't have been fun to try to ride that in the dark- and we found out that it wasn't really worth it after seeing the town anyway. In any sense, we arrived there a lot faster than we thought we would. We took a quick break at the gas station and then headed out of town. In doing so, we had another long climb. It took a while, but the good news is that we could see the top, so we knew we would be there eventually- there was no guessing as there is when the road is curvy and windy. A couple times, I turned around and looked behind me as I was going up. The view was really neat. You could see the road going through the valley and vanishing off in the distance. Once we ere over the top, we didn't have too far to go until we were in the next town of Yucca Valley (where our host would have been for last night had we made it that far- another 18 miles from where we camped). The town was so huge in comparison to what we were anticipating. We were both expecting to be riding through these tiny little towns with nothing in them. Even the Palm Dessert-Palm City valley had a ton more than we ever expected. We couldn't believe there were so many big towns just since we crossed over the hill yesterday. We made a stop at the visitor center to check on some information for Joshua Tree National Park before heading down the road to find somewhere to get internet and or have lunch. We were so happy to see a Vons again, and decided to go there to eat. The store had a table and chairs right out front, so it was perfect. We made our sub sandwiches and relaxed for a little bit. While we were there, we met poor guy that needed to charge his electric wheelchair for a little bit. He asked if he could sit with us for a while and we didn't see why not. It was really sad because after talking to him we learned that he was in an automobile accident a while ago and had been in a coma/incapacitated for about a year after. He told us about how he had lost his business and had to file for bankruptcy because of the hospital bills. Even still, he was in pretty good spirits overall. It does make you think though, and re-realize that you really do never know when something could happen that completely changes your life for ever. There was a Little Ceasers Pizza place on the corner of the plaza that Vons was in. Somehow we decided to get a $5 hot and ready pizza. We each ate a couple slices to fill us up the rest of the way (we only had 1/4 size sandwiches today). Before leaving, I really stocked up on food for the next 4 days because this time we were almost positive there wouldn't be any big stores, or much of anything until we got really close to Vegas. We were pretty sure though, that we would be ok on water. We have so many water bottles that it shouldn't be a problem- and there should be one or two places to fill up between when we leave tomorrow and when we get to Vegas. Once we started riding again, the road turned and the wind was with us. We had a very straight, flat/downhillish section for quite a while. The miles were flying by. We took a little time to check out Joshua Tree for a little bit when we went to what is known as Indian Cove. It was a bit of a climb up to the entrance of the park, but it wasn't that bad. Although we didn't do a whole lot of exploring and didn't ride through the park itself, we were ok with that. I couldn't believe how the last 20 miles of the ride just flew right by. The flat and down hill ride continued most of the way into town. We were in Twentynine Palms. Again, it was bigger than we anticipated. There were big name hotels, lots of chain restaurants, and even an Applebees. We went to the library for a little while since it was still early in the day. When we pulled up, we saw a bike that was loaded up with homemade panniers and had a frame that was full of stickers of where the guy had been. Inside, we met Gary, who we found out is originally from Sodus, NY (the next town over from where Joey grew up!) It's so amazing how small this world is! We talked to him for quite a while an found out that for the past 20 years, he has been taking a lot of little bike trips all over. Right now he was in the process of riding from somewhere in Southern California to somewhere in Arizona. He also showed us a bite that he had on his arm from what he was pretty sure was a black widow spider. His arm was so swollen and the bite was enormous and was oozing stuff. It was amazing that a little tiny spider could do something like that. Gary also said that he was planning on staying in the 29 Palms area for a few days because he is having some stomach problems lately, probably as a result of that bite he has. Seeing that bite of his really worries me, but at the same time, we looked it up and those kinds of spiders are all over the place and we haven't had any troubles yet, so we just have to be careful. After getting a little work done on the computers, we rode to the fire station. We did just as Craig said to do and sure enough, they said we could set up our tent out back. The chief turned off the sprinklers so that wouldn't be a problem and we pushed our bikes through one of the bay doors through to the back yard. It was a nice fenced in yard with a small little patch of grass- it was perfect. We set up our tent and ate the last couple pieces of our pizza from lunch. We were still hungry of course and thought about getting another pizza so we didn't have to cook. We were surprised to see a Little Caesars in town when we were on our way to the library. As we were unpacking, the fireman offered for us to take a shower if we wanted, of course we did!!! It was so great to be nice and clean- that is one thing I miss when we are at home- having a hot shower everyday. But I've gotten used to having one every few days so it's not so bad. We also got a chance to charge what needed to be charged and enjoyed relaxing in comfy chairs watching a big flat screen tv. Two of the guys made dinner and ended up making so much that there was plenty for us too, so they invited us to eat with them. We had really great burritos with lettuce, sour cream and guacamole, cheese quesadillas, rice, and red fruit punch. It was such a great treat. We had fun talking with the 2 fireman and the captain during dinner. For a couple hours after dinner we relaxed and watched some tv. Its crazy to see all of the commercials for Thanksgiving and Christmas already- I can't believe how fast the time has gone. We went to bed at 10, which isvery late for us lately. It was an awesome day and much easier than i thought it would be- very happy about that! We rode 42.89 miles today.
We woke up around 6:30 this morning and felt very refreshed after sleeping in a bed last night. Thanks to our hosts, we got to enjoy some cereal with milk and dried fruit for breakfast. Afterwards, William shared a few photos from their little tour while they were in Japan. It was interesting to get a little glimpse of what it is like over there. When we finally got all packed up and said our goodbyes, we rode down the dirt road from their house and back out to the main road. Both of us were very happy to find that the wind wasn't too bad today. It was still against us, but was no where near as strong as yesterday. About 2-3 miles into the ride we rode through the little town of Anza. A few miles outside of town we started to climb. The climb was much like the other ones we have done in the last couple days, long and pretty steep. We watched the elevation signs again today as we went up. Yesterday we started at an elevation somewhere near 1,390 feet and ended up at an elevation of about 4,200 at their house. For the first few miles of today's ride we started by going down for a little bit. With the climbing we weren't positive what elevation we would get to, but according to William, would get up to an elevation of somewhere near 5,200 ft. Unfortunately the elevation signs stopped when we went into the San Bernadino National Forest, so we weren't sure if we actually got that high or not. We had a pretty short little downhill before we made a turn onto a new road. From there we had a little more uphill and then finally had a pretty good downhill through an area that was full of these weird little bushes. Eventually we were doing what else but climbing again. It wasn't quite as steep, so it wasn't so bad, but it was still slow going. The views were so pretty, we could see so many mountains in the distance. They were very deserty looking mountains. I guess this is more exciting for me because I've never seen any of this before, so the desert is definitely a really neat thing. The road hugged the mountains pretty close at one point and when you looked up there were huge rocks and boulders as far up the hill as you could see. The highlight of the day came when we were on our way down-on a 10 mile downhill that is. As we looked down from the side of the mountain we were on, we saw the most amazing road ever laying ahead of us. It zig-zagged all over the place; it looked like the road was a piece of string curving down the side of the mountain. There were so many switchbacks, that wound really close to each other. It was pretty amazing. The descent was really fun, too. It was not too fast, not too slow, and had nice wide turns. We came down from around 5,000 feet all the way down to 224 feet. After that long descent, we were in the city of Palm Desert. On the way in we got pretty excited because we saw a few big cactus. Because there were trees and a little bit of greenery I felt like the air wasn't so dry and my nose started to feel a little better. We rode through the cute little shopping area that had a whole bunch of fancy expensive stores, and actually kind of reminded me of Rodeo Ave. in Beverly Hills. We made a quick stop at the visitor center and found out there was a nice park not too far away. The park was awesome. There was green grass- thanks to the insane amount of sprinklers, and even a pond with little waterfall and a ton of ducks and geese to watch. Joey and I made some pasta and spaghetti sauce for lunch and enjoyed the shade for a while. The rest of today's ride was flat or only had a slight grade. As we were going between Palm Dessert and Palm City we could see some really nice houses on the hill. William told us that some of those houses were homes of some of the stars. There were also street names like Frank Sinatra and Gene Autry. Although we had a place lined up to stay for tonight, it ended up being way too far away, not to mention there would be a significant amount of climbing too. Craig, the person's house we were going to stay at was ok with the fact we wouldn't make it, but provided a possible way to help us anyways. If it worked out distance wise for tomorrow night, he told us to stop by the fire hall in the town of Twentynine Palms and mention his name. He told us that there was a good chance they would let us set our tent up in the back yard! On the way out of town, we stopped at Vons to restock a bit on food. Once we got out of the busy area we were riding on roads that were really straight and flat, so much so that we could see for miles down the road. When we left the store, we made it a goal to try to make it to Morango Valley tonight. Somehow we missed the turn for the road we were on, but it ended up being ok since we were on a less busy road in the end. It probably took us less than a mile out of the way going the way we went. The roads are so straight that it didn't really matter. In doing so, we came withing 3-4 miles of the city known as Desert Hot Springs and also passed through the tiny area of North Palm City. As we kept riding and riding, but not feeling like we were getting anywhere, we realized we might not make it to where we wanted to. Then, as the sun was going down and we could see the mountains we knew that where the road would cut through was still pretty far away, we really knew we wouldn't make it there. There was a whole fleet of windmills in one section that we could see off in the distance for quite a while. Eventually we ended up riding right next to them. The last few miles were a very gradual climb, but we could still tell we were climbing. Although we turned our lights on, and there wasn't a whole lot of traffic, we found a spot to camp on the side of the road once it was too dark. The road had no shoulder and a lot of the cars showed that they saw us but still didn't give us much room. It wasn't worth fighting with them when we could just call it a day. We made a frozen veggie, chicken and three cheese pasta dinner that I picked up at the store when we were there since they were on sale. I love these dinners- they don't use a whole lot of water and they are pretty quick to cook and clean up. After that, we hit the sack pretty early again. It was pretty nice camping in the deserty area. The sand wasn't like we had pictured- we pictured beach like sand, but it was kind of neat even still. We were surrounded by the little desert bushes and could see the lights from the windmills blinking and all of the lights from the little cities in the valley off in the distance. Our miles totaled 60.42 today.
For some reason, I woke up with a sore back and not feeling all that great. We woke up nice and early, had our oatmeal and got everything put away by a reasonable time. Just as we were getting ready to leave though, we noticed that my back tire was flat. We didn't even get any miles in yet and we had to fix it- but the good news is that we had the picnic table to use which made it nicer. From the church where we camped to the main portion of town we had about 2-3 miles to ride. We stopped at Subway to fill up on water and then as a last minute decision on the way out of town stopped at McDonald's to check our email. It turns out that we had an email from the Warm Shower's host that Joey had contacted a few days ago. They were available to host us, so we planned to make it there tonight. They were about 65 miles away from where we were in Ramona, so we figured it was doable. As we started heading out of town, we realized it was going to be another long day. We were going up again, but the worst part is that the wind was so strong, and it was right against us. It made us think of how it was back in Iowa and South Dakota. It took forever to get anywhere, and we just felt like we were crawling. So much for West- East being the easy direction to go. As we fought the wind, we both became more and more frustrated- we were again fighting a losing battle. The wind is definitely one thing that can defeat almost any cyclist. We climbed and climbed, and watched as we passed the elevation signs that appeared with every 1,000 feet of elevation gained. Eventually we made it as high as 4,000 feet in elevation. So, after just a day and a half of riding we went from sea level in San Diego to over 4,000 feet. It feels like all we did since we left is climb. There were a couple downhills of course, but the uphills obviously outnumbered those by a lot. After what seemed like forever, we made it to the first town, Santa Ysabel, which was only 19 miles away from where we started this morning. It took us over 3 hours to get there because of that darn wind, so we decided that we would take our lunch break there. It wasn't quite as bad as when we were in South Dakota, but it was pretty close. There was a nice little porch on the building connected to the post office that was out of the wind enough that we would be able to enjoy our lunch. Yesterday we bought all the stuff to make our "Loic" sub sandwiches, but like last nights dinner, we only had quarter sized sandwiches instead of the full half of sandwiches we used to have it. Amazingly, when we turned onto our new road, the wind was in our favor for a little while. What a wonderful change that was! It was flat for a little bit before we started our gradual climbing again. For most of the rest of the time on rt 79 there wasn't much climbing and there were actually a couple of sections that were really great gradual downhills. Once we turned onto California 371 we started to climb right away. Just as with all of the other hills we had gone up lately we had a few miles to go before we reached the top. By this time in the day we were both so exhausted from battling the wind this morning that the climbing was pretty tough. Our hosts for tonight said to give them a call when we got to that intersection, so that is what we did. Right away he offered to come pick us up because the 371 was not a very safe road to ride on because of the amount of traffic. We still had a little bit of daylight left and we knew he was only about 12 miles away, so we planned to just keep riding. He was right though. The road had no shoulder and as it got closer and closer to being dark, rush hour set in and the amount of traffic increased quite a bit. The cars were all just flying by without giving us a whole lot of room because they were all in a hurry to get home after a long day at work. It is amazing to me that people drive the distances they do to get to work. Later on this evening, our host told us that people will drive upwards of 70 miles one way to get to work. That is just insane! As we continued on battling the traffic, it got to be close to dark. As a result of it being pretty scary to ride on that road and our complete exhaustion, we decided to just give in and call William and Marcie back to see if the offer for the ride still stood. So, about 15 minutes later, we saw William in his truck pass us and flash his lights. While we were waiting for him to turn around, we found a pull off/driveway that he would be able to pull into to pick us up. He helped us load our bikes in the back of his pickup and we were off. By that time it was pitch black. We were happy to be in the truck and away from all of the crazy drivers. From the point where he picked us up, we had about 10 miles to go to get to their house. The last quarter of a mile was up a pretty steep dirt road, so we were happy we didn't have to ride/push our bikes up there after a long day. After we got our bikes unloaded we got to meet Marcie and even found out we would get to sleep in a bed tonight!! We took turns taking a nice hot shower and then were treated to a wonderful dinner of chicken, baked potato and veggies with pasta. What a great dinner! It reminded me of home a little because that is the kind of meal I would get to have at Grandpa's house- he is a very meat and potato kind of guy. At this point, there is so much left to explore and probably about 5,000-6,000 miles left to do, yet we almost feel like the trip is already winding down just because it has gone so fast already. We are so happy to be on the trip and I for one don't want it to end, but there are still a lot of things to look forward to for when we get back home. I am not ready to go home yet, but I think when we get really close to home I will be. For the rest of the evening we enjoyed some great conversation with our hosts. They shared a lot of great trip stories and we just had a blast. We were both so exhausted that we went to bed kind of early. I was physically exhausted, but not quite ready to sleep yet. So, I worked on making a little wire bicycle. That is my new favorite thing to do- and I will say, they are slowly getting better the more I make them. It was so wonderful to be able to just relax in a bed with the night table light on like that- I am glad that I took the time to just enjoy that instead of going to sleep right away. Today was one of the toughest days we've had in a long time. Although portions of the afternoon's ride weren't super hard, we were so tired that it was a lot of work. I am so glad that we made it here and got to meet William and Marcie. Hopefully the wind will be better tomorrow. We rode 57.61 miles today and rode about ten miles on top of that in the truck. I definitely don't regret taking the ride- sometimes it's just not worth it to push yourself to keep riding in situations like that.
Although we planned on getting up really early, we didn't do a very good job of that. It was about quarter after 7 before we rolled out of bed. We had the rest of our cereal and milk for breakfast and got everything all packed up. I took one last shower before we headed out, because you never know when we will get another one. It was so sad to be leaving already, it seems like we just got here. That is how our whole trip has been. We are always thinking about the next town or city and then, boom, we're there, gone and thinking about the next town. I don't know if I'm quite ready to be starting the 2nd to last leg of the trip. San Diego is our turning point to start heading back east, so we had to say goodbye to the Pacific and start preparing for riding in the desert. We had such a great weekend hanging out with Ryan and Marchant. It has been really great to see some familiar faces the last few weeks, and I look forward to more of that. It was around 9:15 by the time we said our goodbyes to Ryan this morning. On the way out of town, we stopped at the goodwill so that I could get a new pair of shorts. My old pair have finally bit the dust. There was a small hole in near the seam that probably developed from sitting on logs and on the ground for so long. At one point I sat down kind of funny onto the futon and I heard a rip... that whole had gotten bigger, much bigger. It was ok though because I have had those shorts for so many years, and the material of them wasn't that great anyway. After that we had our last views of the Pacific before heading inland. Almost right away we started a gradual climb. We went up and up and up, but very gently at first, nothing too drastic. The weather was pretty warm again today and it only got warmer as the day went on. We rode past the Chargers football stadium and shortly after started to climb, this time it was actual work. For the first 15-20 miles of the ride were uphill. As we were coming down the hill off of the first climb we passed the sign that said San Diego City Limit- San Diego was officially behind us now. We took our lunch break in the town of Santee. First we stopped at the Target store to pick up a few things, including ice cream because what better thing to have for lunch on a hot day like today than ice cream!? From there we headed over to the McDonalds to use their picnic tables to eat at and then eventually found the Vons to pick up the last of our groceries before heading out of town. Once we left town we started down the wrong road for about a half a mile before I realized something didn't make sense. It didn't take long to figure out our mistake and get back on track. Somehow we got disoriented when we stopped at the Vons and didn't realize which road we were on or which one we were supposed to be on. For almost the entire rest of the day it was more of the same, climbing. The afternoon seemed to drag on. About 10 miles after lunch I got a flat tire on my rear wheel. At that point it was a little upsetting because we have such a little amount of daylight now that we were worried we wouldn't make it to our intended stop, which was still about 15 miles away. It was already around 3 and the sun now goes down around 4:30/quarter to 5. Although it doesn't really take that long to change a tire, it is more of a pain than anything because you have to take all of the bags off the back and get all of the tools out. As we continued to climb the never ending hill, we passed some spectacular mountains that were just covered in these huge boulders. It was really pretty with the last little bit of sunlight on them. As we were getting close to the top, we could see, way off in the distance, the ocean! We also found a super shiny Arizona plate to add to the collection. It will be fun to hang the plates up in the garage or basement when we get back. As we descended down the hill towards Ramona, our destination for the night, the sun also descended. Once that sun started to go down, it got so cold, so quickly! I had my coat on and even had to get out my lightweight gloves just so my fingers didn't freeze. It didn't help that we were going downhill either. As we were coming down the hill into town, we were just flying by the line of cars that were on their way home during rush hour from the city. It is amazing how far these people drive everyday- I could never do that. Luckily we were able to make it into town before it got too dark. Right away we found a church that had a big field near it along with a few trees and bushes. Being that we were tired and out of daylight, that sounded like the best bet. When we got closer, we didn't find any cars or people to ask, but we did find a little tent/awning thing that had little string lights around the outside of it, and a couple picnic tables inside. It was perfect. We had a table to eat dinner at and we didn't have to do anything in the dark. One of the great things was that the way it was layed out made it possible for us to easily "hide" ourselves from the road. We had a pretty good day today and went to bed really early since it was so cold outside. Our miles only totaled 45.79 today, but we were still pretty tired from all of the climbing.
Today is the 8 month mark of the trip! It's hard to believe that we've already been touring for that long and that we are 2/3 of the way done! Time goes WAY too fast when you are having fun. This morning we slept in until about 9:30. Joe and I had some of the Honey Bunches of Oat's cereal that he got at the store yesterday and by then it was almost 10am. Ryan asked if we wanted to go somewhere to watch the Bills game since he didn't get the channel that it was going to be on. So, right away, we rushed to get ready to go to watch the game, because after all kickoff was at 10 here on the west coast! It was really strange to think about for us because it seemed so early. Ryan decided we would drive to the restaurant/ bar. We were super excited because the restaurant/bar we were going to was a dedicated "Bills" bar! I couldn't believe they would have such a thing way out here in San Diego! As we were driving to the game, we passed quite a few people walking with jerseys on- from all sorts of different teams. Guess that really helps show the fact that the majority of the people in San Diego are originally from somewhere else. All of the bars that we passed along the way were packed with people watching the game- many of them were drinking already too-- even though it was only 10. Ryan said that on Sundays the bars open around 9 or 9:30am! We had quite a hard time finding a parking spot, so it probably would have been just as fast and a whole lot easier to walk, But, in the end it worked out just fine. The place we went to was called PB (pacific beach) Alehouse (they brewed beer here too). It was packed with Bills fans, it was amazing! Who knew there were so many dedicated Bills fans in SD. The restaurant even had a Bills surfboard hanging up! It took us a little bit to find a table because the first one that they sat us at, we couldn't see the game very well. When we did get a table with view of the game, it was perfect. We had a huge table for 8 and there was only 4 of us. We told the waitress that if anyone came in looking for a table that we would gladly share, but no one ever came. There were tvs on both sides of the table, so we all had a great view. We all decided to get a little lunch while we were there. Joey got his usual bacon cheeseburger, Marchant got some really yummy looking orange chicken, Ryan got some flatbread pizza, and I just ordered a side of fries because I was still pretty full from breakfast. We had a lot of fun watching the game because there were so many fans around. Every time the Bills scored, the restaurant would blast the "Bills make me wanna shout.... Heyeyeyey" song- and everyone would sing and clap along to it. It was a riot. The game ended up being close right up until the last 20 seconds when Fitzpatrick through an interception. Everyone thought that we might actually have a chance, but after that it was over. Even though they lost, we still had a great time. When we got back to the apt, the boys played some video games, football of all things, and watched a little more football, just in case they hadn't had enough yet. We couldn't believe that it was only quarter to 2, we still had a whole day left! Late in the afternoon, we made the last of our frozen pizzas for dinner and then Marchant, Joey and I went in the hot tub. Ryan stayed back and took a nap- something we were all ready for by that time. Unfortunately, Marchant had to go back tonight. Ryan offered to give him a ride to the train stop, so when the time came we all piled into the car to go to Old Town San Diego where the train depot was. It was so sad to see him go. Even though we had a great time, it still seemed like such a short visit. After saying our goodbyes to Marchant, Ryan took us on a little tour of San Diego. We rode down near downtown and he took us to Coronado Island. The bridge to get there was amazing and the homes on the island were even more amazing. Ryan said that there is a house somewhere on the island that the president sometimes comes to stay at. There is also a pretty famous hotel called the Hotel del Coronado, that has housed many presidents and public figures over the years. The four of us took a nice walk around that hotel. Across the water, we could see a city full of lights off in the distance. Ryan said it was Tijuana in Mexico! It is amazing how close we really are to Mexico! Following that little tour, Ryan drove us by Petco Park, the stadium where the San Diego Padre's baseball tam plays. It was really pretty neat, especially now that we are starting a little collection of photos from all of the baseball/football stadiums we've gone by now Another night of just relaxing awaited us at home. A bit later I ate the last of my burrito that I had from yesterday, and it was pretty close to being just as good as yesterday. We watched another movie and then went to bed around 10 or 10:30 wit plans to wake up early. Again, we didn't ride any miles today.
We all slept in quite a bit this morning. Joe and I just snacked on some of the fruit we had for breakfast and relaxed this morning. Today, Marchant is taking the train into the city to come visit us. We are so excited to see him! We also have plans to meet up with James and Loic again this afternoon at the beach at noon. Unfortunately, Marchant was running a little late because it took a little longer for him to get here than he thought. Since we planned on just meeting Loic down at the beach at noon, and we didn't have a quick way to contact him, Joey hopped on his bike (unloaded) and headed down to the beach to meet him. It was a pretty quick trip down and back and he didn't have too much trouble finding him. The two of them road back to Ryan's house so that we could all wait there for Marchant to get there and for Ryan to get back from picking up his brother. We cooked up a frozen pizza for lunch while we waited because we were already hungry. Loic went with Joey to the grocery store which was right around the corner from the apt. They met Marchant at the bus stop nearby and they all came back to Ryan's afterwards. Marchant is still the same quiet kid, but now with more muscles and a lot darker from being in the sun all the time now. It was so exciting to see him; it's been almost 2 years since he joined the Marines and left home! Once we were all together, we all headed down to the beach. Loic rode down so that he would have his bike with him, and it worked out perfectly because by that time James (who was planning to meet us later- around 2) would be at the beach waiting for us. Marchant, Ryan, Ryan's brother Robert, Joey and I all walked to the beach, which is more like a mile and a half walk. The sun was shining today, but there was a pretty chilly breeze. Originally we planned to go swimming and play a little volleyball, but Robert couldn't find his volleyball, and with that breeze, it was a little too chilly to go swimming. The boys did have a football though, so when we got to the beach, that is what they did. Loic and James were there waiting for us when we got there. James was also enjoying a really awesome, huge burrito- that is the one great thing about this area is that there are so many places to get tacos and burritos! For Loic and James, it was their first time playing American Football. There was a group of 4 guys on the beach who wanted to play some football, so they had a perfect number to play a good game of 5 on 5. Loic, Ryan, Robert, Marchant, and Joey were on one team, and James, and the other 4 guys were on another team. It worked out really great because then James and Loic could guard each other and learn the game together. Joey's team scored the first point, but then after that the other team pretty much dominated. Loic and James did really well for their first time! The group of 4 guys were on a trip around the country in an RV and are originally from Massachusetts. They told the boys that the first stop on their trip was Buffalo! While the guys played, I was the photographer so that Loic and James would have some pictures of the first time playing football. It was so nice to just sit there with my toes in the sand- I am really going to miss that! After a really great game of football, Loic and James headed back to where they were staying and the 4 of us walked back to Ryan's. It was so sad to watch Loic and James ride away. We had so much fun riding with them and now it's already time to part ways. Hopefully we will be able to go visit them in Europe some day or maybe they will come to NY to visit us. It was really great that we got to see them both today though for one last hoorah. Marchant and I each got a hot chocolate at the 7-11 when we went by because it was actually a bit chilly outside- where did California go? That afternoon, I made some brownies and we watched a movie. Ryan took his brother home and on the way back gave us a call to see if we wanted a burrito. All 4 of us got California Buritos (meat, cheese, sour cream, guacamole, and french fries!). They were so big that I couldn't even finish the whole thing tonight. Before bed, we all watched another movie. Marchant stayed over so we could enjoy hanging out with him tomorrow, too. Another great day- this is turning out to be such a great weekend. Joe rode 3.10 miles today.
Joe and I got to sleep in a bed again last night (and will for the whole time we are here!) because for some reason Ryan prefers to sleep on his air mattress instead of his pull down bed. But it seemed to work out perfectly for while we were here. Ryan's apt. is really nice- it kind of reminds me of a hotel because of the way it is layed out. For most of the day we just relaxed. I was so full still from our lunch out at Hodad's, that I wasn't even in the mood for any breakfast. The boys were hungry though, so we made some pancakes. I worked on blogs for a while along with a couple other trip things on the computer, and even had a chance to use Ryan's computer to upload photos. Although I already knew I liked Mac computers, between the desktop Mac that I used in Culver City and Ryan's Macbook, I have definitely decided that if we get another computer at some point, we will spend the extra money to get a Mac. They are so easy to use and are really great with photos and "artsy" stuff. This was the perfect time to get to San Diego because Ryan is off all day today (Friday) and the whole weekend! After playing some video games this morning, the boys went on a little adventure down to the beach. Ryan lives about a mile away from the beach, so it is perfect walking distance. I found out later that as they were walking around, they ended up getting some $1 fish tacos. I made a couple grilled cheese sandwiches while they were gone because I was finally hungry. We watched a movie today and made plans to meet up with one of Ryan's friends to go to a bar that had a great special: $2 drinks with a free appetizer! Around 6, the four of us walked over to Marissa's house (she is originally from Long Island and spent some time in Buffalo, too!). From there, we headed down towards the beach and to the restaurant/ bar called Johhny V's. There were a couple other friends of Marissa's there that she knew from school (Amanda, Tim and another Ryan). The appetizers were awesome and pretty filling. For some reason, Ryan and Marissa didn't eat all of their appetizers and shared a good portion of them with us. We had little cheeseburger sliders and fries, little taco rolls, pita and guacamole, chicken strips, and little mini donut holes. Joe and I each got 2 drinks (doubles- so we could get 4 appetizers!) and that was plenty. Ryan ended up buying Joey a couple more beers later on in the night, too. It was a lot of fun to get to hang out with someone we knew- Joey said it made him feel like we were at home. We did quite a bit of walking during the night and enjoyed just being out and about. For the first time in a really long time we went to bed after midnight. Today was a great start to our weekend with Ryan. We did not ride at all today.
We were all really lucky to be inside last night because for the first time in a while it rained. What are the odds that it would rain when we aren't in our tent! Erin made some really great french toast and bacon for breakfast. This was the first time that Loic had ever had french toast (they don't have it in France). We all took our time getting ready this morning because we knew that the ride to San Diego from where we were wasn't too long. About 2 miles from the house, we met a cyclist who had a flat, so like the guy that we helped out near San Luis Obispbo, we helped this unprepared cyclist fix his flat. We continued on along the last section of coast we would ride along, since San Diego is our turning point to head east. I was kind of sad during today's ride because I knew today would be the last day we would ride with Loic, and with James. We've had so much fun that we are really going to miss riding with him once we start heading east and it's just us two again. The whole ride this morning, Loic kept saying "think burger" since we planned to go out to a well known burger place called Hodad's in Ocean Beach that our host recommended to us. Last night, Steve showed us a video clip of the restaurant from when it appeared on the "Dives, Dinners and Drive-in's" show, and we got pretty excited because the burgers look huge. Erin and Steve said that they are the best! So for the whole ride, we all joked around about how we would be eating some tasty burgers soon. At one point we headed into Torrey Pines State Park so that we could get off of the main road. We had a nice big hill to climb, the first long one in quite a few days. It took about 10 or 15 minutes to get to the top, but it was a fun ride, there were even a couple small switchbacks. Near the top there was a really nice golf course. From there we started to head down the hill. Somehow we missed the road we were supposed to turn on, so we had to find an alternative route because we definitely didn't want to ride back up the hill. It worked out ok, we ended up doing a few more miles, but we found a nice bike path that took us all the way over to the Pacific Beach area. Luckily James had a smart phone that had a map/gps that we could use to find our way to Ocean Beach. With that, it was pretty easy to find our way there. When we arrived at Hodad's, it was pretty packed, even though it was a little after the normal busy lunch time. All 4 of us ordered chocolate malts, since the one's we had last night that Steve made were so good. Joey got a double bacon cheeseburger and I just got a single cheeseburger. Holy moley were the chocolate malts good!! It didn't take very long to get our burgers and we were blown away at how big they were once we saw them. The double burgers were out of this world- I am so glad that I only got a single, and I think James was too. They came with awesome "jo-jo" fries, too. The burgers were awesome! Between the malt, burger and fries, we ate so much. All 4 of us were so full we could barely move. After lunch, we went to Starbucks a couple doors down to look up directions to Ryan's apartment. Joey was really excited because this is the first time that we're going to stay with a friend. We found it without too much trouble, but were so full that when we got their we just vegged on the couch and didn't want to move. The good news is that Ryan's apt is on the first floor, so it was easy to get our bikes inside. Later on that evening, Ryan and Joe went in the hot tub that is in Ryan's apt. complex. The boys had fun catching up and I enjoyed watching a movie. The good news is that we were so full for the rest of the day that we didn't have to worry about having any dinner. I can't believe we are already to San Diego! Our miles totaled 43.47 today.
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