We all woke up nice and early this morning since we had gone to bed so early. After having some oatmeal and a banana, we were all packed up and on the road by about 7:30 or 8. Since we slept in the woods last night, we didn't have any way to know who won the election. We kept looking for signs or something saying who won, but didn't see anything. It turns out that we weren't that far from Laguna Beach. At one of the little convenience stores, we met a couple of touring cyclists. Marco and Dado were from Italy and were riding from San Francisco to southern Mexico or Guatemala (they hadn't decided yet). We talked with them for a little while. We figured we would see them again later today or tomorrow since that seems to happen when there are touring cyclists near each other. We rode through that area and then found a nice bike path that paralleled the 5. We stopped for a quick bathroom break at one of the restrooms in the state park. While we were there, we saw James flying down the bike path. He had his headphones in and was in the groove, so much so that he didn't see us until the last second. So, we were a group of 4 again! James had been at a host's house last night, so he was the one that told us the news that Obama had won. The bike path continued for quite a while. It eventually took us through a tunnel that had a sign reading "Caution, watch for cyclists and military vehicles" (we were getting very close to the base where Marchant is stationed. After that tunnel, the bike path was on a long road that is probably used by the military for special occasions or in case of emergency. It was long, straight and flat enough that it could probably be used as an airstrip too. After that, the bike path ended. The only way to go was on the highway or through the base. They just checked our id's at the gate and told us the way to go to get to where we wanted, which was Oceanside. It was still pretty early in the day, so we had plenty of time before we were going to meet Marchant when he got out at 4:30. As we were riding through the base we could hear gun fire from those that were doing training, saw hum-vs of course, and saw the buildings and houses that many of the Marines lived in. The base was HUGE! We rode for quite a long time to get to the other side of it. Just before we were about to head out of the base through the main gate, we stumbled upon a shopping center that had everything from a grocery store to a McDonald's. You would never know we were on a base! Since we had done quite a few miles and had yet to eat lunch, we stopped at the picnic tables outside of McDonald's to make some lunch. Joe and I had some spaghetti-o's, since we hadn't had them in such a long time, and grapes. It was pretty warm out, so a chocolate milkshake sounded good too, we ended up getting one of those from McDonald's (that also made us feel better about using their table and wifi =D ). When Joey checked his e-mail, he had an e-mail from one of the hosts that he had contacted and who said would be available to host us. For some reason, Joey thought the host was in San Diego. It turns out that the host was in Carlsbad, the next town over from Oceanside! He was emailing us because he figured we would be there either today or tomorrow. What an awesome surprise-- we didn't expect that we would get to sleep inside tonight!! Joe called our host, Steve, to check to see if it would be possible to have James come too, since we were now a group of 4. Steve said sure, so now all 4 of us have a place to go tonight! It was still only 2pm, so we decided to ride to the beach to kill some time because we knew our host wouldn't be home til around 4:30 or 5. We weren't planning on meeting Marchant until around then anyways. The only thing is that now that we have a place to go, it will make it a bit of a challenge to meet up with Marchant easily. Originally we were planning on going to visit him and then riding off base a mile or two and finding a place to camp. Even still, since it gets dark so early, it wouldn't give us very much time with him. On top of planning to see him on base, we do have a plan for him to come spend some time with us at Ryan's in San Diego this weekend, so it wasn't too big of a problem. In the end, we decided to just see Marchant this weekend instead of trying to ride 8 miles in the dark. It is so great that we have a place to go tonight because it would still be a challenge to find a place to camp in this area. All 4 of us went swimming for a while at the beach, and surprisingly the water was pretty warm- probabaly about 67 degrees. This beach was nice, but not nearly as nice as some of the other ones we've been to. There was a bunch of rocks and shells in the water that made it a little painful to get out into the water. The waves however were pretty big, so it was fun. After our swim we hopped back on the bikes and rode up the little hill to the main road. As Loic and I were standing there waiting for James and Joey, a cyclist came up to us and asked if we were by any chance coming from AK! It turns out it was our host Steve! He commutes to work by bike and likes to take the longer way because it goes along the ocean. Talk about perfect timing! It was still early, so we planned on finding a coffee shop to relax at for a while. Steve told us that his wife would be home in an hour or two, so it would work out perfect. The 4 of us found a Starbucks right near the road we needed to go down to get to our host's house. James and Loic really wanted some hot chocolate after their swim, so it worked out great. While we were sitting there, we saw the Italians riding by. We waved them down and they came to hang out for a little while too. It was almost dark when we headed up the hill to Steve and Erin's house, but it was only a couple miles away so it didn't matter. When we got there, Erin was busy making dinner- boy did it smell good! The 4 of us took turns taking showers and got to enjoy some yummy appetizers and homemade salsa. Along with Steve and Erin, their son David and his girlfriend were there along with their younger daughter Aquila, and of course the dogs Miley and Benji. It was like a big family dinner with the 4 of us added to that. For dinner we had pasta with pesto, and awesome salad, beef, tomatoes and homemade bread! It was incredible! She is one heck of a cook. After dinner, we played Monopoly (because Aquila saw my Monopoly jersey and wanted to play after that). For dessert, Steve made some awesome chocolate malt for everyone. All 4 of us got to sleep in a bed, or at least on an air mattress! The bed Joe and I were in was probably the most comfortable bed ever! What an amazing day, yet again. I continue to be amazed by the hospitality our hosts have shown us- we are so lucky to get to meet so many great people. We rode 48.91 miles today.
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Election day. Joe and I got to enjoy making some chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. After breakfast, I took a shower and Joe and Chris played a couple more games of football on the xbox. It was about 10 by the time we left today, but we figured that would be plenty of time to get to the pier in Huntington Beach to meet my cousins Amy and Jim by noon. We made a quick stop at Wal-Mart to get a couple things and continued on our way. It was pretty hot again today probably 85ish. Again we had some nice bike paths to ride on for the first few miles. We rode on another trail that followed a river and then found ourselves back on rt.1. A mile or two after being on rt. 1 we were in a huge cloud of fog that made it a bit chilly. We rode in the fog for about 10 miles. As we rode along the path along the beach there was so much fog we couldn't see the water at all. For most of the ride we ended up having a pretty good headwind, even when we were heading south down the coast, which doesn't happen very often. That slowed us down pretty good- it figures the only time we are actually trying to make it somewhere by a specific time we would get a head wind. I was beginning to think we were never going to make it to the pier because we couldn't see it at all. Eventually we came around a little curve and the fog had cleared enough that we could see if off in the distance. We ended up being about 15 minutes late, but it worked out just fine. I got a text message from Amy saying "I see you!." They were on the pier and had seen us riding along the bike path. It was so great that we got to meet up with them on their vacation. What perfect timing for us to be in the right area when they were too. While they were waiting for us, they checked out the little restaurant at the end of the pier and figured that would be a good place to go out for lunch. It was a really cute little 50's style diner restaurant. We had a great booth window seat with a great view of the water. Joe and I each enjoyed a really great burger and fries and getting some time to catch up with them. After a super lunch, we started heading back towards the beach. Although the fog had cleared and the sun came out when we first got here, by the time we were done with lunch it was back- and it had gotten pretty chilly. Amy and Jim's parking time was almost out so they headed back to their friends house where they are staying in Orange City. Joe and I sat on the ledge near the beach and relaxed for a while while we waited for Loic who would be there around 3pm. I worked on making a little bicycle out of wire again and Joey got to play a little volley ball with a couple of guys on the high school team there (school gets out at noon 2x a week here!). As we were sitting there, who do we see riding along the bike path? It was James, the cyclist from the UK who we initially met back near Big Sur. We waved at him and sure enough he came over to see how things were. It was really great to get to see him especially since we didn't figure we would get to see him again. He had just seen Loic a few miles back, so we knew he would be there sometime soon. James saw me making the little wire bicycles and really liked them. I gave him one and he took one of my scrap pieces of wire and attached it to his front rack. Now, "little wheels" leads the way! A little while later Loic found us and the 4 of us continued on riding. Our goal was to make it as close to Laguna Beach as we could. When we got into Newport, James had to head off to the host he had set up for tonight. We figure we will probably see him tomorrow on the road since we won't be too far from him. It was getting close to being dark (man does it stink that it gets dark at 5:30 now because of daylight savings time two days ago), so we knew we wouldn't be riding much further. On the way, we decided to stop at the grocery store since we weren't sure when the next "big" store would be. We had to ride for a couple miles in the dark, but for most of it we rode on the side walk to avoid all the traffic. There was some kind of big monument like sign for a resort that said "Newport Beach." There weren't a whole lot of places to camp since it was a pretty populated area; and we didn't find any churches. Behind that big sign were some bushes and trees that we could hide in. So, when the traffic was moving pretty good, we ran up the hill and into the "woods" with our bikes as fast as we could. It was pretty funny, actually. The camp spot ended up being perfect. No one could see us from the road and there was a little light on the huge sign thing so we had a little "night light" and did't have to set up in the dark. Joe and I were still pretty full from lunch, so we just snacked on some french bread that we got at the grocery store. All of us went to bed pretty early, probably around 7:30 or 8 because there was nothing else to do. The second half of the trip has been so different from the first half. We no longer get to enjoy long days, or days that never got dark, and now our big destination is back home. Even still, it has been so great. We have enjoyed how wonderful the west coast is to ride along, had some great people to ride with. One of the best parts is that the whole second half of the trip is all about meeting up with family and friends along the way, something that we didn't get to do at all on the way to AK. We've already met up with Joey's Aunt and Uncle, today my cousins, Marchant (family friend who is in the Marines stationed near Ocean city), and in a few days we will meet up with one of Joey's friends from Lowes that is doing his practicum for physical therapy in San Diego. After that, we plan to meet my cousin Anne near Phoenix, Michael Sherman (who used to be on Joe's baseball team in high school) in AZ, Little Michael and hopefully Papa Mike (who we rode with for about 3 weeks on the way to AK) in Lennord, TX, a family who we met in Denali that live in TX, possibly meeting our friend Kelly somewhere, and then seeing Joe's family while they are on vacation in Florida (and of course seeing Uncle Ronnie and Aunt Mary Lynn again, too!). This definitely helps to keep the trip exciting, especially now that AK is already done. We rode 33.59 miles today.
Joey and I had some cereal and milk for breakfast and got everything packed up. We still don't have a really long way to go today, but we will be close enough to Huntington Beach after today that it will make it easier to meet up with Amy. Our hosts live very close to an awesome bike path that ran along a river right next to the ocean. Even though it was only around 9:30 when we started riding, it was already pretty warm. We rode for about 8 miles before stopping at a beach that was very close to Manhattan beach. We got changed into our bathing suits and pushed our bikes out onto the beach so we wouldn't have to worry about them. We each snacked on an apple or two for lunch since we had so much cereal this morning. Joey played in the waves, which were pretty big, for quite a long time. After a couple hours, we got back on the road and headed for our host's house in North Long Beach. We had to go pretty far inland, but that wasn't too big of a deal because we had plenty of time to get there. When we found our host, Danny's apartment, he wasn't home, but his girlfriend Kat was. Joe carried our bikes up the stairs to put them inside. They had a great collection of bikes in their living room, and even had a tandem tall bike that they had built! While we waited for Danny to get home, we watched a movie on Netflix on their huge TV. It was like being at the movie theater. Danny and Kat also have a roommate who is from Japan. They told us about how they had just gotten back from going to Japan with him to visit. Joey even got to try some beer from Japan that they had brought back with them. When Danny came home, the 4 of us went out to dinner at one of their favorite places to go, a little Mexican food stand/restaurant. Joe and I each got a "california burrito" which was meat, cheese, sour cream and of all things- french fries! It was SO good and we were really stuffed afterwards. From there, we headed back to the apartment. Kat and Danny had some errands to run and went to do laundry. Joe and I just relaxed and watched another movie. At some point, Danny's son, Chris came home. After our movie was over, they played some video games for a while. At that point I just kept myself busy with a little wire bicycle. We had another great day. Happy Birthday Grandpa!! Our miles totaled 28.74 today.
We took our time getting ready this morning since we knew we wouldn't be going that far today. Joey got to relax and watch a little Sunday football and really enjoyed it. It was around 1 when we headed out. We were both a little sad to be leaving because Barry and Susan were such great hosts. But, it will be good to get a little further down the road. We took a little bit of a "tour" of the area as we rode just so we could see some of the sites again. After leaving the house, we headed down Sunset Boulevard where a lot of the fancy restaurants and hotels were. We also rode through Beverly Hills and rode down Rodeo Dr. where all of the really expensive stores like Prada and D&G are. From there we headed to the Beverly Hills library for an hour to get some pictures uploaded (I went a little crazy the last few days- guess I was a little excited!). For such a rich area and a nice library, the internet was really slow, so I didn't get that many uploaded. We didn't have any trouble finding our hosts (Rachel and Ed) house in Culver City, thanks to the directions we looked up on google maps. When we got to their house we got a little tour and got settled. They were very excited about their little paradise because they had just gotten it about six months ago and have been working hard to fix it up the way they want. It was really awesome though because they had papaya trees in their yard, a little tiki bar and a hot tub in the back yard. The way the gardens were gave it a resortie feeling and I loved that the house was painted bright yellow, although they plan to repaint that. Joe and I worked on plans to meet up with my Cousin Amy and Jim as well as re-meet up with Loic so we could ride with him to San Diego. It took a little bit to get a plan that would work to meet everyone, but we did. I went to the store with Rachel to get some stuff to make dinner while the boys stayed home and watched some football. It is always so nice to get to use a real stove! Joe and I had pasta and we enjoyed eating dinner and sharing touring stories with our hosts. They have traveled all over the world, mostly backpacking, but have a lot of really great stories because of it. A little while after dinner, Rachel, Ed and I went in the hot tub (Joey was really tired for some reason and didn't feel like going in). It was awesome- so relaxing, and at night their backyard felt even more like a resort with the lighting and palms. Rachel and Ed were nice enough to let me use their computer to upload my photos since I didn't get that many done at the library this afternoon. Boy was their computer fast! It was so great to get everything all done! The weather was great today- in the high 80s, low 90s and tomorrow is supposed to be just as nice! We only rode 12.15 miles today.
We had a very relaxing morning while we waited for Loic to meet us at our host's house. We looked up to see if there were any free tickets for TV shows either today or tomorrow, and it turns out that there were shows today but they were all sold out. I was really bummed because one of the tapings today was America's Funniest Home Videos, which is one that I said I'd love to see before we even left on the trip. For some reason, it just didn't cross our mind again until we were here- too bad we didn't look up the info before hand because then we probably would have been in the audience. Even though it's a bit disappointing, we still have so much to explore and I have no doubt that we will have busy day. Loic arrived around quarter to 11 and we got his bike put with ours. Since our host's house was SO close to Hollywood Boulevard, we decided to walk. For the rest of the day, we walked around Hollywood, right down Hollywood Boulevard. We saw the stars in the sidewalk as we walked along the Hollywood Walk of Fame and used our monthly "anniversary dinner" from Grammy to go to Hard Rock cafe next to the Grauman's Chinese Theater. It was just so good! Joey and I even got a drink; Joe a Long Island Iced Tea and I had a Fruitapalooza- which was probably one of the best drinks I've ever had, it was so fruity! Lunch was just as good! After our awesome lunch, we headed to somewhere we could see the Hollywood sign. When we found it, it was still pretty far away, but it was still pretty exciting to be there. We started to head back to the house to get our bikes because we wanted to ride around and try to find some of the homes that the stars lived in. As we were walking, we kept being nagged by the bus tour guy we had met earlier that day. Every time he saw us he gave us a cheaper and cheaper price. Since we had a plan to ride around and try to see a few places, we didn't want to go on the bus tour. But after a little deliberation, we ended up deciding to do the bus tour after all. By the time we got home and started riding to find some places, it would be close to dark and we probably wouldn't have too good of luck finding the houses since we had no clue where they are. In the end, it was perfect to take the bus. We got to get a little closer to the Hollywood sign, saw a TON of celebrity homes, a good portion of Beverly Hills and a whole bunch of other things, like the restaurant that Jennifer Aniston owns. I had a lot of fun. Our driver was pretty crazy that's for sure, but that makes it pretty fun! Whenever there wasn't anything to show us or talk about, he would crank the tunes so we could feel what it would be like to "cruise around in a "convertible" with the tunes going." The last 15 minutes of the tour were really neat because it was getting dark. We went from cruising around in the sunshine to riding through the streets of Beverly Hills with all of the lights, and even saw the Beverly Hills sign at night. It was really cool. The tour was 2 hours long, but our driver ended up getting back about 15-20 minutes late. Joey and I had a really great time on the tour-and we definitely saw a heck of a lot more than if we were on our bikes trying to find stuff. Unfortunately, our crazy driver talked so fast that Loic couldn't understand most of it, which is completely understandable since we had a hard time understanding him sometimes too. We walked back in the dark along Hollywood Blvd. There was some kind of independent movie even at the Chinese theater, so there were a lot of people around there. We knew something had to be going on tonight because everything was barricaded off and they were vaccuuming the red carpet. Poor Loic had to ride back to where he was staying in the dark, but I guess it wasn't too bad since there were street lights. We definitely didn't plan on getting back after dark. Joey and I had dinner with Barry and a friend that came to visit (Susan was at a neighbors house for some kind of dinner party). The lady was super nice and was a lot of fun to talk to. She is also a physical trainer and was originally from Argentina. What an awesome dinner we had, Barry is quite the cook! He made linguini with vegetables and a seafood medley including shrimp! It was heavenly. It has been so great getting to enjoy so many awesome meals lately. I think back to when we were riding through British Columbia and the Yukon and we had such a bland steady diet of rice, mac and cheese, and oatmeal, and it really makes me appreciate all of this wonderful food we have been enjoying lately. What a great day of sight seeing! I'm so excited that we are in LA/Hollywood!
The moon was still showing in the sky when we woke up this morning. Since we have been talking about going to a buffet with Loic for a while (and we looked online to see if there was one to go to), Joe and I didn't make any oatmeal for breakfast. Instead, we just snacked on the last two cinnamon buns that we got yesterday. Again I was spoiled by having my bike taken down the hill for me. Joey knows I'm a little clumsy and that it would be hard for me to keep the bike up while going down, so he took it for me. We had a fun ride down the hill back to the Pacific Coast Highway. At first the traffic wasn't so bad, but it didn't take long for the morning rush hour traffic to catch up to us. It wasn't too scary since the cars were going pretty slow, but every once in a while a car would be a little closer than we would have liked- definitely not the "3 feet" we're supposed to get. Luckily for us though, not too long into our ride, we found a wonderful bike path that paralleled the PCH, but went right down the middle of the beach! We were surrounded by sand, and the views were wonderful. It was so peaceful riding along the path. We meandered through pine trees and saw a whole bunch of people out enjoying the beach. One of my favorite things to see are the people riding bikes that have a little rack on the side for their surf board. After riding for a little bit along the path, we found ourselves in Santa Monica. We met a really nice lady who loves traveling by bike. She told us stories of some of the places she had ridden bike around and was excited to hear about our trips too. The lady was out on jog, and like most joggers- they don't want to stop jogging. It was a little funny because the whole time she talked with us, which was quite a while, she jogged in place. It really helped her keep her body in the jogging mode, but it was a little funny for us to stand their talking to her while she was bouncing up and down. As we were talking to her, we found out that her Mom is a teacher in Rochester and that she grew up in Brighton. It sure is a small, small world. Not too long after talking with her, the boys saw some guys playing volleyball and decided to see if they needed any extra players for their game. When they asked, one of the guys came over and said that it's no problem if they wanted to join, but the guys playing would want to see some bumps and sets before. Basically, they didn't want the ball to just be flailing around- these guys were serious players. Even though it was a pick-up game, I guess a lot of the players are really hard core and only want the best players to join them. Oh well, I guess none of us will be playing any beach volleyball if everyone playing is as serious as they were. After that, we headed inland and were on a hunt for bike shops. Loic had to check around to try to see if he could find someone good to build him a new wheel and pretty quickly. We rode around to about 5 bike shops all over the Santa Monica area. It was pretty fun because it was like a little scavenger hunt. While we were waiting at the second to last bike shop, I looked down and saw that my front tire was flat. I couldn't believe it, especially since I didn't remember seeing anything in the road to run over. The thing I couldn't believe even more is that we would be FINALLY changing my front tire. The tire that was on there we had gotten way back when we were in Indiana. Even though we thought the tire would wear out before Alaska, it has gone a total of 8,000 miles. It is amazing! The tire was looking pretty worn, that's for sure, but we decided to just keep running it until I either got a flat or we were about to leave San Diego to head back east. There wasn't really a point to take the tire off just to put a new one on, so waiting for a flat was the best way. So, we sat on the chairs outside of the bike shop that we were at and Joey fixed my tire. We put one of the old Panaracer folding tires that we've had for a while on there just because there wasn't a need to have 2 extra folding tires in Joe's bags. We stopped at one more bike shop, where we met a real nice guy that gave us a few tips on gear that we will be looking into (mainly just new cycling pants and which kind would be the warmest). He talked to the 3 of us for quite a while and was really interested in or trips and in sharing trips he's done and what he's planning to do next. Right to the buffet from there. I was so excited and SO hungry by the time we got there. What a wonderful buffet it was, oh how I love Chinese! They had everything (except sweet and sour chicken =( ), and even had a full, all you can eat sushi bar- which we don't eat, but it still was really nice it was all you can eat. We ate so much for lunch- we just kept eating and eating. Since our booth was right next to the window, our bikes were right outside. There were a couple people looking at the bikes and our little sign. It was so funny to watch because they were looking them all over and the guy even tried to pick up my bike (except he wasn't expecting it to be so heavy, so he didn't put much effort towards it at first and the bike didn't even budge). Eventually they saw us watching them and gave us a big thumbs up. After a minute or so, there ended up being a whole bunch of people standing around the bikes and these two that had been looking at the bikes explained our trip (even though they had never spoken with us about it) and showed the new people our little sign. It was really entertaining to watch them as we sat their enjoying our Chinese. When we had eaten so much that we could barely move, we "hopped" on our bikes and rode down the road to find a McDonald's or Starbucks to use the internet. Once we found McDonald's, we figured out our plans with Loic, since he was heading off to stay with a relative of someone he had met somewhere along the coast. With our game plan with Loic all set, we checked email and found out that the Warm Shower's host that we had set for tonight had emailed us and told us that he won't be home until 10pm tonight! So, at a loss of what to do (since there was definitely not any places to camp, we called the host we had set up for tomorrow night to see if he would be able to take us a day early. Sure enough, he said "Sure, come on over!" We were saved! With our directions to our new destination all figured out, Joe and I headed off one way and Loic the other (we will see him tomorrow for some sight seeing). As we were riding along we rode through Beverly Hills- I was SO excited! We could even see a slight glimpse of the Hollywood sign off in the distance! For some reason, the whole LA area was exactly as I had pictured it to be- especially the part near the beach and Beverly Hills itself. It was awesome riding along through the beautiful sunshine and the palm trees everywhere! The weather was perfect again today- not too hot and not too cold. We had a little trouble finding our host's house because the street that he lived on was one that was split in two different areas, without being connected in the middle. Eventually though, once we found it, we pulled in the driveway of the very cute little house and heard what sounded like a lady saying "Hello!" through the open porch door. We said "hello" back, but over and over again we heard "Hello, Hello.... Hello!" Our host, Barry (and his wife Susan), had mentioned that his housekeeper would be over sometime during the day, so we just assumed it was her- but still weren't sure why she would keep saying hello. After getting our bikes all settled in the back yard, we enjoyed some time talking with our host. It turns out, the "Hello" that we kept hearing was from their pet parrot, Guiermo! He was a very pretty parrot, but didn't like strangers all that much, so we didn't get to pet him at all, in fact while he was having is "free time" he would slowly walk towards us with an intimidating look and pretend he was going to attack us. After a while though, Barry put him back in his cage just so that we didn't have to worry about him biting us. Later on, Joe and I each took a great shower, watched a little TV and enjoyed a great meal of hamburgers and a couple sides with Barry and Susan. We had a great time, and are getting excited about tomorrow because our hosts live right in Hollywood, about 3 houses away from Hollywood Blvd! The main Hollywood area, where the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the Chinese Theater are, is about a mile away- it was perfect! Everyday has been so wonderful, and today wasn't any different. We only rode 27.77miles today, but it worked out well having almost all day to navigate the city. I can't believe we're in Hollywood!
I just can't believe it is already November- this warm weather makes it seem impossible. We were woken up by the sound of tractors in the nearby fields. The farmers didn't seem to notice that we were there, or if they did, they didn't care. It was a lot easier to find our way in the daylight then it would have been last night. We found the road that we were looking for that would parallel the 1. There was a "Missle Park" that we took a quick look around before continuing on. Again, the weather was perfect. After we got past the base, we were riding along the ocean. This time, the scenery was completely different- almost no greenery and dry barren hills. We were definitely close to the desert now! As we wound along the ocean, we kept watching the waves. Joey has been looking forward to going in the waves for so long now- and the water here should be warm enough to go in without needing a wetsuit. The terrain was very enjoyable to ride since it was a bunch of small rolling hills, just enough to keep it interesting without making it a strenuous ride. We made it to Malibu and decided that we would have our lunch break there (we didn't plan on making it too far past there because we figured it would be too hard to find a good camp spot if we got too close to the city. There was a perfect place for lunch by the picnic tables right next to Zuma Beach. The three of us decided to go for a swim before having lunch. My first time swimming in the Pacific-how great it is that we could go swimming in the ocean in November! We got changed in the bathrooms that were right next to the picnic area and headed for the water. The nice thing is that there was hardly anyone there, just a few surfers, so we didn't have to worry too much about our bikes, which were in view from the water anyways. One of the surfers said the water was around 60 degrees, so it was a little cold, but once you got used to it it was bearable. Loic didn't last too long in the water, but still had fun. It took me quite a while to get in, but once I was in, I had fun playing in the waves. Joey on the other hand, went in right away and could stay in there playing in the waves all day if we let him. He was as happy as a "witch in a broom factory." Eventually the cold started to get to me and I had to get out. I think I stayed in a few minutes too long because my fingers went numb and stayed that way for about a half hour. The sun did a good job of warming us up and drying us off as we were having lunch though. We had "Loic subs" again today and were just so happy to be where we were. I loved just standing in the hot sand and watching the waves. It took so long to get here, so that makes it even more special. Even though we didn't want to leave, we still had a few more miles to do. After about 5 more miles, we stopped at a grocery store, that was just like a Safeway, to use the internet and plug our phones in to call home. While we were there, the 3 of us split a half gallon of Bryers Snickers ice cream! From there, we rode through the main section of Malibu and it got a little hillier. We could see some tall buildings across the water where Santa Monica was and were getting excited because we were so close to the city. Loic had looked on Google Earth to see where the "city" started so we wouldn't end up going to far before looking for a place to camp. It was a little challenging to find a place just because it was pretty residential and there was either the ocean on one side or a huge hill on the other side of the road. We ended up riding up a side road for a little over a half a mile. It wasn't an easy ride up, but it was worth it for the place we found to camp. The boys found a nice spot on top of a hill, so they pushed the bikes up (it was too steep for me to be able to push my bike up by myself). What a view! Another great spot to watch the sunset over the ocean. We could also see a bunch of the beautiful homes in the area and the lights from the city peaking around a hill in the other direction. Loic and I worked on exchanging photos again and we had a little mac and cheese for dinner. Such a great day- especially since we FINALLY went swimming in the ocean! We only rode 36.52 miles today.
Happy Halloween!!! This morning I looked at a couple things on Facebook and saw that Greg and Lea (who we road with over a month ago already!!) dressed little Ronja up as a pumpkin! When we were riding with them, we were talking about dressing her up, and I was happy to see that they really did. She looked so cute! Joe and I had a muffin for breakfast and got everything packed. Mike had to leave for work and we were soon to follow as we hit the road to ride through Santa Barbara. It was such a cute little downtown/shopping area! I loved all of the 'mexicanie' looking buildings and of course the palm trees! A few places, we saw a bunch of kids dressed up for Halloween walking all together in a group (probably a pre school or grade school class). Other than that, it didn't really feel like Halloween at all. At home, it is chilly and there are fall leaves all over the place to rustle through as you walk down the sidewalk- but here, it just feels like summertime and there are definitely no leaves! Even still, it was really fun to ride through Santa Barbara. The three of us stopped in the town of Carpenteria for lunch. There was a tiny little buffet there, but they didn't look like they had much variety. Although we have been talking about going to a buffet with Loic for a while, we knew we could do better. We found a Vons supermarket, which is exactly the same as a Safeway. Joey and I had some cereal and milk for lunch and enjoyed a snack of cinnamon rolls that I picked up too. We didn't plan on having to ride too many miles today since we planned to stop in Ventura for the night. There is a coffeehouse called "Sandbox Coffeehouse" that is on Warm Showers. We thought it was really neat because they have a deck and an enclosed patio area that they allow cyclists to camp at. Although they will be closed for the holiday today, they said that we were still welcome to camp there and use the free wifi too. So, that is a possible plan. However, we all were hoping to go to a buffet as well- which would put us about 5 miles past the coffeehouse. We figured we would just play it by ear and figure it out then. We enjoyed the ride along the beautiful coast, watching the surfers in action, and of course the beautiful sunshine we keep having. When we found the coffee house, which ended up being pretty easy, we sat there for a little bit trying to decide what to do. Loic even flipped a coin and it indicated to stay and camp there. We were still hoping for a buffet, but when we called the pizza restaurant, they didn't have a lunch buffet today. In the end however, we decided to keep riding. We only had about 35 miles and the area the coffee shop was in wouldn't lend itself well to seeing more trick-or-treaters (we wanted Loic to see a little more of an American Halloween, since they don't really celebrate it in France). From Ventura, we rode along the ocean and found ourselves in Oxnard. We took a little detour to go to the downtown area which was a little over a mile or two from the ocean. The area was so flat. We rode through a bunch of planted fields and then all of a sudden were in the middle of a very suburban area. Since we were hungry, we stopped at the Vons and got some stuff to make a "Loic Sub." There were some nice tables right out front which made it easy. From there we figured we would ride about 5 more miles or so before finding a place to camp whether it be at a church or in "the bush." We continued on along the water for about 5 more miles. The whole area was either stores or residential. We did however get to see a house, one of the very few (hardly anyone decorates anymore!), that was all decked out for Halloween. There weren't too many trick-or-treaters out yet because it wasn't quite dark yet. We continued on through that area and then all of a sudden found ourselves at a fence- the road didn't go any further. The whole residential are was in the shape of a giant "U" and so we had to turn around and go back. There was no way to go any further straight or away from the ocean because there was a Naval Base right there. So we backtracked a couple miles and found the roads that would take us out of town. By that time it was dark and we did get to see some more trick-or-treaters! It was kind of neat riding along and hearing kids yell "trick-or-treat" off in the distance. The best thing about it was that the cars were being extra cautious because there were kids all over the place, so that made us feel a little better about riding in the dark. We eventually found the road that would take us to Highway 1. It took us through town-we only saw 1 church and it had a school attached to it, so that wasn't an option. There was no "bush" to go hide ourselves in either. So we just kept riding. After going all the way around the Naval Base, we were out of the city. Still, no place to camp. Now we were surrounded by planted fields again. We rode by a Dole packaging place and then found Highway 1, which was a Freeway at that point, so we weren't allowed to ride on it. We rode just past the 1 and were lucky to find a patch of bushes and trees to camp in- it came just in time because we had no clue where we needed to go from here since we couldn't ride on the 1 yet. It will be much easier to find our way in the daylight! As we were pushing our bikes into where we would camp, Joey said "Look, there's a tiger!" Sure enough, there was! Under the tree, there was a big tiger stuffed animal, which had been here for quite a while because it was a bit faded and was pretty much "glued" to the dirt. What a fun little memory for our Halloween camp spot! Well, we ended up with a LOT more miles than we planned on today, but it is ok because we are a little further down the road. Probably about 6-7 miles worth of our total miles, however was not in the right direction since we had to do so much backtracking today. I guess places like this area it would be helpful to have a "GPS," but we managed ok. This is the first time in a long time that we got "lost" just using our AAA maps, so it's ok. If we hadn't gotten "lost" we wouldn't have seen the house all decorated and seen more trick-or-treaters. We all went to bed pretty much right away when we got everything set up. Our miles totaled 63.19.
It was really cold when we woke up this morning, so much so that I had to bust out the cycling pants-luckily it's been a while since those have been needed! For a change, we woke up nice and early today. While Joe worked on putting away the tent, I walked over to the grocery store which was right across the street so we could have some cereal and milk for breakfast. On the way through the church parking lot, I met the priest for the church. He was really nice and said that his seminary students had mentioned that they saw our tents back there and that he figured we needed the sleep, so he didn't want to bother us. He was however, pretty interested in our travels and was really glad that we had a safe place to sleep for the night. It's really amazing because going to churches to camp always makes us feel safer. On top of that, when there is no one there to ask and we meet someone in the morning that is so nice like that, it really makes it even better. After enjoying our breakfast, we headed out of town. On top of being really cold, it was also pretty foggy. A few miles into the ride we started climbing. Nothing too steep, but it was still a bit slow as it is with any climbing. Part way up the climb, the boys caught up to another cyclist, Adam. He is doing a tour from San Francisco to his home in San Diego. For a while up the hill we played "leap frog;" one of us would pass him, then one of us would stop, and so on. A few miles later though, we were able to ride as a group and hear a little more about his trip and what his life back home is like. It turns out he is getting married in about a month and is super excited. This little trip is kind of a last little thing to do before getting married. The good news though is that his soon to be wife will most likely join him on a few short bicycle tours in the future. As we meandered through the dry, barren hills, the fog went away and the sun came out in full force. It got really hot! Eventually we had a nice long 2 mile down hill and then shortly after found ourselves back riding along the ocean. There was quite a bit of traffic on that section of road, but the shoulder was great, so it was not a big deal. The four of us stopped at a state park to have lunch. We found a few picnic tables right next to the ocean, it was perfect. Joey and I had another "Americanized Loic sub" and snacked on the rest of our tomato and a few grapes. From there, we didn't have too long before we would reach the town we would be staying in for the night, Goleta. A little while after getting into town, we said our goodbyes to Adam with hopes to meet up with him in San Diego when we get there. We found a McDonald's with internet to double check where our host, Mike, lived. From there, we headed over towards the direction of his house. At first we missed the turn for the road he lived on, but that ended up working out ok because we found the library and a grocery store. We had a little snack break (muffins) before heading over to the library for a little while. Closer to the time that Mike would get home from work we went to find his house. We didn't have any trouble finding it on the second attempt. Mike and his roommates have a great garden and chicken coop in their yard. It was nice to be able to put our bikes in the garage so that they would be safe. Almost immediately after arriving, we were greeted by their old skinny kitty named Sunny. He was pretty cute!! Mike's roommate was nice enough to show us around a bit before Mike got home. We had full run of the living room and spent a while relaxing until Mike got home. When he did, we talked for a while and then the boys went on a mozzarella cheese, french bread run to the grocery store. I stayed back and cooked up some of the pasta and sauce we had gotten the other day. After a tasty dinner, we all took hot showers and got our sleeping bags all laid out for the night. The boys were nice enough to let me sleep on the couch and they took the floor- I feel spoiled! We keep having so many great days on the road... Somehow we ended up with 51.94 miles today, we must have done a little more riding around town than we thought.
We woke up feeling refreshed and enjoyed some yummy cereal, yogurt and bananas for breakfast before we got packed up. Joel helped us out a bit with a couple maps so that we would know where we were going without having to worry about getting lost. We stopped at the grocery store on the way out of town. Right when we pulled in there was a cyclist on a really nice triathlon bike that was broken down with a flat tire. He was a college student at the university in town and for some odd reason didn't take any tubes, CO2 cartridges or tire levers with him on his training ride. Luckily we were there to save the day. Loic had some fun patches left from Japan that we used to patch the guys tire and we let him use our pump so he was all set and ready to ride again. After the fun, Loic and I headed in to buy groceries and Joey stayed outside to watch the bikes. The ride was pretty flat overall this morning. A good majority of the ride was through a nice valley full of fields, some of which were strawberries, which were again a tease. For a little while we rode near the ocean, but like where we had started today, the road cut back inland to the dry, treeless areas. We stopped for lunch in a small town of Guadeloupe at the picnic tables outside of the American Legion Building. Today, we tried what we call a "Loic Sub." Loic often takes a big loaf of french bread and cuts it in half to make a huge sub with salad, cucumbers and sliced chicken from the grocery store. We did the same, except had some tomato too and "Americanized it" with a packet of mayo. It was so yummy and really kept us filled up- especially since we drank so much water because it was again, really hot outside. It was also great to not have to do any dishes in the middle of the day. Joe and Loic worked on cleaning all of the chains by putting them in an empty soda or water bottle, adding a tiny bit of gasoline and shaking the bottle. They were as good as new! As we were packing up, a couple members of the American Legion were there and they unlocked the bathrooms for us in case we needed to use them- that was so helpful because then we didn't have to go searching around town to find one. While we were taking our lunch break, we saw a touring cyclist, a lady riding by herself, and waved a hello at her. She stopped to chat for a minute or so but didn't seem too interested in sharing about each other's travels. It was actually kind of weird because 99 percent of touring cyclists love nothing more than to talk about the trip they are doing and hear about other's travels. For most of the afternoon, we climbed. It was a pretty gradual climb for the most part, but it was long and since the sun was beating down on us, it made it feel even longer. In the end though, it was nothing like some of the hills we've done on the coast- not too steep in comparison at least. We rode past one of the Air Force Bases before coming into the town of Lompoc. It was still a little early, but we still didn't have too much time before the sun went down. We took a bike path a short way into town and found a nice church that looked like it would make a good home for the night. While we were riding around, we saw the lady that we met at lunch time sitting at the Starbucks. Again, we talked for a few minutes and found out she was going to the campground in town, which was 10 bucks a person, part of the reason we don't go to campgrounds. It was right near a grocery store, so I walked over and bought some ice cream for dinner, since Joey and I really didn't feel like having a full meal after the huge lunch we had. The funny thing is that after such a hot day, by the time we were eating the ice cream, it was already really cold out because the sun had gone down. We just put on some warmer clothes and were just as happy enjoying our ice cream. I was happy to see that the church had a security light so that I could work on a little wire bicycle and relax without being in total darkness. While we were sitting there, we heard what sounded like a pep band off in the distance. So, Joe and Loic went to investigate in case it was a football game so that Loic could see some of an "American football" game. I stayed back and watched the bikes and worked on a little wire bicycle just for fun. When the boys came back, it turns out there was no game, but instead some kind of high school pep rally at a pizza place. Later on, we got our tents set up and hit the sac. For some reason we were pretty tired tonight. We rode a total of 58.60 miles today.
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