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.
|
|