San Diego Day 4

Today was our shake down day and the traditional dip the rear wheel in the Pacific ceremony. I think these pictures speak for themselves. Somewhere along the line I will need to get ahold of a picture or two from the front that was taken. 

So this one is supposed to be everyone. Mitch is on the left. I need a better picture.

Pushing my loaded beast of a bike out of the sand I tweaked my back just a little. Not enough to be a problem, it doesn't hurt but I can tell I strained a muscle back there. It may be more noticeable tomorrow or the next day.

I stuck this one in for my wife. Our (her) dog's name is Cable. This is near the Dog beach so seemed somehow appropriate that we stopped at Cable St.

We rode down to Cabrillio National Mounument, the second time for me. You may notice that I'm fully loaded while other choose to go lighter for the day. I'm glad I did but it did make one nasty hill pretty hard to climb and I ended up at the back of the pack.

I kind of liked these wind swept trees at the Mounument.

Just before we left this large navy ship went through. 

After I got back I ran a couple of errands, including tracking down batteries for my secondary computer. It has not been working for a few months now and I figured that if I was going to haul it across the US, it would make sense to make it work. It provides altitude and rough gradient output which is somewhat useful.

After getting my bike computer working again (I don't like wireless transmitters for bike computers), I took a shower and Hal and I shared a washer/dryer to do laundry. Turns out he has an electrical engineering background working on music hardware. Lot's of interesting things to talk about.

Sitting around waiting for dinner.

Dinner is ready... Mitch provided dinner. It was excellent. Pie and ice cream for dessert. After dinner we had our evening map meeting and drew cards to decide who was cooking. Turns out that Shelly, Max and I are on the first rotation. Our first decision was to choose to go to the Indian Casino tomorrow for dinner instead of cooking it our selves. But we are on the hook for breakfast and supplying lunch materials. We will need to stop at a store on the east side of Alpine and pick up food to carry to camp.

Today's ride. (I again forgot to start my Garmin until a mile or so down the road.) The ride out was with the group. We found another steep hill and based on me being fully loaded I was the last one up. On the way back I took an alternative route back down to the Sunset Cliffs again.

View Map My Ride Map

Several of my fellow riders have told me that they are following this blog as well as some of their loved ones back home. We should see some new posts from some of them as we progress.

Phil getting a trim from his wife.

Tomorrow the ride begins in earnest. It isn't a particularly long day, but with 2000 feet of climbing and a somewhat convoluted route through San Diego I suspect that there will be some interesting tales by the end of the day. Several of us are shooting for an 8AM departure time, which Hal, who has done this ride before, suggested was optimistic.

Rode to point Loma lighthouse today. A little more climbing than expected

San Diego Day 3

The day started with breakfast and Clint had a flat tire which we helped him fix. He picked up a thorn that was about a quarter of an inch long. Just long enough to puncture the tube.

Met with  Scott Hall and Joe Carrick today. Joe bought lunch. We at a place called Anthony's. Had coconut encrusted Tilapia. It was good. I've been eating very well, breakfast here consists of the option of making some pancakes or cereal with yogurt and berries. And of course the obligatory coffee. The staff is excellent! If you ever need an inexpensive place to stay in San Diego this is a good option. .

Went for a short ride, About 5 miles in I noticed that my map that was in my map holder was missing.  Backtracked almost back to the hostel and found it laying in the ditch.

After that I started thinking more about the rear derailer not shifting quite right and swung by the bike shop. They adjusted it pretty well so it is shifting as well as it ever has. They charged my only $10 instead of the $15 that they quoted me up front because they couldn't quite get it perfect, but since it shifts better than any bike I've ever owned, I'm very happy.

I only got about 10 miles of riding in.

Had Pizza for dinner, leftovers for breakfast tomorrow.

We had our kick off meeting. Where our group leader explained a lot of the details. It is my understanding that our itinerary will be changing somewhat from what I posted earlier, but I don't know details yet.

The gist of the meeting was to use common sense, and let Mitch or someone to know if you are having issues. There will be some things to work out as far as coordinating when and what we do.

Tomorrow, we do a ride, more or less like the one I did yesterday. Same major destinations as well as doing the traditional dip the wheels in the Pacific.

Water bottle with Adventure Cycling logo and a plastic container for our lunches was distributed. Will have to figure out where to put them. It looks as if the gear we need to distribute is particularly large or heavy. It will be interesting to see how things play out.

Everyone seems to have showed up and seem ready to go. Most everyone is claiming that they will be riding very slow, but I'm pretty sure that some are going to be a lot faster than they profess.

Tomorrow breakfast at 7 or so and take off at 8:30 for our group ride. We have the option of not carrying our gear, which I will probably opt for just because it will be the last time I'll get to ride the bike for any significant distance unloaded for the next 2 months.

Today's ride, complete with test ride in parking lot of Performance Bicycle shop.

View Map My Ride Map

San Diego Day 2

Thanks to one of my fellow cyclists, Phil from Indio CA, who drove down here with his wife, I was able to get a ride to the FedEx store to ship my bike case back home without having to haul it the mile or so on my bike.

After getting back I contacted my buddy Scott Hall, who I normally only know from posting on our company Chief Talk web site, but have met in the past. He took me out to lunch. Where we had Fish and Chips and had the guys at the table next to us take a picture. I believe it was called Island Prime. Not 100% on that. The restaurant was right on the water with a view of many sailboats and the USS Midway Aircraft carrier.

After lunch I got back in time to toss some laundry in with a load that Jim V. was doing. We shared expenses and he did all the work. I think I owe him a favor now.

While the laundry was going I took a bike ride. The Map is below. Started off visiting Dog Beach. And yes there were many canines at the beach having loads of fun. Some even brought their people with them to play.

I proceed to follow the bike path that we will be taking out of town for a couple of miles inland and then ditched it to head back toward the ocean. Not a particularly great bike path by Idaho standards, but was rideable.

I then rode back along a street kind of following my nose in an effort to make it to the Cabrillo National Monument. Which seemed like a nice destination to the south. 

Along the way I rode by Sunset Cliffs. Somewhat interesting by not particularly tall as cliffs go.

Eventually I was forced inland as routes along the shore disappeared. I eventually ran into a street call Hill St. It was very steep probably close to 20% in places. It wasn't horribly long but I worked pretty hard to get up the hill. At the top a short block or two brought me to the route that I needed to get to the Cabrillo Light House. 

You can see on the map that it is on the end of the peninsula.  Here is a picture of the light house.

I had to pay $3 to get in and while it has some historical interest, I wouldn't go out of my way to go back.

View Map My Ride Map

When I arrived back we now have a couple of new riders that have showed up Shelly, John and Hal. In the Picture from left to Right, Jim, Clint, John, Max, Hal, Ron, and Shelly. Hopefully, the spelling is right on the names. As you can see the collection of bikes is starting to get a bit large.

Tonight was BBQ night at the Hostel. $5 for a burger salad and the now famous brownies.

In San Diego

Finally on my way. Airport security was nice in Spokane. Didn't have to take off my shoes or unpack my laptop. The cleats on my shoes didn't set off the metal detector either. Nice. Had just enough time to grab some coffee an breakfast. About $15. 

The approach to Las Vegas. Lake Mead out the window. Bought a $4 bottle of water in Las Vegas. There is something wrong when water costs more than gasoline.

Approaching San Diego. I think we will be riding somewhere down there on Tuesday. I'm pretty sure we saw Alpine out the window on the approach. I think I recognized part of the old highway 80 that we will be riding after we leave Alpine  on day 2. 

These mountains don't look very steep. But they are pretty arid.

Took a shuttle from the airport. Shared it with a couple heading out for a 2 week Disney cruise through the Panama Canal ending in Port Canaveral in Florida. Almost where we are heading, but a lot faster.

Arrived at Hostel here and found one of the riders Jim Vincent lounging in the shade. He was quite entertained by me putting my bike together.

Bike in box. Now to put it together. It took until around  4PM to get this all assembled. It went pretty much as expected. My tail light was broken. The clip broke off. I think the light still works. It was my own fault. I didn't detach it from the rear rack when I packed the rack.

The rest of the stuff. My duffel bag traveled better than I expected. I had visions of it being ripped with stuff falling out. But it came through with no damage so I was pleased. It was tough hauling 2 nearly 50 pound bags through the airport up an escalator and then back down to the taxi stand. I'm thinking maybe something with wheels next time.

Bike all back together. Box pretty much ready to ship back. About the time I took this picture another rider Clint showed up. He had been out getting some things together for his bike.

Rumor has it that there is a $5 spaghetti dinner here at the hostel. Jim say's he's planning on doing it.  Sounds good to me.

I asked around about a place to ship the box and was advised that there is a FedEx shipping location not far from here. I needed to take the bike out for a test run and decided I would scope out where that was. Turns out it is right next to the Performance Bike shop, which was still open. Only had to stop twice to adjust the rear brake. Good thing the front brake was working as I was going down a pretty steep hill. Probably about 10% gradient or so. By the time I got back I had exercised all the gears on the bike and work up a pretty good sweat. Seems like it is working well.

Purchased a new rear light and large box of chocolate cliff bars then rode back.

Now I remember what else I was supposed to get at the bike shop. Need some chain oil and something to clean the chain. Will have to stop back at the shop tomorrow after I drop off the bike box.

More of the riders showing up. It will take me some time to get all their names down.

Spaghetti dinner was good. Complete with salad, garlic toast, and brownies for dessert.

Planes fly over about every 5 minutes so it is a bit noisy here, but am already starting to get used to it. Very pleasant temperature here tonight. Sitting out on the patio, a group of young kids talking off to the left and Clint, Jim and I sitting around poking at electronic devices. Starting to fade. Will likely go to bed soon. Had to put my own sheets on the bed. But at $25 a night it is actually quite a nice place to stay.

All told it has been a good day. Lots of stuff could have gone wrong that didn't.

Last Day at Home

I just checked in for my flight tomorrow. I fly out tomorrow AM for San Diego. Hopefully by evening my bike will be rideable. Looking forward to meeting some of my fellow riders.

Now to tie up a few loose strings at work, track down those last few items that I need and get my final packing done.

Am I ready? That question will likely be answered by the end of next week. I believe that I am. Not riding the last few days has been kind of odd. As is normal for me I start having a variety of odd joint pain that I don't normally have when I ride every day. I need to start riding! Maybe I'll take a quick spin down to the ocean tomorrow after I get my bike together.

Fernan Saddle Fully Loaded

Top of Fernan Saddle. 2500 ft in 5 miles, plus another 2 miles beyond here for a total of about 3000 ft of climbing. I am probably hauling more than I really need. But it it is hard to say no to certain things.