More Pix, Day 15 (Final Day): La Jolla - Tijuana

Here's photographic proof that Jody has superhuman powers. Just check out those rays of light coming out of his eyes! That's crazy!

Shortly after 9:00 a.m. we were riding past San Diego International Airport. I'd be back there about six hours later for my flight home to San Francisco.














This is a pretty funny shot, as obvious as it isn't. Those shoes (and the newspaper that I took along, for some dumb reason) belong on top of my rack bag, not on the ground. They're on the ground because they fell off of my bike while I was riding. What's worse: That was the third time that my shoes managed to wrestle their way out of my bag's stretch cord grip in an attempt to go for a walk. The first time was way back in Oregon. That time, I didn't notice until about an hour after the escape attempt. I had heard a sort of "thump!" after reaching the top of a long climb, and my first thought was that something must have fallen off of my bike, but, since I had already started my quick descent down the other side of the hill, I failed to look back and simply kept on riding. When I finally noticed that my shoes were gone, there was no way for me to know where or when they had fallen off, so I didn't even attempt to recover them. I just figured I'd buy a pair of flip-flops somewhere and I'd be set. I was, however, holding out hope that, since he was behind me, Joe would come across my shoes and be good enough to pick them up and bring them back to me. Well, that's exactly what happened, lucky for me! Thanks, Joe! (The second time my shoes tried to escape was somewhere in southern California. When I heard the "thump!" that time, I knew to stop and look. Same with the third time. I guess I'll just have to practice securing my shoes to my rack.)

If you look closely, you'll see the Tijuana Arch off in the distance in the middle of this picture. When I saw that arch, I absolutely, positively knew, for the first time, that I was going to achieve my goal of pedaling all the way from Vancouver to Tijuana!

It's always easier to get in to Mexico than it is to get out...


















Here's one last look at me holding up my "I made it!" sign written in Japanese. Jody took this picture of me just after we crossed back into the United States. I was totally elated to be standing there with my sign, and I kept wanting Jody to take more and more pictures of the two of us, to make sure that we captured the moment on film and because I didn't want the moment to end.

Before we made it to the border, especially when we were within days of arriving in Tijuana, there were several very emotional moments for me when the thought of standing at the border in a pose like this one above entered my mind. Yes, I really did shed a tear or two thinking about it. Oddly enough, however, the actual finish to our ride was incredibly anti-climactic.

There was no welcome party, no big celebration, no cake, no champagne, no fireworks, no applause, no tears, no television interviews, no trophy presentation, no nothing.

Well, nothing but the satisfaction that we felt regarding our phenomenal accomplishment, that is.

All Jody and I did was cross into Mexico, and the ride was over.

Nevertheless, no one can ever take this one away from us. We can now say with pride what not many others can:

"I two-wheeled it from Vancouver to Tijuana! In two weeks."

More Pix, Day 14: Brentwood - La Jolla

Here is yet another morning shot of the three of us just prior to departure, this time from Brentwood. It's 8:35 a.m and the sun is shining brightly, but it's just a wee bit cold, so we are all wearing extra layers here and there. The other thing we all have in common is nice smiles, which are a lot easier to manage in the mornings than in the evenings...

As far as I'm concerned, one of my absolute favorite parts of the ride was when we rode alongside the beaches in Santa Monica. (Note how, a mere thirty minutes after we left our friends' house, I've already ditched my cold weather gear.) I'm kind of at a loss for words trying to describe the feeling I was experiencing at the time. I mean, check it out, there I am, just mere feet from the bike path and I'm standing in sand. Yes, sand. I'm on a beach! See that look of satisfaction on my face? Oh, yeah!

Check out the sunshine!

The view looking back toward Santa Monica.

We pulled over for lunch at high noon, and lookie there. My odometer just hit a nice, big number: 2500 kilometers!

In case you were wondering what lunch was: Fajitas! There was so much food, I think that was the first time on the ride that I actually had trouble finishing lunch. (That's my fish and plate of sides in the foreground.)

I guarantee that all the hours of riding along the beautiful beaches in southern California made me think: "Why the heck didn't I just fly here on October 15 instead of flying to Seattle to start a crazy bike ride? What is my problem? I'm wasting my vacation sitting on my bike saddle when I could be sitting on a beach..."

In Japan, I definitely don't see houses like this ...

cars like this ...

or sunsets like this.

I think the fact that I don't have too much to say here about Day 14 in itself says quite a lot. The day was simply too good to be true: filled with amazing weather, mouthwatering food, and fabulous views. Oh, and where we finally stopped for the night was just a hop, skip, and a jump from Tijuana. It might have been dark out, but we certainly could see the light at the end of the tunnel!

More Pix, Day 13: Buellton - Brentwood

Here I am, at 8:30 a.m. on Halloween morning, ready to ride, with my Halloween decoration no longer wrapped around my neck but rather around my frame's top tube, where it belongs. I actually bought that thing in Japan and had been schlepping it in my bag the whole time, so I was happy to finally bust it out and make room for some who knows what. I also put my full-finger gloves on for the first time on the ride. I didn't necessarily need them, but I figured that was probably my last chance to use them. After all, if I hadn't used them, I would have been upset with myself for bringing them along and wasting more of that precious space in my bag. Besides, they added to the smurf look. Poor Joe. He had an even better decoration, a really scary mask, but he left it outside of a restaurant later in the day so he couldn't wear it in the evening when we went trick-or-treating. And Jody, well, his costume was pretty boring. He dressed up as a bike rider...

As you can see, we were all bundled up pretty well that morning.

About 20 minutes later, we arrived in Solvang, a quaint little Danish village that I had never heard of, despite its obvious popularity, and were ready for breakfast. Check out the fabulous pancakes I had!














And here's a look at what Jody had. Yummy for my tummy! Ideally, we would have eaten breakfast in Buellton before we started to ride, spent the night in Solvang and eaten this breakfast anyway, or picked a place much farther down the road to stop, since riding for only 20 minutes before stopping can throw off your rhythm. Again, though, you have to just chill and go with the flow on these mega-rides, and that's exactly what we did. Enjoy the moment. Worry about what comes next next.














Not even three hours after breakfast the weather had improved dramatically!
















And an hour later, it was time for a late, light lunch at Tinker's, in Summerland. One of the highlights of my trip to America was definitely the food, and here you can see why. If I could make that burger re-appear right now, I would have it and I'd eat it, too!

Japan borders the Pacific Ocean, too, but somehow the view from California seems so much nicer!

I took this picture at 4:45 p.m., somewhere in Point Mugu State Park, I believe, about 30 minutes before I crossed into Los Angeles County. Somewhere around here, I lost Jody and Joe and didn't see them again until just before Santa Monica. That means I probably rode about 25 or 30 miles by myself. Thanks to the great weather, amazing views, and good roads, however, I was incredibly relaxed along most of that stretch. When I finally did catch up to the other two, it was already after dark. All three of us figured I was about 5 or 10 miles behind, but it turns out that I arrived only about a minute after Jody and Joe sat down in a parking lot to wait for me. Unless that is, they were pulling my leg...

We spent the night in Brentwood with Jody's friends Laura and Lawrence. (Both of them liked me...) The running gag, thanks to Home Slice, was that they lived next door to O.J. Simpson. I fell for that one hook, line, and sinker... Anyway, that night we had Mexican food, for the umpteenth time on the trip. Luckily, unlike white rice (the food, yo, not the man!), burritos never get old, especially when they are this good. (OK, OK, I should have taken a better picture. I realize that now. But you can take my word for it. That thing had flavor!) And thus ended Day 13.

More Pix, Day 12: San Simeon - Buellton

Despite our latest arrival yet (12:30 a.m. or so) the previous night, we got a relatively early start in the morning. Here's a shot of Jody and Joe (that dot on the road way ahead of him) at 9:30 a.m. You can see that Jody's back to wearing both leg and arm warmers, but at least the sun is shining and it's not raining. That morning, I remember thinking how happy I was to have survived the typhoon and how pleasing it was to ride in "normal" conditions again. I guess you could say I was back to "Oh, yeah, I'm definitely going to make it to Tijuana." mode.

I'm telling you, what a difference a day makes. Here's a picture of me in front of the Rabobank in Cayucos. We'd already ridden about 25 miles and we'd only been on the bikes for 1'20". Not bad, eh? (Too bad the bank was closed. I really wonder what the reaction of the employees would have been when they laid eyes on me. Heck, I wonder if any of them are even from Holland. I guess I'll just have to do the ride over again someday and time it so that I arrive on a work day...)

Two and a half hours later, the weather was as good as it gets. Here I am, riding behind Joe, heading into Pismo Beach.

We stopped for lunch at this place that Jody picked out, Hoagies. Awesome choice, dude! You can't even imagine how relaxed I was feeling while I was waiting for my food. The previous night, I was riding through Hell, but here I was, sitting in warm sunshine, just a few hundred feet from the beach, surrounded by palm trees, watching people walking around in shorts (and jeans...) and wearing shades (or not...) and carrying surfboards (trust me!)... It was awesome! I guess this thought sums up how I felt: "Holy cow, I'm back in southern California!"

And then my food came! Granted, it wasn't the healthiest food choice in the world, but it was so yummy! And so pretty!

I don't remember exactly how we ended up on this road with that monster hill ahead. (I realize it doesn't look like a monster hill in this picture, but it was. Believe me. She was short, but quite steep.) I think Jody decided to go with the alternate route here. Or else the alternate route was the one we didn't take, and this was simply the lesser of two evils.

This is another of my photos that won't win any prizes, but if I hadn't taken it, I probably would have forgotten the saddest moment of the whole ride. The police car pictured here is the second one that zoomed by us. We were all obviously wondering what could be going on. A little later, we found out. There had been an accident. A bicyclist was down, being treated by paramedics. I didn't want to know what happened, so I just kept on riding. Was it a hit-and-run? Did the guy crash? Did he have a heart attack? Was he injured? Was he dead? Who knows? Whatever it was that happened, I took a moment to reflect on the danger of what we were doing. But I limited that moment to just that: a moment. Otherwise, I might have had trouble continuing on my way. The show must go on!

An hour later, at 4:00 p.m., we found ourselves on some completely open, practically deserted roads. You can see that, for one of the few times during the ride, we weren't worried at all about cars coming along. So much so that ...














... Jody later decided to do some riding Japanese-style, i.e., on the "wrong" side of the road. (I took this picture nearly an hour after the previous one!)

Numbers, numbers. This was the type of sign I enjoyed seeing. And here's how my brain reacted when I saw it: "Only 14 miles to go to the goal, which translates to about 24 kilometers, which translates to about an hour, which translates to a 7:00 p.m. arrival..." And of course, I also thought about the distance to LA, which would end up being "only" 140 miles after we reached Buellton (San Marcos Motel, $75.90), which would be one long, long day of riding.

A delicious dinner was usually our reward for a hard day of riding. As you've read by now, we didn't always find good food, but this night we certainly did! We went to Pea Soup Andersen's and absolutely pea-ged out. Here's a look at Joe using a spoon to hold up his famously thick milkshake (we each had one), which was more like a full glass of ice cream. You gotta love it, starting a meal off with dessert...

And here's a look at Jody's super-sized salad, ...














my salmon with succulent sides, ...

as well as this stupendous sundae (a.k.a. dessert number two), split three ways. The waitress had warned us that this dessert was a biggie, but we were still surprised at its size when it arrived. By the time we ordered it, we were absolutely stuffed, but, because ordering dessert had become one of our dinnertime rituals, we went for it, anyway. I guess we should have gone with the cheesecake, which would have been a lot safer. Believe me, the three of us struggled mightily to manhandle this monstrosity, which we estimated at 10,000 calories. Surely that was a slight exaggeration, but the huge amount of calories we were consuming was one of our daily topics of conversation, so we were simply having a bit of fun with that over dinner. By the way, can you tell by our expressions that we were a bit tired? Even if you can't, we were. And can you see how my face is sunburned? It wasn't that bad, but still, I should have done a better job of taking care of my skin. Oh, and do you see that ridiculous orange and black thing around my neck? Well, that was the day before Halloween, so I was doing my bit to celebrate, albeit one day early. As a matter of fact, when I walked into the place, I pointed to my lovely Halloween decoration and proudly declared to the hostess, "I've got the spirit!" For whatever reason, I was usually in a ridiculously good mood over dinner. I guess that's what riding 100-miles-plus a day does to me!

More Pix, Day 11: Santa Cruz - San Simeon

This is another picture that isn't all that remarkable, but what it does show is Jody not wearing his leg warmers to start the day, (Joe went without them, too. I think I wore them to start off but probably took them off a short while later.) which, I believe, was a first! That obviously meant that the temperatures were rising, which is always a good thing. Because of our later arrival in Santa Cruz the previous night (we got there around midnight), however, we got an equally late start in the morning. By the time we hit the pavement, it was already after 10:00, making it our latest start up to that point. You can't blame us, though: We all need our beauty sleep. Unfortunately, the late start came back to sting us badly when we got caught up in that nasty storm past Big Sur.


















This picture won't win me any contests, either, but again, it does tell a short story. Over the course of our "epic" adventure, we came across quite a few other cyclists. All of them, however, were going at a much slower pace and were, for the most part, staying at campsites. This guy here on the left, with whom Joe struck up a conversation less than an hour into the day's ride, is carrying at least as much gear as most of the other riders we encountered, which is substantially more than we had.

I took this picture at 11:25 a.m. As you can see, the weather is getting pretty iffy and it's raining off in the distance. You can also see that we moved a bit inland and that we were in prime agricultural territory. We weren't allowed on Highway 1 in this area (between Santa Cruz and Watsonville), so we were forced to follow a rather roundabout route. I thought it was actually nice to catch a breather and make our way around all sorts of fields rather than bee-lining it down the freeway, but the downside of that was, you guessed it, the hours were ticking by faster than the miles.

If you're familiar with the area, you're probably familiar with signs like these. It doesn't get much cheaper than that!

Luckily, at around 12:30 p.m., we found this food truck  parked off the side of the road, so I was able to stock up once again on calories of both the liquid and solid variety. (I wonder how many hungry bicyclists they have as customers.) As happy as I was to see this truck, I would have preferred a restaurant, but you just have to take what you get when you're on the road. Then again, I should blame Jody for this blunder. After all, he does have the magic phone that knows all and tells all, so surely he could have found us a nicer place to fuel up... Hear that Jody?

Speaking of Jody, here's a rare shot of him walking his bike, rather than riding it. Now Jody, why the heck would you be walking your bike? Tired? Fed up? Thinking of quitting? I bet you didn't tell your friends about this moment of weakness, did you?

Oops! Never mind. My apologies, Jody. You were just being a good, law-abiding citizen. Atta boy!












For some reason, that day I remember feeling like we weren't getting anywhere fast. I think it's because the mile markers were all too obvious, which made me think exclusively about distance traveled rather than anything else, such as the weather, the World Series, my aches and pains, food, the scenery, climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro... By the time I took this picture it was already 1:00 p.m. and we still hadn't made it to Seaside. And look at how many miles to go to LA: 338. That is one scary number, which equates to a good three days of riding.

I rode past this sign an hour and a half later, at 2:30 p.m. Somehow, even though I got 11 miles closer to SLO in that time, I only managed to get 1(!) mile closer to LA. I knew LA was big, but that's ridiculous. The other not-so-comforting thought was that Hearst Castle was still so far away. In the back of my mind, even though I didn't want to believe it, the thought loomed that I was going to see that historic building before the night was over. Please pass me a tissue. I think I'm going to cry...












At least the ride was full of spectacular views ...

... which just got better and better ...

... and better? Wait, that's Jody, not some supermodel. What's he doing there? He was light-years ahead of me. Or so I thought. Somehow I caught up to him (could it have been that 520-calorie King Size NutRageous bar that I ate earlier in the day at his recommendation that gave me the sudden burst of energy?) just in time to take some cool pictures with him of the Big Sur coastline. (Joe pulled in a couple of minutes later to join in on the fun.)














Nice view, huh? And I'm not talking about the coastline; I'm talking about the guy in the middle of the picture! Of course, Jody would argue that he's the better-looking of the two of us... If you look carefully, you might notice what else the picture shows: Jody and Joe are wearing arm warmers. I'm not. Jody and Joe aren't wearing leg warmers. I am. Jody and Joe are wearing shoe covers. I'm not. Well, at least we all agreed on one thing: We're all wearing our helmets. Safety first!

Oh, crap! There goes Jody again, taking off while I'm still enjoying the view! I better go try and catch him again, which is nearly impossible... By the way, this is the last picture I took that day. It's really I shame that I wasn't able to capture on film the sights and sounds of the brutal storm that we endured later that evening. Oh, well. I guess you're just going to have to go back to the blog I wrote about it and re-read it to get a feel for what we went through. And I guess I'm going to have to go back to the store and buy a waterproof camera for the next time!