So that’s it. We did it. We cycled all the way from Canada to Mexico. We couldn’t have done it without lots of help and encouragement, so this post is to say “thanks” to all those people.
Thank you to our amazing Warm Showers’ hosts: Matthew (Vancouver), Aaron (Seattle), Roberto and Larry (Portland), Sophia and Bob (Sea Ranch), Heidi and Martin (San Francisco), Nick and Katie (Seaside), Joe and Carol (Buellton) and Ann and Brad (San Diego). If you’re ever passing through Bristol we’d love to host you!
Thanks to the people we’ve met along the way who gave us such insight into America, (and other places in the world). Bud the ‘union man’ in Longview, the young gay lovers who took our photo for us in the Japanese garden in Portland’s Washington Park, Judy the Portland hill-climber and then Lisa – just two of the many cyclist we met in Portland; Ruth and her husband on their vacation in Neskowin; Perry and Gary, the proprieters of the Ravenwood Hotel in Klamath, (most definitely our favourite hotel of the trip). Christie, who is cycling the length of California to mark her 30th birthday; Klaus and Barbara from Sweden travelling on their tandem who we met in Eureka; the un-named and heavily-laden cyclist who passed us several times on our trip; Sarah on her 3,000 mile School Food Cycling Tour; the lady – (whose name we didn’t get) – campaigning to save her local library in Manchester, California from closure. Pablo, Alex, Luciano and Mario – the four touring Mexican students we met at Heidi and Martin’s in San Francisco; Everett the hairdresser in the Castro. Roy and Melissa the former mortgage-lenders turned artists in Ventura. Eduardo and Roberto at E&R bikes in Los Angeles, who replaced Mike’s broken bottle cage free of charge,
Finally a big thank you to our blog readers, (whoever you are!). Being able to share our extraordinary trip with others has also meant we have created a wonderful record to remember it all ourselves. For those of you who sent us comments, thank you very much – we’ve liked reading them a lot.
So that really is it from me on this blog, … but we’re already thinking about other cycling trips we could take, so there may be more in not too distant future.
Happy pedalling everyone. Remember to keep the rubber down!
1664.44 miles
20 days cycling
4 non-cycling days
2 ferries – to and from Vashon Island
0 days rain
5 days with fog
1 haircut
2 bike services
2 cats (Brenda and Cecil)
4 dogs (Tender, Max, Maggie and Lucy)
1 rooster (and countless chickens)
5 visits to Safeway’s supermarkets, (2 to Fred Mayer, 1 each to Wal Mart, Harvest Market and Sprouts)
4 ice creams (3 for Matthew and 1 for Mike)
Countless cakes! (At least one a day each).
11 punctures – mostly on the van Nicolas – they stopped when we changed the tyre
13 nights in hotels
12 nights with 8 Warm Showers hosts
71 ‘on the road’ blog entries, (including this one)
185 highest number of blog hits in a single day
30 lowest number of blog hits in a single day
2 tired, but very happy, cyclists
Our final day of the trip, our flight back to England departs from San Diego at 20.05. Following a bit of tweaking of our packed bike bags, (just to make sure that nothing untoward might happen to them on the plane), we spent most of the day in downtown (centre) San Diego, around the old Gas Lamp Quarter.
Matthew wanted to mooch around the shops, (having purchased virtually nothing except food for over three weeks). Mike was keen to visit the retired US Navy aircraft carrier, Midway, which is now a floating museum and moored at a specially built pier on the San Diego waterfront.
We decided to split up for the morning and then meet up for lunch. Following a nice veggie lunch I persuaded, (a rather reluctant) Mike to take a bus to visit more shops at Fashion Valley – an outdoor mall, about half an hour’s bus ride north of San Diego, with the promise that we’d be back at Ann and Brad’s by 4.30.
I had been longing to visit one particular shop when we reached our final destination – Crate & Barrel. It’s a bit like Habitat, (now sadly almost all gone in the UK) – but with a very American feel to it. Think Ralph Lauren meets Oprah and Martha Stewart. Off we went on a bus. It was hot there and going in to the stores was a bit of a relief from the bright sunshine and heat! I only purchased a few things and so we weren’t there long. Apart from Crate & Barrel I gave my custom to one other store – those of you who know me well, will appreciate how restrained of me this is. I went to Old Navy – the low-cost member of the Gap family. Old Navy is only available in the USA. I acquired a lovely set of compression running clothing and what very good value it was too. I have said to Mike that I will give running a go when we get back to the UK and now I have the perfect outfit. Who knows, perhaps we’ll run on the USA west coast next time! We caught the tram (or trolley as they call them here), back from Fashion Valley to downtown – Mike enjoyed this a lot.
After picking up a thank-you bunch of flowers for Ann and one chocolate brownie for Brad (he’s rationing himself), we caught the bus back to their house. Ann and Brad both took us to the airport. This was immensely kind and helpful. Mike and the bagged bikes travelled in Brad’s pickup and me with Ann in her car. After bidding our farewells to Ann and Brad, Mike bid farewell to the bikes until we reached London.
Off we went for our final Starbucks’ of the holiday and then found a spot to sit close to a electricity socket, so we could charge our iPhones while catching up with the latest few Archers’ podcasts. The plane left thirty minutes later than scheduled and as we took off we were able to watch through the window as the lights of San Diego lit the city. A very poignant sight.
Ok, I win the prize for the most stupid competition – not realising that Mike had already blogged the answer, duh!
We’re comprising a list of our trip in numbers, so here are some of the things we’ve counted along the way. There’s a small prize to the person who gets closest to the numbers for each of theses.
Deadline – end of Tuesday.
Number of rainy days we had:
Number of dogs we met:
Number of cats we met:
Number of Safeway’s stores we visited:
Number of ice creams we ate, (between us):
It’s a beautiful warm and sunny day in San Diego. It seems strange to think that in just over 24 hours we’ll be back in the UK – and in the autumn!
Making the most of the summer sun while we can, we spent most of the day in Balboa Park, the largest art and culture park in the world. It was created as part of two international exhibitions in 1915-16 and 1935-36.
Today Balboa Park has beautiful gardens, fountains and amazing lath botanical house (to keep it cool – an extraordinary idea for northern Europeans!
Balboa Park has 25 museums and galleries, including the San Diego Air and Space Museum, (with the Apollo 9 command [landing] module and moon rocks), and the San Diego Model Railroad Museum, (Mike is more than a little excited with these last two venues!).
Among the buildings in Balboa Park is a collection of cottages known as the ‘Houses of Pacific Relations’. Each cottage attempts to represent the culture, (as decided by each cottages’ society) of a different nation – many of them European – including France, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Lithuania, Eire, Scotland and, of course, England.
Each Sunday on a rotating basis, one of the cottage societies puts on a day of celebrations to represent their country. Today was the turn of the Austrian cottage. Austria, (through the interpretation of the USA) includes lots of people wearing national costumes: the men wore woollen knee-length ‘socks’, which had been adapted with a separate section for the calf. I assume this made them a little more comfortable in the sweltering San Diego heat. Food was, of course wurst and apple strudel (not eaten together). Entertainment first consisted of lots of men doing a sort of wood-chopping dance whilst yodelling and slapping their leather leiderhosen-clad buttocks; then a women singing, (if you could call it singing), an Austrian love song; then a couple, (further from Christopher Plumber and Julie Andrews you could not find), re-enacting the scene from the Sound of Music where Captain von Trap dances the ländler with Maria. Mike, who is not very keen on Austria (largely based on its role in both WW1 and WW2), muttered something about how he thought that the people staffing the Polish cottage were beginning to look a little nervous and strode off, (Hitler was Austrian).
We finished out tour of the House of Pacific Relations/Cottages by visiting the England cottage. My oh my, what a vision of England we found! Almost every wall of the cottage was decorated with royal family memorabilia! Flags of Will and Kate adorned the archway, while a spooky doll of Princess Diana (Princess Barbie-Di … Darbie?!), was encased in a glass dome, along with numerous magazines with pictures of Lady Di on the cover arranged around the doll in the dome. The few exhibits that didn’t involve the royal family included a cricket bat, a picture of a pearly king and queen, a picture of a penny-farthing made from a pre-decimal penny and half-penny. There were also, perhaps inevitably, tea and some cucumber sandwiches offer. We suggested that more up-to-date additions to the cottage could include a jar of Marmite! The (fairly young) guy staffing the cottage was married to a British women, which is why he was involved in helping out there. He was quite keen to try and update the exhibit as well, suggesting they should play God Save the Queen by the Sex Pistols. I think our suggestion of a jar of Marmite is more likely to be approved by the England Cottage Society – but only just, it might still be a bit too modern!
Mission accomplished, we’ve cycled from Vancouver to just over the Mexican border and then back to San Diego. Before we reveal the scores on the doors, would you like to guess the number of miles we cycled? The closest by end of play Tuesday 20 September will receive a small prize – but you’ve got to be in it to win it, so let’s have your guesses.
Summary – day 23 – Solana Beach to San Diego and into Mexico (Saturday 17 September) Posted by Mike
Estimate: 56 miles, actual: 54.17 miles Avg. speed: 13.3 mph Final distance: 1,664.44 miles
Our final day’s riding – it began with lots of mixed emotions: we definitely felt a real sense of achievement at having almost completed our journey, but this was rather overwhelmed by a sense of sadness that this particular adventure is almost over.
As we exited the front of our hotel, quite a sight greeted us and immediately lifted our spirits. Dozens of cyclists were out for their Saturday morning rides. There were hardly any people riding alone – lots of twos and threes – and more – and heading in both directions. It was like the San Diego cycling welcoming committee knew we were arriving and had turned out in force to help us celebrate the end of our journey!
We set off towards San Diego and quickly caught up with a group of eight cyclists. They were a section of the San Diego Bicycle Club, out on an introductory ride for new cyclists. Cycling is huge in San Diego apparently and we continued to be quite amazed at how many cyclists were out riding this morning. The group were really lovely, but making fairly slow progress, so We left the San Diego Bicycle Club group behind as we rode uphill and through the Torrey Pines State Park.
At a junction before Rose Canyon, we weren’t sure about which direction to take – ahead on the cycle path alongside the main road, or right on a longer, more picturesque route past the university, through the canyon and down to the bay. While we were stood at the intersection pondering our options, three men in Lycra wheeled up and waited at the lights – so we asked their advice, “Just follow us.” they said. They were friends out for a morning ride through the canyon and they reckoned this was the best way into the city. One was a psychologist, who worked in Solana Beach, another worked in IT and the third was a sales representative for a range of cycling clothing brands – mainly European clothing such as Nalini and Santini. They were all nicely kitted out at any rate. They also kept up quite a fast pace as we were riding. It was exciting to be pedalling hard and fast through wood-lined roads, past University of California San Diego buildings and along cycle-ways back through La Jolla to the sea. After a few miles, our ways parted – they were looping back north and they directed us to continue on south through Mission Bay Park.
There was no let up in the volume of cyclists as we rode around Mission Bay Park, on yet another nicely-marked route. The park curves around a broad expanse of water. The whole place was very well used – in addition to cyclists, there were in-line roller-skaters, water skiers and people riding on little jetskis. Groups of families and friends were setting up gazebos and readying themselves for picnics, children were running about and playing – it was all rather wondrous.
The route continued towards downtown and past an enormous Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command establishment and the airport. We’d already seen some aeroplanes taking off and coming in to land and Matthew had said: “Just think, we’ll be on one of those planes the day after tomorrow.” I don’t think that was calculated to cheer me up!
The Pacific Highway passed very close to the end of the runway and as we approached, we watched a plane make its descent and land – San Diego airport is notorious for having a short runway and for being so close to built-up parts of the city. Up close it was extraordinary how close to built-up areas and the road the aeroplanes are when they’re coming in. As the road drew closer to the end of the runway a plane passed low right above us on its way in to land. Huge! Loud!! Brilliant!!! I could have stood and watched several more, but watching planes wasn’t the purpose of the day and inexplicably, Matthew fails to be drawn to aeroplanes, (I do think that sometimes he’s not very adept at being a boy). I’ll get my chance to do some plane spotting when we’re at the airport on Monday I suppose.
We stopped at a junction just past the airport and I said “Hi, nice bike!” to a man riding a beautiful white Isaac carbon fibre bicycle (Isaac are based in the Netherlands), it had Campagnolo drivetrains and wheels. It turned out that he was called Isaac, too! He liked the idea that he and his bike shared a name. I liked that too. He’d just been to the gym and was finishing his exercises with a post-gym ride on a loop down towards the Mexican border.
Isaac turned out to be a real star! When we told him about our trip and that we were on our final leg, he very kindly offered to lead us to the border crossing point. He took us through downtown San Diego, via the bicycle lanes and cycle paths through San Diego bay past the Imperial Beach US naval helicopter facility and on to the border.
We chatted all the way and it was wonderful to get to know someone who knew so much about the area. Isaac was a single parent of a nine-year old boy, (Grandma was looking after him today). Isaac works as an ophthalmologist, but he’s hoping to retrain as an advice worker and counsellor. We were cycling past lots of big white salt-extracting ponds when Isaac pointed ahead: “That’s Mexico!”, he shouted. Over a barbed-wire fence we could see a massive Mexican flag on a pole rising high above the buildings, with mountains behind. We were almost there!
As we approached the border, Isaac’s rear wheel developed a slow puncture. His second in the short time we’d known him. He told us that he’d not had any punctured for ages, but now he’d had two in the last 45 minutes. We wondered if perhaps we’d jinxed him and we were a little guilty about leaving him to repair the puncture while we went on to the border crossing point and hopefully into Mexico.
There were hundreds of people milling about at the border crossing. Many of them were carrying big parcels and bags or wheeling cases. It was so exciting. We weren’t certain that we’d quite arrived, then Isaac said: “There is it, right there” and we went along a kind of open air covered corridor and towards a high metal railing with people streaming through wide metal turnstile barriers. We had to walk through the turnstiles and into Mexico by tipping our bicycles up onto their back wheels to manoeuvre them through the gates, but it was easy. And there we were … we were in Mexico. We’d done it … Canada to Mexico by bicycle.
On the other side of the turnstile there was a stone and bronze plaque marking the line of the border.
We took some pictures, but we didn’t really have much time to savour our experience or reflect upon what we’d just done. The border crossing into Mexico was teeming with people laden with stuff and our bicycles were causing something of an obstruction so we moved on into Tijuana. We also knew that entering the US from Mexico would be slightly more difficult and time-consuming than entering Mexico from the US. We took some more pictures inside the Mexican border and on spotting what seemed to be the biggest queue in the world, (and being English), thought we’d better join it. No queue to get in to Mexico, but a huge queue to get out and back into the USA!
The border on the Mexican side was frankly unpleasant. Tawdry stalls and unpleasant-smelling food carts. Lots of beggars, (including some children), most with physical impairments. Buskers singing Spanish songs and playing guitars. We spent one hour and ten minutes in the queue. A young man queuing beside us, who said that he lived in Mexico and works in a restaurant by San Diego airport, told us that he crosses the border most days and that today was a fast day!
Once at the head of the queue we were processed pretty quickly – passports scanned and bags passed through an x-ray machine then back in the USA. At passport control, I had hoped to get another stamp in my passport, but I didn’t. I risked asking for one, but I was told they were only given on first entry to the US.
We set a route to Ann and Brad’s on Garmin – just under 14 miles away and set off – heading north for only the second time in our trip, (Vancouver airport to our first Warm Showers host was travelling north). Ann arrived home just as we got there. Brad was away visiting their daughter in San Francisco. We talked and ate dinner then gave our bicycles a quick clean, dismantled them and put them in the bags that were waiting for us in Ann and Brad’s garage. We’ll be exploring San Diego on foot tomorrow, which will seem a little strange, I’m sure.
Summary – day 22 – Seal Beach to Solana Beach (Friday 16 September) Posted by Mike
Estimate: 79 miles, actual: 81.19 miles Avg. speed: 14.00 mph Cumulative distance: 1,610.27 miles
Our penultimate day’s riding. I feel rather sad, really. It seems like such a long time and so many miles ago that we were newly arrived and so excited about exploring Vancouver. At the same time, it feels like the last three weeks have gone by very quickly.
As if reading my mood, our departure from Ayres’ Hotel was rather dull and grey this morning. Matthew wanted a picture of the ’12-lane highway’ that we cycled over last night. While he was taking the picture, I counted the lanes – and actually there were 14 + 2 hard shoulders! That’s the San Diego Freeway for you. Looking at the cars whizzing by on it last night in the dark reminded me of a scene in the 1982 film Koyaanisqatsi, (directed by Godfrey Reggio with music by Philip Glass). The film is a kind of mesmerising tone poem without any narrative, but full of arresting images of natural landscapes contrasted with cityscapes. I remember seeing it when it was released, I was living in Leeds and becoming more radical by the week at that time I think. Anyway, it’s a wonderful film – recommended.
We wound our way back to the coast and passed a huge Boeing space plant at Huntington Beach – exciting! It seems a little extraordinary to be beside a Boeing factory – I come from Newcastle in north-east England, we’re not supposed to be at the Boeing space plant just south of Los Angeles!
On the coast itself, a wide bicycle track took us south, along with dozens of other cyclists – most on Lycra, in groups doing their Friday morning exercises. It always inspires confidence to see lots of other riders out on the road. It obviously makes us all much more visible to motorists, so everyone just feels safer. Two young men rode alongside us for a while and complimented us on our jerseys – they said that we “looked cool” (*glow*), and wanted to know where our cycling kit came from. We told them about Rapha and they seemed quite excited about it being available in the USA – I thought that perhaps we should be on commission – or even sponsored, really. Although these two fellows might be a little less enthusiastic when they see how much Rapha gear costs!
The path by the beach was fantastic, it ran parallel with Pacific Coast Highway and went on for miles. In Huntington Beach there were some odd cyclists’ warning signs telling us to limit our cycling speed to 10 mph. First, that’s ridiculously slow and second, how are the vast majority of cyclists without speed gauges ever going to be able to know what speed they’re travelling at? We ignored the speed limit and hoped we wouldn’t be stopped – Garmin was showing that we were averaging over 14 mph … I was a little concerned that he might be taken and used in evidence against us.
On into Newport Beach and Laguna Beach – strange places really; beautifully manicured, (universally by Hispanic labourers by the looks of things), pretty and prosperous town centres, (where almost everyone was white) and every half a mile or so another gated community entrance, some with little sentry boxes guarding the entrances (staffed by you-know-who). It creeped me out a bit and we were glad to get past all that wealthy racist paranoia. Who are the people who live in these of places? What on earth are they afraid of or hiding from? I just don’t get it I’m afraid.
San Clemente seemed a little bit more down to earth and we were planning our lunch stop there as it was at about 40 miles in. Unfortunately, the way-marked, quiet cycling route completely bypassed the town centre where all the shops and cafés were. By the time we’d realised this, we were well through the town to the far side – we didn’t particularly want to double back and so we hoped for another opportunity to stop and refuel later on.
Old Highway 101 still exists in many places along this part of the coast, but almost all of the motorised traffic travels on the San Diego Freeway. This leaves cyclists and pedestrians with a very pleasant route. After a short while we came across another ghost bike (our third on this trip), in memorial to another fallen cyclist. In addition to the white bike, there were some cycling jerseys attached to the fence and scores of cyclists’ bidons (water bottles), suggesting this was a memorial to a racing cyclist. It was sad to see. The bidons hanging around the bike reminded us of the candles that people light in Catholic churches in front of statues of the saints.
Along the road we came to San Onofre State Beach Park, (a national park open to the public at the agreement of the US marines, as it occupies military land). The road followed a long narrow strip between the sea and the freeway. All the way along the park were picnic benches, fire pits, toilets and shower blocks. A lot of people were camped there, it looked like a popular surfers’ destination. The park eventually came to an end and the road stopped but became a paved cycle track where only cyclists could proceed through narrow pinch-points. Our route continued along a fantastic, (if slightly desolate) path that weaved alongside and under the freeway. After a few miles the cycle path ended abruptly … and near to a freeway entrance.
We were bracing ourselves for a hair-raising bit of riding along the freeway, when two local cyclists came past us. They told us that if we had ID with us we could take a safer, more pleasant route to Oceanside through Camp Pendleton, the base of the United States Marine Expeditionary Force. What’s a (gay) cycling man to do in such circumstance? Ride on the heavily trafficked freeway or avail himself of the opportunity to ride through a marine corp base and gawp at soldiers? We took the very sensible advice of the couple of cyclists of course and headed for the camp … and the marines!
We had to show our passports at the Camp Pendleton guardhouse and the soldier on duty seemed a little hesitant about letting us through … He left us for a few minutes to get some advice, then returned and allowed us to proceed – along with warnings about our not being allowed to cycle through the base after sunset. What a cheek! It was 4 o’clock and sundown is at about 7. Anyone would be more than capable of riding the six miles or so through the camp in three hours! Rather than make that point, we were very polite and English, thanked him and set off. That was a rather worrying moment though – the only other road was the Freeway and although it was possible to cycle on it at this point, it looked horrendous and we really didn’t fancy it. I would have liked to have taken some pictures of Camp Pendleton too, but I didn’t want to risk a gaol sentence this far into our journey!
On the other side of Camp Pendleton, we stopped in Oceanside (about 15 miles from Solana beach). We’d missed lunch, so were feeling very hungry by now. We had coffee and some cake (naturally) in a lovely old-fashioned 60s-era diner. Then the final fairly well-populated stretch along the coast, through Carlsbad (home to Legoland California – I wasn’t allowed to go), past lagoons, lovely beaches, people out running, (three men, wearing only short-shorts and running shoes were a highlight in Cardiff by the Sea!), and into Solana Beach and the Courtyard hotel.
The receptionist ‘upgraded’ us to a ‘club’ room, (this is how they deal with the fact that they’ve just given the room you’ve booked to someone else in America – they make a virtue about giving you something better for free, while omitting to mention that they don’t have what you want). Anyway, we’re not complaining – it’s huge – with a massive jacuzzi in the room. We worked out how to fill and turn on the jacuzzi, (more difficult than might be expected), dived in, splashed about, cleaned up and hot-footed it to California Pizza a couple of blocks away for a big feed – we were ravenous by now. We’d not really eaten properly all day because of missing lunch in San Clemente.
Dinner was very good. California Pizza is a bit like Pizza Express – nice ambience, helpful staff, (ours was a sweet and beardy-surfer type) and not really expensive (the pizza – not the waiter). So we lingered there for the evening before heading back to the Courtyard for another podcast episode of the Archers. Living the California Dream
Our final few hours in the saddle beckon, (well on this trip anyway). We intend to cycle about 25 miles from Solana Beach to our Warm Showers hosts in San Diego, where we’ll drop off our bags and then (with our travel documents) cycle the last 14 miles to the USA/Mexico border.
We hope that we’ll be able to go across, have our photo taken, then cycle back – just so we can complete our border-to-border trip. We’ve heard so many different and conflicting stories about the USA/Mexico border on our trip so we’re not sure what to expect – watch this space!
Summary – day 21 – Los Angeles (Hollywood) to Los Angeles (Seal Beach) Thursday 15 September Posted by Mike
Estimate: 33 miles, actual: 39.17 miles Avg. speed: 13.4 mph Cumulative distance: 1,529.08 miles
After yesterday’s various arguments, mishaps and other assorted debacles, we decided to take things as easy as we could today. We thought that one way of easing our path south through LA might be to pick up a bicycle map of the city and to speak with people in a local bicycle shop to listen to their advice on where best to ride in LA, and – perhaps more importantly – where to avoid. We looked up the closest bicycle shop to our hotel – it was almost 4 miles away, (this is LA) and we decided to take a bus.
It was warming up as we went to Lion’s Bike Shop on West 29th and South Vermont. When we arrived, we explained what we were doing and asked if they had a bicycle map. They didn’t. The next nearest shop was in Downtown and we were thinking that it would be good to look around there anyway, so we headed off to the town centre.
Downtown LA is just bizarre – glitz and glamour slap bang beside poverty and decay. It’s one of the most unpleasant facets of many US cities. Large numbers of homeless people, poverty and dilapidation is very evident with boarded up shops and people selling off their possessions outside their houses. All this goes on right in front of everyone else. No-one else seems to notice or care much. Especially the better off, who seem to take the view that poverty is somehow inevitable, the fault of the poor and that nothing can (or should) be done. It’s very obvious that many of those living rough have mental illnesses of some kind and doing so little for them strikes me as so particularly cruel in a country that is so rich and that actually is so full of people who are kind and generous. I have to say that LA seems worse than anywhere else that I’ve seen in America in this respect.
In Downtown LA ‘street hosts’ have been employed to assist tourists. They’re a brilliant idea and funded by an additional agreed levy on local business taxes. We asked one of the street hosts, Humberto Terones, for directions to a bike store. When we explained why, would you believe it? He had copies of the LA bicycle route map to give away! So we needn’t have gone all that way to Lion’s Bike Shop after all. Humberto did direct us to a lovely independent bicycle shop just around the corner, though, so we headed over there to talk about the quickest/easiest way to Seal Beach.
After a pause for coffee we went over to The Spoke – a lovely shop, selling bespoke bicycles. The co-owner told us about the new 50-mile LA River cycleway that would take us to Long Beach – and he explained how best to get to it. So, route fixed, we spent the next a couple of hours exploring Downtown LA.
We wandered through the Water Plaza with its extraordinary dancing fountains next to the tall skyscrapers. We passed MOMA and then visited the LA Music Centre, home of the new Walt Disney Concert Hall, the base of the LA Philharmonic. The building is amazing – designed by Frank Gehry and has the same look as the Guggenheim in Bilbao, all swooping and curving walls of shining metal. It’s beautiful. I wish that I could attend a concert there – especially with Gustavo Dudamel at the helm, but the new season hasn’t begun yet.
We needed to get on out way, so we took the metro from the LA civic centre back to our hotel. Before leaving earlier in the day, we’d checked out of our rooms and put out bicycles into a hotel store room. We retrieved our bicycles and cycling gear and went to the men’s ‘restroom’ to change into cycling gear. Mike first, then Matthew. While he was getting changed, Matthew ‘forgot’ to lock the cubicle door, (or so he later claimed). Picture the scene: Matthew, stark naked – apart from one sock – sitting on the toilet pan and putting on the other sock, when a man walks in on him. The man was a little bit surprised. I think that even in California, you could get arrested for hanging around nude in men’s toilets, (a smart US-style lawyer would obviously be able to argue that one sock isn’t nude).
* Matthew here, I most certainly did lock the door, clearly a faulty lock.
We scarpered pretty quickly after that, (both fully clothed). Armed with our cycling maps and a route, we started our journey out of Los Angeles.
As we rode away from the Wilshire Hotel, I noticed that one of the (two) bottle cages on my bicycle had broken and wasn’t holding the bottle firmly. I was a little worried that a water bottle might jump out when I rode over a bump in the road, so alerted Matthew to keep an eye out for a bicycle store where I might be able to buy a replacement bottle cage. We spotted a bike shop on South Hoover Street and we called in. E&R Bike Shop is staffed by a man called Eduardo and his young son, Roberto. They were really impressed when they heard about our trip. Eduardo was curious about how we knew about his bicycle shop and when we told him that we were just passing by on our way from Canada to Mexico, he said that no-one had ever called in before while they were passing by on such a long journey. I picked out a new bottle cage and fitted it on my bike. I gave the old one to Roberto as a memento of our meeting! He has a bit to learn about running a bicycle shop I suspect, as he said that he thought the best way for us to get to Seal Beach was to take the train! He couldn’t quite understand why anyone would want to cycle there! I asked Eduardo how much I owed him for the new bottle cage and he said he was giving to me for free as a souvenir of our visit to his bike shop in Los Angeles. That was so very kind of them, it’s wonderful.
Our journey down Hoover brought us to the the University of Southern California campus. Students in the USA are back at college now, so it felt nice up be on such familiar territory. Lots of cyclists, of course. Just beyond the university campus was a beautiful rose garden, a science centre with aeroplanes attached to the wall, then to Matthew’s delight the stadium from the 1984 Olympics. Matthew has made comments about my boyish fascination with planes and trains. I can report that Matthew has a prodigious knowledge of – bordering on obsession about – past Olympic Games: which city in which year, (including winter), losing bidders, whether they made a profit or not and so on. His joy was unbounded to be at the stadium that made a huge profit after the financial disaster that was the Montreal Olympics in 1976, (the concept of profit or loss was irrelevant in Moscow in 1980 apparently). Pictures taken and we continued on our way.
After the stadium the route quickly moved us into a series of poverty-stricken and run-down neighbourhoods. Dilapidated churches had been set up in abandoned shops almost every few hundred metres. It seemed to me that god wasn’t doing much for the people in these neighbourhoods though, so why people were wasting their time and money on such chicanery is beyond me.*
*Matthew again, clearly people need to have hope in something when life isn’t so great. It wouldn’t be my choice either, but I can understand what motivates people in this direction.
After much longer than I expected, we found the LA River cycle track. It was fantastic: wide, smooth, flat and really well used. We had a lovely ride down to Long Beach, chatting with a few other cyclists as we rode along. In Long Beach we saw the Queen Mary – a beautiful luxury liner from the 1930s and now a floating hotel. Beside the Queen Mary the great domed hangar that housed Spruce Goose – the biggest flying boat ever built. I’d been to see both last time I was on the west coast with Paul in the Mid-80s and even though I knew they were at Long Beach, I didn’t expect to see them on this trip. It took my breath away – a magical sight in the setting sun. The rest of Long Beach was a bit of a post-modern nightmare, bridges that looked like roller coasters, for example. The good news was that there was a fantastic cycle path along the sand, for miles. If we turned around we could still see the ship and a huge bridge behind it. All around us, cyclists and runners. Bliss.
We were only about three miles from Seal Beach when the cycle path on the beach ended. There was a slightly unpleasant ride in the near dark over two busy freeway junctions to get to the Ayres’ Hotel in Seal Beach. But the hotel was such a treat, really spacious and nicely furnished. Mathew went to fetch a pizza and we ended our evening eating while listening to three episodes of the Archers. We know how to live!
Summary – day 20 – Ventura to Los Angeles (Wednesday 14 September) Posted by Mike
Estimate: 67 miles, actual: 73.95 miles Avg. speed: 14.3 mph Cumulative distance: 1,489.91 miles
Bit dull and grey this morning as we left Ventura. But actually that’s really good cycling weather. There were some routing dilemmas today. Garmin and Google didn’t agree, (as usual) and we suspected that there was a ‘third’ or better way if we just followed the waymarked Pacific Coast Cycle Route. However, sometimes the cycle routes are not that particularly well signed, especially in the towns and cities. We have often arrived at a junction and there’s absolutely no clue about which direction the route takes, but it generally doesn’t matter if we’re following Garmin. Also, on a trip like this we know that if we keep heading more-or-less south, then there’s a good chance that we’ll probably be going in the right direction. Usually we find that we happen upon the Pacific Coast Bicycle Route again.
A further complication today was how to get beyond Oxenard as we moved south around the coast after leaving Ventura. It just wasn’t clear how to navigate our way through a gap between the mountains and the sea, where a number of large military bases are situated. The map showed that the Interstate cut right through, but Garmin made it clear that we couldn’t go on that by bicycle, (and he’s always right about that sort of thing). So, Dilemma of the Day … would there be an alternative route for cycles and should we risk just trying to find it or take stupid Garmin’s advice and go on a 20 mile, hilly detour? We decided that we’d risk it.
We passed the naval base without any difficulty. The old town of Oxenard is a really pretty, traditional-looking fishing port. Then came the naval/air base at St Mugu. This was more complicated, there was a road running parallel to the Interstate, but Garmin showed it feeding onto the Interstate itself about 3 miles further on – maybe there’d be a cycle track unknown to Garmin. I was feeling tense about either having to brave the Interstate or turn back. We’d just have to see.
As we rode around the perimeter of the air base, we could see some really big helicopters coming in to land. Then we passed a curious permanent outdoor display of planes and missiles set on posts. We continued on to see what would happen as we approached the turning onto the freeway – the road we were on did lead us on to the Interstate, but there were no signs at the entrance forbidding cyclists, so we decided to risk it. The police might chuck us off – but we only needed to travel for one junction – about a mile or so – and then we knew we’d be on the Pacific Coast Highway again – a road that we knew we’d be permitted to ride on. As luck would have it, about half a mile along the road, a notice proclaimed the end of the freeway – we’d done it and were on our way to LA.
Between Point Mugu and Malibu we passed rocky cliffs with incredible folded rock strata and huge rectilinear blocks of stone strewn everywhere. We could could just make out people hiking up in the mountains in the far distance. The road itself ran along the water’s edge and huge blocks of black stone sloped down from the road into the sea to absorb the waves. There were warnings of rock slides every few hundred metres and people were working to try and stabilise the cliffs. The sea was calm, but the waves were breaking against the rocks and throwing spray into the air and onto the road. Inevitably, the road was incredibly deformed and breaking up. There were road works all along this section.
As I looked out to sea, I could see some big birds with long beaks flapping their wings rather languorously and flying only a few metres above the water – Matthew recognised them as pelicans! Superb!
As we approached Malibu, the surf beaches began. For miles there were huge cars and pickup trucks parked one after another in the narrow space between the sand and the road with surf boards propped against them. People, (overwhelmingly young men) were milling about, getting changed in or out of their wetsuits or diligently rubbing their boards with something (wax?). In the sea there were surfers riding the waves and paddling about on the water. It was a real treat to watch – although we were nervous about someone opening a car door just as we cycled past or that someone might pull their vehicles out into the road and into us. Thankfully that didn’t happen – but getting through Malibu was pretty fraught, as there was generally very little space between all the parked cars on our right and the moving cars on our left.
There were some fabulous houses on the way into Malibu – big detached affairs, either strung out over the hillside on our left or squeezed into the narrow spaces between the road and the sea on our right. Mostly we only caught glimpses through trees or deduced the splendour beyond the elaborate, chunky (and very secure) gates. Matthew spotted an outdoor hot tub carved into the rocks next to one house. We could see that some houses had complicated stilt-like supports in wood or concrete and that they were cantilevered out over the beach or even over the sea.
Leaving Malibu, we passed a September 11 memorial in a big grassy sloping area outside Pepperdine University. A national flag for every victim – all the same dimensions and evenly spaced in rows and columns.
I was hoping that the traffic on the road between Malibu and Santa Monica might reduce somewhat … but of course it didn’t. But as we arrived on the outskirts of Santa Monica – Los Angeles city limits – a cycle path began. It was really good to be off the road again. Suddenly the cycle path veered off the roadside and onto the beach itself. A long, wide flat pathway made from concrete bounded with broad flat areas of sand on both sides – quite a bit of it on the surface, too, sometimes. I’m not normally happy about cycling on sandy surfaces, they can be slippery and sand just wrecks bicycle drivetrains. But it was away from the traffic on the road and actually a lovely experience, with plenty of other cyclists and runners about. Before we arrived in Santa Monica centre, we had to turn off the beach path and head inland towards our hotel for the night: the Wilshire, towards the Downtown end of Wilshire Boulevard. Ten miles along a very heavily trafficked, fast-paced, badly surfaced road with intersections every few hundred metres or so – we were not looking forward to it.
Fortunately, Matthew had picked up a map of Santa Monica at our hotel in Ventura that showed a cycle route running parallel to Wilshire Boulevard, so we proceeded along that. Unfortunately, it stopped at a T-junction after a couple of miles and we had to join Wilshire Boulevard itself.
Matthew wanted to try and find another quieter parallel street that we might be able to ride along instead. Garmin didn’t show one and Wilshire doesn’t run in quite a straight line, so there was a danger that any parallel streets would just diverge. I was also a bit sceptical that there would be any particularly quiet streets in West LA at that time of day. We weren’t enjoying cycling in LA so far – and had only just started. We didn’t agree on the best way to get to our hotel and a fairly ‘heated debate’ ensued on the street by the Beverly Hills sign. We rode on not speaking to each other until we arrived at the hotel.
Our room is on the top floor (12), with views to Griffith Park, Observatory and the Hollywood sign. Incredible. We were allowed to take our bicycles in the lift to our rooms, too, which was a bit of a pleasant surprise. I fell asleep almost as soon as we arrived, then went to have a shower.
Matthew was in the lobby downstairs while I cleaned myself up for the evening. Somehow I slipped over on the wet bottom of the bath while I was taking a shower. I tried to grab on to the shower curtain to steady myself, it was wet, so it slid through my hands and I went flying out of the bath and over onto the bathroom floor, banging my hip really badly and cracking my head on the toilet cistern on the way down. I gave myself a real fright. This was not turning into a good day.
I took some pain killers and got dressed.
Happily, things improved. We’ve had some really wonderful surprises on our trip along west coast; but one of the most astonishing happened before we’d even arrived. Our friend Michael had been due to start a new job in America this month. He’ll be working in Maryland on the east cost for the next two years. Michael had decided to spend a bit of time travelling before beginning work. He was travelling to Baltimore the long way round – going first to Turkey, then on to Japan to climb Mount Fuji, and then by complete coincidence was passing through Los Angeles on the same day as us. Extraordinary. We’d arranged to meet at 7.30 at our hotel so we could go eat dinner together.
When Michael arrived we headed up to Hollywood – to the ‘walk of fame’, Chinese and Kodak theatres, (where the Oscar ceremonies take place), then walked over to Sunset Boulevard to a restaurant called California Vegan for a wonderful meal – lots if tofu and soya – delicious and heaven! Such a nice change From the stuff we’ve been eating so far.
After dinner I thought we might take a taxi up to the Griffith Observatory to look down on the lights of the city (a famous inspiration for the underside of the space ship in Close Encounters, I think). This turned into a bit of a disaster, there was an enormous concert emptying out as we went up into the hills to the north of LA and the roads were closed. The traffic was terrible and we were not moving, so we had to abandon our plans and headed back to our hotel. The taxi driver was a nice guy and amazed when we told him about our cycling trip. Michael was falling asleep in the cab by now, and headed back to his hostel. We went off to bed.
So a day of mixed fortunes, really. It was lovely to meet up with Michael again. I expect that I’ll be a bit bruised after my fall tomorrow! But at least it’s only a short ride to the other side if the city to Seal Beach.
I’ve been dreading today’s section of our cycling trip for some time. Travelling into Los Angeles, the most car-dominated city in the USA, by bicycle is not for the foolhardy. To be honest the first 40-50 miles from Ventura to Santa Monica via Malibu were not as bad as I’d expected. Most of the way there was a broad shoulder or a cycle route. Even when we reached Santa Monica and had to head towards downtown LA the roads were signed bike routes and passed quiet residential streets for about 20 blocks. Then we had to turn onto Wilshire Boulevard for about ten miles of car dominated hell. This is when the nerves started to fray. I suggested we could try to see if there was a quieter parallel street we could use. Garmin said not and Mike wanted me to look at the Garmin map. I wouldn’t as to me there seemed no point as Mike was going to follow Garmin come what may. Mike still wanted me to look at the Garmin map, I still refused, this conversation repeated itself several times until I finally blew and cycled off into car-hell that is Wilshire Blvd. I only went two blocks then stopped to wait for Mike, but it was two blocks too far. A silence has descended on our holiday. Hopefully it won’t last long and providing we can get out of LA ok tomorrow and in one piece, (and speaking) we can resume normal holiday communications, which have been rather good up to now.
On a positive note the hotel were fine about us putting our bikes in our room (something we were slightly anxious about in LA) so Mr Van Nicholas and Mr Condor have a very nice 12th floor view towards the Hollywood Hills, the Hollywood sign and the Griffith Observatory.
Summary – day 19 – Buelton to Ventura (Tuesday 13 September) Posted by Mike
Estimate: 65.5 miles, actual: 69.81 miles Avg. speed: 13.6 mph Cumulative distance: 1,415.96 miles
Woke up to puncture #10! (Mike, rear – not sure of cause – but a fresh hole in tube, rather than a mis-repair). The tyre had gone down overnight. I generally have a rule with inner tubes: three strikes (patches) and it’s out. So this particular inner tube was jettisoned and replaced with a new one. Then on to a good, hearty breakfast of muesli and fruit with Joe. Carol had left earlier to play golf, she’s quite an accomplished player by all accounts – well Joe’s account, actually. It was a shame to miss her this morning though – no picture of her unfortunately or any opportunity to say “thank you” again in person for our lovely dinner last night and for hosting us.
Joe needed to do some errands in Solvang, so after breakfast we rode in together. He on a Raleigh! We passed an ostrich farm: Ostrichland USA, Joe told us that one ostrich egg is equivalent to 18 – 24 chickens’ eggs and they’re available to buy. We weren’t tempted, there’s no room in our panniers!
We mooched around Solvang for a bit and bumped into Joe again! We were looking at the Danish pastries, (of course). Joe recommended that we try aebleskiver, a Danish delicacy available in several of the restaurants. Supposedly invented by some Dane back in history, aebleskiver are like a waffle or a pancake, but formed into a round, about the shape and size of a tennis ball and must be cooked in a special pan with ball-shaped hollows in them. The name rather suggests that they would have apple inside them … but they don’t. They were served with powdered sugar sprinkled over them and topped with raspberry jam. Matthew was offered ice cream with his, which he (too) readily accepted. I asked for a plain one … little knowing that this would mean mine would arrive without any sugar or raspberry jam! So in the picture is my ‘wholesome’ aebleskiver, Joe’s conventional aebleskiver and Matthew’s extravagant aebleskiver. Sums us up, really, I think.
We had a chance to talk some more with Joe while we ate. I mentioned cycling past the Vandenberg air force base yesterday evening and seeing the NASA plaques at the entrance. Joe said that satellite-carrying and other types of rockets were launched about once a month in the middle of the night from there. All the houses around shake and the windows rattle. If they get out of bed to look out of the window, they can see the rocket flame arcing through the sky. This sounds like a rather thrilling thing to watch to me!
Solvang has been a host town in the Tour of California for several years now and there was a really nice cycle-friendly vibe to the place. Lots of posters in the shops and restaurants advertised the Tour of California. Many people were riding around on bicycles and the town has a really good bicycle store, where we bought a spare inner tube. The bicycle shop had window displays with pictures and souvenirs from the Tour de France – excellent stuff. The store owner was away cycling – it’s Solvang’s centenary and he was leading a group anniversary ride from San Francisco back to Solvang.
Solvang reminded me a bit of München or Salzburg, quite a lot of tourists and all somewhat fake and unreal. We picked up some pastries and left Solvang at about noon to head for Santa Barbara before finishing up in Ventura, down the coast.
It was searingly hot as we headed out of town, even the wind was scorching. Joe had warned us that there was a big climb on the way to Santa Barbara. I thought, “Surely not, we’re heading to the coast.” Guess what? He was right (of course) and there was a HUGE UP AND OVER CLIMB to negotiate. It was just past Lake Cachuma in the Santa Ynez Mountains and through the San Marcos Pass on Highway 154. As well as being long, we were sweating buckets, as it was the middle of the day. To make things even worse, there was another super-scary bridge to negotiate. The Cold Spring Canyon Arch Bridge – a mere 370 m (1,214 ft) long and 128 m (420 ft) from the ground, (it’s a popular suicide spot apparently – 54 and counting and no-one has ever survived). I was not going to take a picture, I refused to look left or right, I just kept my head down and focused on the road in front of my wheel. Here’s what it look like:
Half-way up the climb, puncture # 11 (Matthew, front). To be honest, we were glad of the respite. We couldn’t actually find the hole in the tube, but the tyre was definitely soft – so we put in a new inner tube and continued upwards. Once at the top we were greeted with a sign that read: descent 8 miles at 6%. F***k! (Obviously the bit after the full-stop back there wasn’t actually on the sign, although perhaps it should be). As luck would have it, a sheriff’s patrol car was descending at the same time as we were, so all the other drivers were behaving themselves and not speeding past us around the bends. There were some really incredible views down to the sea with Santa Barbara in the distance, along the coast and around the Los Padres national forest.
We made it to Santa Barbara, which is an exquisite town. Loads of people on bicycles, nice Spanish-colonial style buildings, an attractive pier, a waterfront cycle path, lots of runners, three good looking bicycle shops and some lovely cafés in shady courtyards and squares. We decided to stop for lunch!
Garmin was playing up today, so he only routed us to Santa Barbara, then I turned his routing off because he wanted to send us back into the hills on a 45 mile jaunt to avoid the section of Highway 101 south of Santa Barbara that we can ride along because it has a cycle lane running beside it – although Garmin doesn’t seem to know it. We followed a well-marked coastal cycle route out of Santa Barbera to Carpenteria and along a beautiful stretch of waterfront to Ventura. There were at least a dozen other cyclists out on our route, on training rides. It’s been amazing to notice how many more people are out riding since we came to the southern part of California. We passed another ‘ghost bike’ though in memory if another fallen comrade.
We arrived in Ventura at about 6.30. The Pierrepoint Inn is 100 years old and in a lovely wooden building with views out to sea, (across the very busy Highway 1/101). The gardens are exquisite and the receptionist told us that the same gardener had worked here for 50 years!
The Pierrepoint Inn is unfortunately let down by its restaurant. We cleaned ourselves up, came down for dinner and saw that there was nothing on the menu for vegetarians. Not a thing! And we’re in California not Texas. We asked if the chef could rustle something up … “I’m afraid not.” Said our waitress. “Sorry, we get this problem a lot.” I replied: “Well there’s a lesson there somewhere for you”.
The waitress suggested that we try a local restaurant in the town for dinner. It was just around the corner and it was called Zack’s. She was sure they would have food that was suitable for vegetarians. So off we went.
As it happened, the suggestion to eat at Zack’s was a really good one. The food was lovely and we had a really nice evening. Shortly after we arrived, we started talking with the couple on the next table. They had overheard us discussing our cycle ride today and they asked us about our journey. They told us that they’d met Mark Beaumont when he was cycling from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. Apparently Mark was staying on the same campsite as they were and they shared a beer with him. Good for them for helping out a fellow long-distance cyclist! It turns out that Roy and Lorissa were real genuine and knowledgeable cycling fans – they were at the restaurant to celebrate Roy’s birthday. They’d worked for a mortgage company in the past, (before all the economic mess – but they kind of saw it coming – it seems that lots of people in the banking and finance industries knew about the high levels of unsecured loans and unsustainable debt). They got out of that world and now worked as artists, living about 4 miles from Lake Cachuma, (we’d cycled past it this morning). They always go to watch the Tour of California and they’d even been to Europe just to watch the Giro D’Italia. We spent the evening chatting with them about cycling; in two years they’re planning to go to the Tour de France … maybe we’ll see them there, that’d be wonderful! Matthew said it was as if our cycling friend back in Bristol Andy Herbertson had turned up and was sitting on the next table, which was a nice thought.
After dinner and back to the hotel. We were still a little hungry, so Matthew went to find some chocolate and asked at reception. They didn’t have any, (what’s wrong with this hotel?!). The receptionist, (who I thought had already taken a bit of a fancy to Matthew as he’d knocked $10 off the bill for keeping him waiting for a couple of minutes when we checked in), offered Matthew some doughnuts for free! He’d been given these doughnuts by his ‘friend’ who owns a bakery, but he said that he didn’t really like them and usually gave them away to the old folks. Well, we certainly had no scruples about taking food from the elderly, so we enjoyed them over a cup of tea before taking to bed, happy in the knowledge that Matthew’s status as a fully fledged member of the Symonds’ clan (donut lovers) has been restored in his brother Philip’s opinion.
Next stop, Los Angeles – we’re just a little bit nervous about cycling there … it’s carmageddon!
As we’ve headed south I’ve been expecting to see more Mexican-inspired architecture and generally this has been the case. What I wasn’t expecting was to find myself in Denmark, but that’s where we appear to be, having arrived in Solvang!
Solvang translates from Danish to mean ‘sunny fields’. The town was settled in 1911 by Danish immigrants and they tried to recreated a bit of Denmark right here in sunny California. In addition to timber framed buildings, there are windmills, lots of shops selling Danish pastries in abundance and a statue of the Little Mermaid and its creator Hans Christian Anderson. It’s all very lovely and a bit weird at the same time. Who knows where we might arrive next on our travels?
Summary – day 18 – San Simeon to Buelton (Monday 12 September) Posted by Mike
Estimate: 111 miles, actual: 110.2 miles Avg. speed: 15.7 mph Cumulative distance: 1,456.35 miles
Breakfast at Sands by the Sea, (in the Cavalier restaurant – an apt name as it turns out). The whole thing was a bit of a disappointment. Waiter-service, food ‘from the griddle’ (yuk); vile coffee, (quite unusual so far in the US, where coffee standards are generally high) and precious little that a vegetarian who errs towards vegan could eat. The ‘continental breakfast’ was a tiny bun with a big pot of clotted cream on the side. What ‘continent’ is that from I wondered? The promised fruit never materialised unfortunately. I settled on glutenous warm oatmeal, at least the sugar came in a little pot on the side, so I could avoid that. There was no soy(a) milk available and the toast arrived already buttered. I’d given up by now, so didn’t send it back.
We’re heading to the town of Solvang today, established by Danish settlers in 1911. The architecture is apparently faux northern European and there’s a surfeit of Danish-style bakeries, (Mr P’s face lights up*).
*MS: references to me as ‘Mr P’ (pelican) are, I believe misplaced as it was not I scoffing M & Ms in bed last night after a full delicious meal.
We made fantastic progress in the morning. Highway 1 through Cambria, by the sea along the Cabrillo Highway – dead calm sea, with rocks jutting up out of the water, through Cayucos where there was a nice off-road cycle-lane, (unfortunately it was almost at its end before we spotted it and startled to ride on it!), Morrow Bay and into San Luis Obispo for brief lunch stop. We had set off at 9.30 and completed the 40 mile to lunch at an average speed of 16.2 mph. Really good going. We saw a few racing cyclists whizzing by in the opposite direction out on the road this morning, too.
Lunch at the Black Horse Uptown Espresso café – not Starbucks or Safeway’s for a change! They had a cycling jersey in a frame on the wall – they part sponsor a local cycling club. Hooray! We were in a student area, near the California Polytechnic State University, (which seems like a bit of a mouthful), so there were lots of young people about and they were being a little bit too loud, (sigh). We sat outdoors in a courtyard and someone sat nearby had a beautiful golden labrador, which was lying stretched out under their table … and wearing a disposable nappy (that’s diaper in US)! Only in America, as they say!
After all the good cycling progress in the morning, our luck turned a bit after we left San Luis Obispo. On the Edna Road just past the San Luis Obispo golf club punctures #6 and #7, (both in Mike’s rear wheel, caused by pieces of fine wire).
We’ve been doing well to avoid punctures recently, so I suppose that we shouldn’t complain. But having taken the inner tube out, finding the hole, patching the tube and finding the piece of offending wire the actual getting it out of the tyre can be quite tricky. It’s difficult to get a hold of the wire and it’s often broken off on the tyre surface, so it’s necessary to try and push it back out from inside, but it’s sharp and pointy so enormous care is required. This can take half an hour. Once the puncture was repaired and the wheel reassembled, it was obvious that there was a second hole in the tube, because the tyre wouldn’t inflate properly. Argh! So, start over again. Another half an hour lost.
At least we were by a nice café among the vineyards – the Old Edna Deli Café, housed in a big old tin shed, with benches and tables outside, so we could sit and work on the bike while having a cooling drink.
We set off and had just gone through Arroyo Grande – about nine miles and would you believe it … another puncture: #8 (Mike, front wheel, a thorn). We were stopped by a slightly strange ‘new age’ post office by the Temple of the People on South Halcyon Road.
Still, another opportunity for a sit down and a snack. Front wheels are always easier to deal with – but it was probably another half an hour lost – this was all becoming a bit of a problem – we weren’t likely to get to Joe and Carol’s in Buelton before 8 and it’s dark by about 7.30.
We pressed on though and had an amazing ride on Highway 1 after Guadalupe – along a straight road in a broad flat plain, with mountain ranges to our left an right in the distance, through fields and fields of brassicas – the smell was extraordinary: cabbages, broccoli, sprouts. The wind was being kind and we were bombing along at over 25 mph – fantastic!
We passed the Vandenberg Airforce Base – lots of NASA signs, very exciting for Mike.
Passed by Lompoq an headed to Buelton as the sun set. It was necessary to ride the final half an hour or so with our lights on. We arrived to a glorious dinner at Joe and Carol’s – vegetarian lasagne, enormous wonderful salad and ice cream for pudding at 8.00!
Joe works in microchip technology, but has recently been laid off. Carol is an artist and there were examples of her work all around the house – big canvases with muted colours – really seemed to echo the landscape around here. They have two lovely dogs too – who were very excited to meet (and sniff) us!
We’ve met lots of nice pets on our travels (and their owners of course), but we have also seen some alarming animal sights.
In San Francisco we saw a man walking his cat on a leash – I suppose I should have expected this since it was the Castro. When passing through San Luis Obispo yesterday morning we saw a dog wearing a babies’ nappy. Initially I thought it must have been incontinent but then overheard the owner talking to a friend. It turns out the dog had come on heat the day before she was due to be spayed. Fortunately the nappy prevented us and other customers being put off our morning pastries.
The most alarming animal image we’ve seen was in the Giant Redwoods. I know that the USA has a strong gun culture but I wasn’t expecting it to have extended to a familiar children’s character, but sure enough there was Paddington Bear with a riffle. Heaven help anyone who touches his marmalade sandwiches! Whatever next, Tinky-Winky with an AK46 or Thomas the Tank Engine pulling a cruise missile? Guns are one bit of American culture I can definitely do without.
As we head further south in California the landscape is becoming far more arid. Gone are the lush ferns and dense pine forests that were so familiar in Washington, Oregon and northern California and hello to palm trees. The sun has been our constant companion so far today, from the look of the earth it has been around these parts for a while. The grass is very yellow and brown which makes the dark skinned cattle stand out very clearly. The only break in the dry landscape comes with artificially irrigated land such as golf courses or private gardens, these too would shrivel if it weren’t for the constant sprinklers at work, (not sure I approve of such a carefree use of good water when California apparently has water shortages). Lots of suncream needed today – quite a contrast to the weather in the UK at the moment.
Summary – day 17 – Seaside (Monterey) to San Simeon (Sunday 11 September) Posted by Mike
Estimate: 102 miles, actual: 102.7 miles Avg. speed: 13.6 mph Cumulative distance: 1,346.15 miles – we broke our long-distance cycling record today! When we cycled on our round trip from Bristol to Hamburg we rode 1,320 miles in one trip.
Waking up in the USA on September 11 feels a little unsettling. The news is full of the anniversary. I can’t help comparing the US response to September 11 atrocities, the British response to the 7/7 bus and tube bombs and the more recent Norwegian response to the bombings and shootings there. It seems to me that we in Britain and the Americans over-reacted. The events were dreadful, but such things are rare and random events that directly affected relatively few people – how many have died needlessly from road traffic, I wonder? More security, more and more intrusive policing, more spying, curtailment of citizens’ liberties, hassle and harassment, just continue the terrorists’ work for them really. Perhaps more important, such measures are not really likely to prevent determined fanatics wreaking havoc. In contrast, I heard Jens Stoltenberg the (Labour) prime minister of Norway say that the proper response to the hateful bombing and shootings in his country should be “more democracy, not less”. I do have a sense that perhaps there is a desire for this among lots of people who are fed up with being treated in a cavalier way by officials and politicians, but so far there hasn’t been a politician willing to articulate that view. I’m quite hopeful that Ed Milliband could be the person to start to put the idea of more democracy into Labour’s policies back home.
Anyway, when we got up I was still feeling a little sore after yesterday’s exertions. We had breakfast with Katie and Nick along with two of their friends, Cheryl and her partner. A big breakfast today, (there’ll be lots of climbing): oats and muesli with soya milk, scrambled eggs (eggs courtesy of the hens that they keep, supplemented by a batch laid by 7-Eleven), corn pancakes with peppers and also some fresh fruit.
We set off later than planned at about 10.15 – this meant that we’d be lucky to get to San Simeon on the other side of Big Sur by 7.00.
We climbed out of Monterey, through Carmel (home of Doris Day), to the sweet sound of Matthew singing ‘The Deadwood Stage‘ (Whip-Crack-Away!) from the film Calamity Jane. This all rather reminded me of a poster that Sue, my secretary in my first permanent academic job at the University of Birmingham had on the wall by her desk. Doris Day is wearing her Calamity Jane garb: a kepi, a brown suede jacket with tassels hanging from the sleeves and a neckerchief. She is pointing a shotgun out of the picture. The caption read: ‘Do you want to speak to the man in charge, or to the woman who knows what’s going on?’ Well that certainly put me in my place!
We cycled through the beautiful 17-Mile Drive, past trees that were just beginning to look a little autumnal with their leaves going orange and yellow. On into Carmel, a charming – but touristy little town. The one-time mayor of Carmel was one Clint Eastwood, whose central campaign theme was to have the ban on eating ice cream in public in Carmel lifted – you couldn’t make this up, could you?! Carmel has some very pretty detached bungalows with well-tended gardens and a bustling tourist-orientated centre. The whole place was actually a little too twee for my tastes and rather reminded us of Stow-on-the-Wold on a busy summer Sunday: art galleries, delis and coffee shops galore. Heaven help you if you need to buy something as mundane as a replacement fuse! Just on the edge of town, a lovely old stone church: Carmel Mission. It had really nicely kept gardens – there was a service going on, with singing, but we couldn’t really go into the church wearing Lycra cycling shorts (someone might faint), so we watched from the door for a while.
On to Big Sur – a spectacular section of Highway 1 along the Pacific Coast where the where the Santa Lucia Mountains rise abruptly from the Pacific Ocean. This section of the highway in a really remote and previously inaccessible area of the Californian coast was mostly built by convict labour in the 1930s. It must have been horrible work – the area is steep and undulating. It was challenging cycling up the climbs and negotiating the descents. The ride was tough today and the wind was still coming from the south, (although not nearly as strong as yesterday). Our difficulties were compounded by the fact that we are both still sore from yesterday. But it was worth it … too many Magic Moments of the Day to count.
I was pretty worried about the time and I’ve been a bit concerned that on some days the end points that Matthew drew up mean that the distances are a little bit too challenging when combined with the fact that we’re carrying bags, the undulating terrain, an unremitting headwind or any kind of mechanical problem. We didn’t really stop for lunch anywhere and mainly relied on our shop bought oat energy bars, bananas and nuts.
The hills and mountains gave way to a more gently undulating grassland along the coast as we neared San Simeon.
On some beaches to our right we saw several herds of elephant seals – absolutely amazing. They were honking and basking, using their flippers to flick sand over their bodies, pulling themselves along by their flippers through the sand or frolicking in the water with their bellies arched downwards so their noses and tails were both in the air. (Matthew has posted a video link). We could have watched for hours but, the full moon was already visible in the sky and there was a beautiful red/orange sunset over the Pacific.
We watched the sun set on the coast just below Hearst Castle, (built by Randolph Hearst – who Citizen Kane was based on). The castle itself is incoherent and vulgar – the man had too much money and bought whole Roman temples, medieval ceilings, Jacobean staircases etc. etc. from Europe. The house, (which is now maintained by the state), was designed to house his collection in a rather random way.
Our hotel just south of San Simeon: Sands by the Sea, was our last stop – I was too tired to even go out go eat and we ordered food through room service – very extravagant!
Near the end of our long (and hilly) 104 mile ride today (Sunday 11 Sept, 2011), we came across a beach near San Simeon, home to a colony of Elephant Seals. The perfect end to the day.
Summary – day 16 – San Francisco to Seaside (Monterey) (Saturday 10 September) Posted by Mike
Estimate: 125.84 miles, actual: 121.84 miles Avg. speed: 12.8 mph Cumulative distance: 1,243.45 miles
We woke early, as usual, but I’m managing to sleep a little longer these days – it was 5.30 am when I woke this morning. We could hear the fog horns sound in the distance along the San Francisco shoreline. Martin said that he really likes the sound, because they remind him that it’s still summer. Heidi told us that the horns in different places made slightly different sounds, so it was possible for local people to know where the fog was at any particular time.
We ate a big breakfast, then set off at about 8.15 am, after having our photographs taken. Heidi took them out in the street outside their house as we were leaving. (Martin was keen to have pictures of our bikes; we think that having a record of those was probably more important to him than having pictures of us!)
Heidi and Martin have been quite amazing hosts and we had a wonderful two days in San Francisco.
Headed to the coast through Golden Gate Park, with plenty of others out running or cycling – either in small groups or by themselves. It looked like a lovely place to have a regular run/ride. It’s a huge park – about 5 km (3 miles) long running east to west and about half a mile wide north to south. Heidi and Martin live close by, only a couple of blocks away.
When we arrived at the sea, we turned left into a ferocious headwind. My heart sank – 120 miles or so on undulating terrain and into a strong headwind would not be enjoyable. There was also quite a bit of sand in the cycle lane, making going a bit tough. Unfortunately, what had the potential to be a lovely rest of the day cycling was wrecked by the wind.
We went through Pacifica and were confronted with yet another problem that was set to dog us all day; the main coast road – Highway 1 – is a wide fast dual carriageway road for some of its length and in these sections bicycles aren’t allowed, so we were forever having to leave the main road and negotiate side roads, (signage was mostly ok – but we did lose our way a couple of times and it adds a bit of distance).
When Highway 1 is not designated a motorway, it returns to single-lane traffic and is often pretty much the only route available. Of course, it’s often the same volume of traffic that has been bombing along a fast multi-lane highway that is funnelled into a slower, single-lane section. In some cases there isn’t even a hard shoulder for bicycles to ride in, so it can be very challenging to ride with big, fast vehicles coming past – often passing a bit too close for comfort.
An early example of the single lane Highway 1 horror was a section called the Devil’s Slide, a twisting, ascent over Pedros Point, which we had been warned would be tricky. A tunnel and bridge are being constructed to take Highway 1 through this area, but they’re not due to be completed until next year. So we had to make our way up the climb, then manage the descent on a broken up road with lots of gravel and stones strewn across it – while also being buffeted by strong gusts.
Fortunately, the wind dropped a little as we rode along an off-road cycle track into Half Moon Bay – about 30 miles in, where we had our first break in a nice little café. We were optimistic that the rest of the day’s ride might be better, but as we left Half Moon Bay to rejoin the main coast road the headwind picked up again. It was terrible – it was all we could do to manage speeds of 8 mph at times. We saw some other riders – on our side of the road, complaining about the headwind; while on the opposite side of the road, seemingly flying!
We arrived at our planned lunch stop at Santa Cruz after 78 miles, two hours behind schedule, feeling pretty exhausted and with sore legs. It’s as well we’d had a couple of days off so at least we were feeling fairly fresh for the day when we set off.
After having something to eat at Safeway’s in Santa Cruz, the last 50 miles were calmer, although we weren’t permitted to ride on Highway 1 towards Seaside and Monterey.
We passed Salinas – where John Steinbeck was born and the town that he located some of his most famous novels, such as East of Eden and Grapes of Wrath. If it hadn’t been so late, I’d have liked to have gone to look at the Steinbeck house.
There was a nice cycle track along the road from Marina into Seaside – so the end of the ride was pleasant. We arrived rather tired and quite late just after 8.00. Nick was just heading out to do some mountain biking under the full moon. That sounded wonderful, but we didn’t have the energy to join him!
Matthew picked up some vegetarian tacos, we ate and chatted with Katie. She teaches Spanish and English and has been on some wonderful cycling trips. We were in bed by 10 – it’s going to be another long day tomorrow, let’s hope it’s not too windy.
Being on a long road trip often brings to mind ‘Priscilla, Queen of the Desert’, the movie about three drag queens travelling across the Australian outback in a converted bus. Clearly we don’t have a bus and we are not drag queens, (at least we weren’t last time I checked). But we are covering awesome distances. Today was one of those long stretches, 120+ miles and at points, as the Pacific coastline stretched out ahead of us into the distance, my mind flashed back to the scene in Priscilla when they are looking out over miles and miles of desert as far as the eye can see. I have to admit I have wondered about attaching a long flowing piece of pink chiffon to the bike and blasting out opera through a sound system. However, Mike’s luggage weight restrictions have prevented either of these items being available.
Having any additional drag (geddit?!) while struggling against the awful headwinds we faced today would not have been pleasant, so I suppose the chiffon-bicycle-opera combo will just have to wait for another day.
From San Francisco to Santa Cruz (75 miles) was constant headwind, a shame as it distracted our attention from the really pleasant coastline.
We’ve had another Priscilla moment as we passed (twice) a young guy on a bike laden with four bags, a tent and even a guitar on his back. We’d passed him before in the Redwoods and Eurika, but a bit like the Hare and the Tortoise, he keeps overtaking us! Those familiar with Priscilla will recall the women running across the outback pushing some strange ball who keeps overtaking the coach – this young guy is our equivalent.
Thankfully the wind turned after Santa Cruz, but it still meant that we arrived in Seaside after dark – over an hour later than scheduled. Nick our host was just going out as we arrived – to spend the evening mountain biking in the light of the full moon. We were welcomed by his fiancé Katie who chatted with us all evening and gave some good advice on a Mexican take-away. Today’s exertions have left us pretty weary, so we’re off to sleep now. Only 100 miles to cover tomorrow.
We worked out our final cycle route for today last night using the Garmin/Google map combo. It looks like it will be a wonderful ride on route 35, then Highway 1 all along the coast from San Francisco to near Monterey.
The slightly down side is that it’s a bit longer that we’d thought at nearly 120 miles, but we’ve done it before and we can do it again. Mike was a little displeased at the length of today’s journey, but I know he’ll be fine riding it, especially now our bikes have been fine tuned, tyres pumped etc (fingers crossed for no technical problems) and it was worth it to spend two whole lovely days in SF.
Sadly the old girl didn’t show us her Golden Gate properly, we only got a peak of the top of the towers through the fog, so we’ll just have to return one day. I’m sure we shall.
Summary – day 15 – Further Tales from the City … (Friday 9 September, San Francisco) Posted by Matthew
We’ve been enjoying San Francisco’s gay and lesbian heritage today in the Castro. We dropped our bicycles in to a cycle store for a quick tune at the American Cyclery on Stanyon and Frederick, (americancyclery.com). It’s a really lovely old bike shop, (established in 1941), with a very nice range of machines and some beautify classic cycling jerseys hung on the wall. We were attended to by a helpful guy called Brad – who’d been to the Condor bicycle store in London and recognised Mike’s bicycle brand! He quickly checked our bikes and arranged for everything to be serviced before the end of the day. If only we had such efficient service in the UK – we normally have to book our bikes in for a service at least a week ahead.
We wandered from the bike shop through the Cole Valley, past Mount Olympus and into the Haight Ashbury district and then over to the Castro district – the most obviously LGBT quarter. It’s pretty special when you’re welcomed to a neighbourhood by a gay welcome committee! Just beside the metro station in Harvey Milk Plaza two guys were sitting behind a table with leaflets, maps and guides to the area. They gave us a warm welcome, a map with the local attractions and directions to a nice place to eat. We checked out the LGBT museum and then had some lunch.
While we were eating I noticed Razor’s barber shop opposite and decided to see if they could give me a trim. The answer was yes – at 4pm (a 20 minute wait), so we walked around the corner to see the Harvey Milk memorial outside his former camera shop. Harvey Milk was the first openly gay elected official in the UK. He was assassinated in 1978.
After the 20 minutes I was in the seat being trimmed by a very friendly gay hairdresser called Everett. My hair, beard, nose and ears all received a trim, (ready for the anticipated heat as we ride south) and we were given lots of advice about beaches to stop at on the trip tomorrow, (including some nude ones!).
We strolled back from the Castro to pick our bikes up. Mike had been a little worried about the hub on his front wheel, which had squeaked a little and leaked grease on some of our faster descents. The cones and bearings were replaced on the front for $65 – a good price. Matthew’s bike had the cables tightening up, as it’s new – they tend to stretch a bit at first, and stores will normally do this for free a few weeks after a new bike has been bought … a little difficult with Cheltenham being 8490 kilometres (5270 miles) away! The American Cyclery shop also had a lovely friendly resident dog, so as well a beautifully smooth riding bike we also got to pet the dog.
We cycled back through the Golden Gate Park past the beautiful Dahlia Garden, flower glass house and the Stow Lake. We finished our ride at the Green Apple second-hand book shop before heading back to Heidi and Martin’s house for our last night in San Francisco.
We have a long ride tomorrow, around 120 miles including a rather alarmingly named hill called the Devil’s Slide. If we get past the Slide ok we should be in for a good ride with coastal views all the way, but hopefully with no more fog!
Enjoying a leisurely lunch in the Castro. We’ve also done some window-shopping, (although no purchases are allowed until San Diego).
We found a lovely underwear shop where the answer to my ‘muffin-top’ dilemma appears to have been resolved. These rather skimpy pants from Andrew Christian feature a muffin-top-proof elastic waistband. Ingenious! Gok Wan eat your heart out – no full body-corset style underwear for me!
We’re staying in the Richmond area of San Francisco, very close to the Golden Gate Park. We’re going to explore the park later today after we’ve visited a local bike shop to ask them to give our bikes a bit of tender love and care.
Richmond is fairly close to the sea, so when the fog rolls into the SF bay, (as it quite often does), then Richmond becomes a bit grey and overcast too. There has been fog since we rode over the Golden Gate Bridge on Wednesday, but as SF is quite large you can go to other parts of the city and be in beautiful sunshine. Yesterday we walked into downtown and had lovely weather almost all day.
We started our tourist trail at the Yerba Buena Gardens, impressive fountains in memory of Martin Luther, beautiful planting and live music all on offer. We stopped and had some tea and a bite to eat.
We continued over to the SF MoMA, past the museum of contemporary Jewish History and on down Mission Street to the Ferry Terminal Building, which has been converted into a bit of a foody heaven with nice outlets, stalls and restaurants. We picked up some ‘artisan’ bread to take back for dinner and had an ice cream, (quite indulgent on a non-cycling day). The ice cream stall had an amazing range of flavours – I eventually decided on caramel and buttered pecan ice cream, while Mike had pear and blood orange sorbet. Delicious!
Still on with the SF tourist trail. We visited the Trans-America pyramid building, it’s no longer possible able to go to the top of this iconic SF skyscraper (the tallest building in SF), as it’s been closed since 9/11. It’s nonetheless very impressive from the ground.
Next stop, Telegraph Hill and Coit Tower. We climbed up to the tower via a very long set of twisting steps, some were constructed of wood and wove their way through the most lovely private gardens. It was all very reminiscent of Barbary Lane from Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City books.
The top of Telegraph Hill affords a wonderful view across the city – Golden Gate Bridge is still shrouded in fog. We didn’t go up Coit Tower itself as the queue was quite long and in any case the real beauty of the tower are the wonderful murals inside the room at the base that were painted in the 1930s and depict working life in California at that time. The work was undertaken by left-leaning artists, influenced and sometimes taught by Diego Rivera. Beautiful. They were branded ‘communist propaganda’ by some newspapers and critics and one mural had to be removed.
We then walked down Telegraph Hill to Lombard Street, reputed to be the most crooked street in the world. It’s a very steep section of road that has eight sharp turns to help drivers navigate the 40 degree slope. It’s a huge tourist attraction, so lots of people were around taking photos. It’s not a street I’d like to live on as there seemed to be an almost constant stream of motor cars going down the street (it’s one-way) to test their driving skills. We saw a few cyclists too and even a skateboarder testing it out – neither of which I’d be too keen on trying.
Finally we caught a cable car for a very short ride down towards Fisherman’s Wharf, Fort Mason Park and Ghirardelli Square. The square was once home to the Ghirardelli chocolate factory, (since relocated) and has been converted into shops and restaurants.
We stopped for a hot chocolate and a chocolate brownie each in the Ghirardelli Café, before taking a bus back to Richmond (via Safeway, of course), for more wonderful hospitality from Heidi and Martin.
Today we’re off to the Golden Gate Park and the Castro (SF’s gay village) – but first a visit to the American Cyclery bicycle shop that we didn’t quite make it to yesterday.
We’ve arrived in San Francisco and have two days off to explore. Our warm showers hosts Heidi and Martin gave us a very warm welcome indeed. A fantastic meal was waiting for us and for the four young Mexican guys that they’re also hosting. We’re now well fed and watered and wandering around SF.
It’s good to see that the culture here extends to graffiti knitting. In the UK this is known as yarn bombing and it is quite popular (with some) in Southville and Bedminster, the area of Bristol we live in. I’ve seen a few cycle racks in SF adorned with some colourful knits but my favourite so far was the one we spotted yesterday in Point Reyes. This little number was impressive in both its size and ruffles.
We’re off for a wander around the Castro this afternoon so I’ll keep my eyes peeled for any other creatively adorned street furniture.
Summary – day 13 – Sea Ranch to San Francisco (Wednesday 7 September) Posted by Mike
Estimate: 113 miles, actual: 111.0 miles Avg. speed: 13.8 mph Cumulative distance: 1,117.41 miles
A long hot day today, but also the best day’s riding for scenery and just sheer beauty of the ride.
We had a lovely, leisurely breakfast with Bob and Sophia and after photographs on their veranda we set off from Sea Ranch a little later than planned at about 9.00. It was a little cold and foggy at first, but there were patches of blue in the sky and so we were hopefull that it would turn out fine.
About 15 miles from Sea Ranch puncture #5, (Matthew, rear – a small hole in the tube near the valve). We’d had enough of these punctures on Matthew’s rear wheel by now – well I had – and as we were expecting quite a long day of cycling, we decided to change the tyre AND the tube. Matthew’s bike is new and I fear that perhaps the tyres are are a component where money was saved! So fingers crossed – no more punctures.
While we were replacing the tyre, a young woman cycled by towing a Bob trailer. She stopped to help and we found out that she’s called Sarah and that she has a degree in public health. Sarah is touring 6,000 miles in a giant u-shape from NW USA south, then east along the border and north up the east coast – amazing. She’s visiting schools to talk to the children about growing food, eating healthily and taking exercise. This is a brilliant project, (and her cycling trip puts our 1800 mile journey into the shade!) We talked a little about Jamie Oliver’s school dinner campaign and she said that she had written something for his website. Sarah really seemed to be an epitome of the USA American spirit – a ‘get up and go’ attitude, coupled with a desire to help others – really admirable. She hopes to come to Europe to examine school food in different countries … I really hope that she gets to do that. It’s important work. Sarah’s website/blog is at: www.schoolfoodtour.org
Tyre replaced, we redoubled our pace and decided to skip the normal break after 30 miles or so and head straight to lunch in Bodega Bay. The sun came out and the coastal views were breathtaking, high cliffs, sweeping coastlines, inland forests and fields – and all very quiet. We passed by Fort Ross, the southernmost Russian outpost in North America from 1812 to 1841. The wooden stockade and some of the buildings have been reconstructed. The Russian graveyard with its characteristic Russian orthodox grave marker crosses in a field next to the fort.
In the pretty small town of Bodega Bay, we stopped at a deli in Pelican Plaza to stock up on supplies for lunch and ate on a bench next to a surf shop, with lovely views over the bay. Pelican Plaza is a slightly amusing name as my pet name for Matthew sometimes is “Mr P.”, which stands for “Mr Pelican” – from the rhyme: “Pelican, pelican. Eats more than its belly can!” Which sometimes can apply to him!!
While we were sat eating a few people came to talk to us; asking where we were riding to, saying that it was a lovely day for cycling … that kind of thing. One woman came to speak to us and she had two dogs – a huge oversized, white poodle – maybe 3 ft tall – all trimmed and looking rather regal on a leash, (I’m referring to the poodle now, you understand, not the woman) but she was also carrying a much smaller lap dog under her arm, (the woman, not the poodle). When she returned to her 4×4, she handed the big poodle’s leash to her husband, opened the back of the car, reached in and to our amazement retrieved a small set of 3 wooden steps, which she put on the ground by the open rear car door. The poodle used the steps to climb into the car. The wooden stairs were then put away, doors closed and she drove away. We were laughing uproariously by now.
Time to leave Bodega Bay. The bay itself is calm an very round with little crow’s nests on poles jutting out of the water like oversize reeds – we weren’t sure if these were refuges from the tide or fishing platforms … or had some other kind of purpose. Crossing the town took us out of Sonoma County and into Marin County.
Marin County is just north of San Francisco over the Golden Gate bridge. It has a well-known mountain bicycle brand named after it. Mountain biking was invented on the slopes of Mount Tamalpais (by Gary Fisher, among others – who went on to develop his on brand of mountain bicycles). ‘Mount Tam’ is 784 metres (2,574 ft) high and our route into San Francisco took us (on the road) over it – it was quite a slog with our bags, and there lots of racing cyclists whizzing up and down – saying “hi”, “nice day” and so on. A man leaned out of his car with his thumb up and shouted “riding strong”! There were fantastic views from the top – including our first glimpse of San Francisco in the distance, through the trees and across the bay.
We descended into Sausalito – a pretty little town across the bay from San Francisco – with a Mike’s Bikes bicycle store!
A bicycle track went along the waterfront to the Golden Gate bridge – the bridge was unfortunately shrouded in mist, so we could only catch glimpses of it. We rode over in the mist – it’s one and a half miles long. There were plenty of other cyclists and runners and tourists on the walkway. It was starting to get dark now as we made our way through the Presidio along Lincoln Drive to Heidi and Martin’s – our Warm Showers hosts for the next three nights/two days.
We arrived just as dinner was being served in their beautiful house. They had agreed to take in four other cyclists who were passing through that day, too: Pablo, Alex, Luciano and Mario.
So there were eight for dinner – including six hungry cyclists, I hope Heidi knows what she’s let herself in for!
As we’ve already established on this blog, Mike is a bit of a train spotter. The sound of an American train horn blaring or level crossing bell clanking cause his ears prick up!
It’s now time to out myself as a plant spotter, although this won’t be much of a surprise to those of you that know me. As we’ve travelled southwards I’ve loved watching the fauna change. In British Columbia fir trees and ferns predominated, through Washington State more huge pine and poplar forests. In Portland we saw the most beautiful roses, the city is called the ‘Rose City’ as the climate is near perfect for these blooms. In Oregon we saw the rain forests; so-called because of the damp climate that provides perfect conditions for the moss and lichen that grows all over the bark of the trees. Sometimes the moss hangs low, apparently it’s called ‘old man’s beard’ by the locals.
Following the coast through Oregon the plants were similar to those you’d find on the British coast: broom and gorse growing wild and Agapanthus and Hydrangeas popular in gardens. The giant redwoods were amazing, but they have already had a mention on the blog.
Not until we reached California did we start to see more arid plants. Succulents, palms, Red Hot Pokers, Douglas Fir, lots of wild fennel and of course Californian poppies. The bright orange flowers are so synonymous with the state they are in fact the state flower. The other plant that grows wild in all of the verges is Pampas grass – they’ve been everywhere since we arrived in California. It’s strange how a plant considered synonymous with the 1970s naff in the UK are so dramatic and impressive here. The other plant that has stuck out on our journey through California is what locals call Naked Ladies. These bright pink lillys have been growing everywhere. The stems are bare of leaves (hence the naked phrase), but the flowers are incredibly pink. Thankfully, they are the only naked ladies we’ve seen so far on our travels!
Summary – day 12 – Fort Bragg to Sea Ranch (Tuesday 6 September) Posted by Mike
Estimate: 65 miles, actual: 70.62 miles Avg. speed: 15.0 mph Cumulative distance: 1,006.41 miles – we’ve gone through 1,000 miles – well over half-way now. About 800 miles to go!
As we weren’t going to be cycling so far today, we stayed in bed a little longer than usual and had some time to look at the attractive and well-maintained gardens at the Surf Motel and Gardens. The gardens were arranged all the way around the building and in the centre of a large courtyard/car park. There were fountains, gazebos and benches among the planting – it looked really quite special and quite unusual for a fairly inexpensive motel.
We knew that there was a rather nice bicycle store in Fort Bragg and we’d spotted the Fort Bragg Cyclery in a rather large impressive-looking building on Main Street as we rode into town the previous evening. We went back into town to pay them a visit; we needed some spare inner tubes and puncture repair patches, (the ones in Matthew’s puncture repair kit are self-adhesive … these are useless and shouldn’t be used!). The Fort Bragg Cyclery is on the major north/south Pacific coast cycle route, so does good trade with touring cyclist. They have a visitor’s book – so I left an entry telling of our trip celebrating my upcoming 50th birthday and left our blog address – I wonder if the number of hits will increase as a result?!
Matthew picked up a ‘Buildings to Bragg About’ leaflet – a short guide to some of the historic buildings in Fort Bragg and since there was still plenty of time before we needed to set off, we decided to take a bicycle tour of the town and check them out. Many of the older buildings along the Californian coast were destroyed in the 1907 earthquake. So most of the older buildings are from just after then. We had a look at St Michael and All Angels church-a 1902 shingle-style building with a lovely arcaded entrance to a hall on one side; an arts and crafts house and a fantastic 1938 ‘Streamline Moderne’ house – painted white with corner windows; the 1938 Cotton Auditorium built as part of the New Deal and part of secondary school buildings; the 1922 Fort Bragg City Hall, with a big US flag on the side and finally there were lots of interesting wooden shop buildings with apartments above.
Outside a Starbucks coffee shop, we spotted a bicycle, heavily laden with touring equipment. Inside we met Torrie, from Portland and a student of Marine Biological and Art at Oregon State University. An unusual combination, I thought. She’s yet another cyclist who’s interested in a career in environmental conservation work after she graduates. We also spotted two hitchhikers in Fort Bragg (separately); the first that we’ve seen on this trip.
We eventually left Fort Bragg at about 1.00 and headed south on Highway 1 through Caspar, Mendocino, Little River, Albion, past a rather curious little Catholic Cemetery high on a bluff at Cuffeys Cove and bathed in mist, rather reminiscent of a 1950s horror film!
On to Manchester, where we met a delightful woman who was staffing a Save Our Libraries desk in the entrance to the general store.
Point Arena and St Orres followed before – where we passed a Russian-style inn and restaurant.
Puncture #4 (Matthew – rear – again) just before we arrived in Sea Ranch. I didn’t notice that Matthew wasn’t right behind me when I arrived, so had to go back to find him!
It’s been a day of real contrasts: up and down, warm and cold. The road was quiet and characterised by short steep climbs followed by longish curving descents. We were often right by the sea and the cold fog was fairly thick all along the coast. If the road moved inland a little or climbed higher up, we’d find ourselves enjoying warm sunshine. It was an odd sensation. Mostly we were riding in fog, so the few good views out to sea were really appreciated. As we riding along in the mist, we could often hear the waves and once we heard sea lions.
Sea Ranch doesn’t have a town centre, as such. Rather, it’s a series of very nicely designed houses that are well-spaced out in roads that run off Highway 1 towards the sea. There’s a lovely unity of design and appearance to the houses – fairly square and angular, single storey, with large picture windows, wide verandas and all in a uniform silver-grey wood. The houses stand in a wide open grassland, just a few metres from the sea.
Bob and Sophia (+ Tender the beautiful doe-eyed greyhound + Cecil the cat), gave us an extremely warm welcome and made us very comfortable. Bob is a computer programmer, working on games software. Sophia works to prepare environmental impact assessments/reports for new developments. We were little surprised to learn that although they’re listed on Warm Showers, they don’t cycle themselves. Bob is a big hiker, though. Still, it’s really wonderful to come across such generous, warm-hearted, interesting people who are prepared to open up their home to passing cyclists and tourers.
We had a wonderful dinner of pasta and fresh warm bread and told stories from our trip and learned a little about them, too. They’re aiming to live small and minimise their impact, which was quite a boost to some of the things that I’ve been thinking about the importance of consuming less, wasting less and just generally trying to think more about how we live. After dinner we talked until late, while Matthew tickled Tender’s tummy – she looked fantastically relaxed on her back with her fine big paws in the air – it reminded me a little of being back home with our cat, who likes having his tummy tickled, too.
Bob and Sophia are planning a trip to Spain at Easter and we talked about some of the places that they could visit there. Hope they get to the UK, it would be lovely to see them again.
Summary – day 11 – Miranda to Fort Bragg (Monday 5 September – Labor day) Posted by Mike
Estimate: 89 miles, actual: 81.4 miles Avg. speed: 13.9 mph – two epic climbs today and b****y hot! Cumulative distance: 935.79 miles
Breakfast at Miranda Gardens this morning could have been very nice for two greedy British cyclists. There was plenty to eat, but unfortunately the breakfast room was in part of the motel reception area and the receptionist was sat behind her desk and looking out like a rather stern teacher facing a class at lunch time. I felt a bit self-conscious about repeatedly getting up for more, although I did manage to pour two sachets of oats into one bowl and she couldn’t see because I had my back to her. When she left the room for a moment to refill a coffee pot, almost everyone in the room got up for more!
We didn’t need to set off too early this morning, so we cleaned our bikes and tightened up all the bolts.
Polly’s partner Dennis has sent us a message asking about our bicycles and if we’re riding on hybrid bikes. So now seems as good a time as any to introduce you to our trusty titanium steeds: Condor and Van Nicholas. (*If you listen carefully, you’ll hear the sound of Matthew groaning*).
You can skip the next five (!) paragraphs if you find bicycle talk a bit boring! This is for you Dennis – hope you don’t regret asking!
We’re not using hybrid bicycles. Hybrids look a bit like mountain bikes, with fatter tubes and tyres and often have carry racks over the front, as well as the rear wheels. Hybrids usually have a triple chain-set, (three chain rings at the front), to provide lower gears to make it easier to get up hills. Newer ones often have disc brakes, too. Hybrids are really suitable for long/distance touring, especially if there’s a lot to carry, (such as camping gear), as they’re strong and they really come into their own if the journey involves going off-road, because a hybrid bike will take wider, knobbly tyres to provide extra grip on uneven surfaces. But the fatter tube construction on hybrid bikes means that they are also relatively heavy and any additional weight slows a rider down, (of course this is not a particular issue for many touring cyclists). The wider tyres increases road friction too, which means they’re harder work to ride than a bicycle with narrower tyres.
We’re not carrying that much as we’re staying in people’s houses or in motels. Also we’re riding on well-surfaced roads, so we don’t need hybrid touring bikes to take us off-road. Although we’re not riding that fast – aiming for 15 mph, (compared to the 18 mph average that I generally aim for on my road bike), we have a target destination each day and 10-12 mph would mean unfeasibly long days in the saddle.
We’re therefore using titanium touring bikes. A touring frame looks rather like a racing bicycle, but it has some subtle changes – the whole bike will be slightly longer than a racing bike, (a more stretched-out riding position is more comfortable on a long ride and allows for easier shifts in position). Also the frame geometry is such that there’s sufficient space around the frame to fit mudguards. There are fixing points on the seat stays and at the drop-outs for a rear carrying rack, too. The advantage of titanium is that it saves on weight and it also makes for a very strong, yet flexible frame. Titanium is more comfortable on a long day’s ride than aluminium or carbon as it absorbs some of the uneven road surface. The strength of titanium was also a factor in helping us to decide to bring our own bikes, packed in special bags with us on the plane. We thought that they’d have a better chance of surviving intact in the baggage area and in the plane’s hold if something dropped on them. So they’re light, strong, reasonably fast and comfortable to ride all day.
I’m riding my Condor Gran Fondo. I’ve had this bike for about four years now and it’s a beauty! Condor is a British brand, the bike itself was made in Italy. I use it to ride to work if it’s raining or if I need to carry anything. I also use it on longer group rides such as ‘sportives’ (group rides of 60\+ miles) if I think that it might be wet. My other road bike (Litespeed) doesn’t have any real possibly of fitting mudguards, so if it’s wet, the wheels throw dirty water off the road and high up into the air, all over my back and into the face of anyone riding just behind me, (although obviously it serves them right for being a ‘wheel-sucker’ – someone who drafts behind another cyclist uses up to a third less energy). I use Shimano Ultegra compact gearing, (a double chainring on the front), that gives a reasonably good range of gears. Ultegra is Shimano’s second tier groupset – (Dura Ace is the most expensive, adding between £1500 to £2,000 to the cost of a bicycle! It’s very lightweight and mainly used by pros). Ultegra is not so expensive (about £900) but it’s very good quality – smooth, easy shifting – and hard wearing. My Condor bike has taken me over many, many miles – including to Hamburg and back from Bristol (1300 miles) on our test ride for this trip.
Matthew has a new bike – see previous post. We bought it specifically for this trip. It’s from a Dutch titanium bike specialist – Van Nicholas. His is a Yukon, it’s also built with Shimano Ultegra groupset. We bought it on interest-free finance from Leisure Lakes Bicycles in Cheltenham. Although it’s still very new, he’s enjoying the quality of the ride compared to his aluminium Trek road bike. So there you are … too much information about our bicycles!
Back to today’s ride. It was baking hot when we left Miranda Gardens. We continued through the Avenue of the Giants then rejoined Highway 101, following the course of the Eel River as it meanders south-west. The roads were all very quiet today, as it’s Labor day.
In Garberville, a rather odd souvenir store – The Legend of Bigfoot – a large wooden carving of Bigfoot dominates the entrance and the storefront is strewn with redwood carvings,including Paddington and bear friend (bear friend carrying a shotgun!).
We rode past Piercy and about 5 miles from Leggett, we caught up with two other cyclists: Cleveland and John. We’ve spotted more cyclists on the road since we came into California than we’ve seen on the whole of the rest of the journey so far, (if the cyclists in the cities of Vancouver, Seattle and Portland are excluded). Cleveland and John are nos. 16 and 17! They’d been camping for the weekend … “Where’s all your camping gear?”, I asked? “Our wives have it in the ‘sag wagon’ – we’re riding along until they come and pick us up!” what a great idea! I said: “We don’t have any wives, unfortunately!” John works in insurance and Cleveland is completing a PhD in environmental business. That sound great – it’s good to meet people on bicycles like Cleveland and Christie who are working to help the environment.
We’d thought about having lunch in Leggett, but it was further off the road than we expected, so we called onto a service station to refill our water bottles and have a snack.
We were standing in the shade with our bicycles, when a man asked us where we were headed. Matthew said “Fort Bragg”, then he asked where we were from. Matthew said “Bristol, in south-west England.” Really? said the man, “You sure don’t sound like you’re from England”. “What do we sound like?” I asked. “You sound like you’re goddamn French” he said. Well what do you say to that? Apart from the absurdity of suggesting that we sound French, there was an insult – right there – at the ‘goddamn French’. Now I happen to love France and I think that the French do a pretty good job of making their country one of the most beautiful, prosperous and pleasant in the world. The French also have a very positive relationship with the bicycle – most of them ride for pleasure and they are usually very courteous to other cyclists on the roads – slowing down and giving lots of room when driving past, so it’s a real pleasure to cycle in France. The French also run the best, most prestigious and most exciting cycling race in the world – the Tour de France. An epic feat of sporting endurance played out against a backdrop of fantastic and dramatic scenery. What’s not to like about the French? I decided not to pursue this conversation any further and started to pack our bag to leave. Then the man continued; “Do you use weed?” I was a bit shocked by this. I know that we’re in California now, but that takes the biscuit, (or should that be cookie?!). I’m a bit naive about illicit drugs to be honest Believe it or not, no-one has ever offered to sell me them before. Do I even look like someone who smokes weed? I don’t even drink! I replied: “Certainly not. We’re clean-living guys!”. “This here’s weed-growing country”, he said. “It’s cheap”. Hmm … we said goodbye and set off.
The last leg of the journey involved two huge climbs along Shoreline Highway 1, through wooded hills to reach the Mendocino Coast section of the Pacific, (hence our low average speed today).
Once we reached the coast, the temperature dropped a little, but it was beautiful, undulating quiet coastline through Westport to Fort Bragg. The ocean was very calm and it would have been amazing to have seen some whales – they’re out there, but we didn’t spot any. We did spot the glass beach – what was the town dump and where the sea has smoothed the broken glass that was tipped there.
We arrived early in Fort Bragg and had time to get our laundry done while shopping for dinner at a lovely supermarket, with loads of good things to eat. Market Fresh even had solar panels on the roof. Back to the Surf Motel and Gardens in Fort Bragg for a feast and a rest.
Surf Motel and Gardens truly has some extensive and rather lovely gardens and a poster for the Pacific Coast Bicycle Route in the window :)
Americans are well known for their big hospitality, they are also renowned for their large portion sizes! The global rise in food prices does not appear to have dampened the American desire for ‘super-size’ portions. In a recent interview, the actor Rob Lowe said the thing that he most disliked about his appearance was his ‘muffin-top’. With this I concur with Mr Lowe.
For those of you unfamiliar with the phrase ‘muffin-top’. The muffin-top refers to the bulge that occurs above the waistband, similar to the bulge that appears around the top of a muffin when the content has expanded and overhangs the case during cooking.
I’m afraid that my dreams of being able to eat whatever I like on this holiday have been somewhat confounded by the stubbornness of my muffin-top to reduce – in fact some persons, (I’m sure you can guess who) have suggested that my overhang has increased! I know that all this cycling is likely to increase muscle – but not in this particular part of the body, so I’m afraid that avoiding action is required. It’s easy on the muffins from now on – so less of the ‘eating for England’ and more skinny portions methinks!
Our day began with the final few miles of the Avenue of the Giants. The scent from the redwoods and the wild fennel was almost enough to give us a natural high for the rest of the day. The sun was scorching as we left Miranda and stayed with us for a good while.
Passes the first road sign for San Francisco –
Most of today was downhill from the redwoods to the sea, but two significant climbs took us high up through pine forests before bringing us back down on a fast and twisty white-knuckle descent. As we climbed, so did our body temperatures and we built up quite a sweat. The temperature stayed high too – until we descended. As we whizzed down, so did the temperature. By the time we reached the bottom of the descent we were back in the sea-fog. This stayed with us pretty much all the way in to Fort Bragg. It’s a strange kind of fog, not the thick stuff we get in the UK that hangs close to the ground. This fog hovers overhead, blocking out the sun and appearing very spooky as trees and mountains vanish into it above our heads.
Before we started our ascent we stopped at a garage to get sone refreshments. We took advantage of the facilities while we were at it. As we stood by eating, one of the customers heard us talking and asked if I was French! He then went onto ask if ‘we wanted to get high before we set off’. We politely declined as neither of us have ever taken weed or any other mind-bending substances, (I’ve always found there to be plenty of daily occurrences to bend my mind without further assistance). As it turned out the climbs ahead of us provided plenty of highs for one day.
Summary – day 10 – Klamath to Miranda (Sunday 4 September) Posted by Mike
Estimate: 131 miles, actual: 122 miles Avg. speed: 15.2 mph Cumulative distance: 854.39 miles
Our first night in California, the ‘sunshine state’. Perhaps inevitably, it’s foggy, damp and rather cold at 6 am. Ah, well – at least it’s not windy!
When they wake up in the morning, the first thing a cyclist thinks about – before anything else – is their legs. How are the legs feeling today? Muscles? Joints? Good legs = a strong day; riding will be easy and fast. Pretty good legs = a comfortable day… a reasonably easy day’s riding, but don’t over-exert Not good legs = stay in bed!
So, after two days in the wind, I was expecting to want to stay in bed, but a hot bath and an early night had worked its magic and I was feeling ok. There was even more good things to come. Breakfast at Ravenwood Hotel was quite a lavish affair – oats, bagels with strawberry jam, fresh fruit, freshly made coffee … and they had soya milk in the refrigerator! The first hotel/motel that we’ve stayed in who had any. Good old Gary and Perry!
Today’s ride was sheduled to be the longest we’d be doing, (we figured that we’d have found our cycling legs by now and would be unlikely to be tired out yet!)
I was a little nervous about doing 130 miles, especially after a couple of difficult days; so we were up at 6.00 am, eating breakfast as soon as we could at 7.00 am, wrapped up against the weather and on the road by 7.45.
The fog seems to be very localised – mostly in low-lying areas near the sea. We started to climb out of Klamath and it cleared, (but still cold). We had a nice start to the day as we rode off Highway 101 and through Prairie Creek State park – a quiet wooded valley. We spotted two cyclists ahead and caught them up.
Christie was cycling from the Oregon/California border to where she lives in San Diego – all this to celebrate her 30th birthday. (Perhaps big cycle rides and round number birthdays just go together! I wonder where I shall want to go when I’m 60 – anyone fancy cycling across Australia with me?!). Christie works for an energy company in San Diego on energy conservation measures – it’s really pleasing to learn about that sort of work. She was being supported and paced on her ride by friends and family. For three days it was Dominic, a friend who is a firefighter in San Diego and a colleague of Christie’s fiancé – Matt, who was driving a support vehicle along the route too.
Dominic told us about his work and the effect that public sector cuts were having in the USA. I had no idea, but in California all firefighters must also be trained paramedics – so it takes quite a while to qualify. They usually work shifts of 10 days on (24 hours a day) and 10 days off. Firefighters can retire at 50-55. Dominic was well travelled – he’d been all over Europe and to Africa. Dominic had another day riding with Christie, then Christie’s father was joining them. One thing I was puzzled by, (so Christie – if you’re reading this, maybe you can tell us), Christie was pulling a little Bob trailer along, which seemed odd with Matt in a support vehicle that could have transported her stuff for her! Anyway, they all made a fantastic team. Matt would drive ahead for a mile or so and pull in while Christie and Dominic caught up. We stopped to take picture and gave them our blog address. After we had ridden away Matt overtook us and pulled over a little way ahead, as we passed him he called out: “Good riding. That was fast.” that cheered us up somewhat!
We passed through Humboldt Lagoons State Park – several large lagoons separated from the sea by an isthmus along which the road passed – so there were large lagoons on our left and the sea on our right. We noticed some cars parked by some dunes up ahead with people looking out with cameras and binoculars. We stopped to look too and there were a herd of elks grazing and not minding the people at all! Amazing – almost the Magic Moment of the Day.
We thought that we’d stop in Trinidad for a second breakfast, but we were going well and chatting with Christie and Dominic had made the time go by, so we continued on to Eureka for lunch. The road to Eureka curves around Arcata Bay; the water was incredibly flat and calm. Mist was rising and billowing off the water at its edge, almost like steam. It was a little eerie. We saw some herons and some similar-looking wading birds, that were all white, (help with that anyone?!)
Eureka is a beautiful historic town, with extraordinary buildings – some huge, elaborate detached wooden houses – painted in bright colours. Matthew had read that they were built on the profits of the local rich dairy industry and were colloquially known as ‘buttermilk mansions’.
It’s a public holiday tomorrow – Labor day and we rode past the ‘Blues on the Bay’ music festival – sounded brilliant – a violinist was playing Country and Western or Hoedown music as we rode into the old town. That seemed fitting. (I’ve no idea if there is any difference between Country and Western or Hoedown and if there is, what it might be).
Lunch was as Los Bagels in Eureka – lovely! We’d noticed a smart-looking tandem outside, too, so that was further incentive to go in. Turns out that the tandem cyclists were from Sweden – Barbara and Claus. They were heading to San Francisco from Vancouver! We had a really nice, interesting talk – our lunches often last longer than we intend when we meet nice people, and if they’re cyclists too they’re almost bound to be nice. Claus had been a stockbroker, but became somewhat disillusioned with it. Now he was working on a device for cutting wood safely to use in stoves. Sounded like like we could use one – might save me all that chopping! Barbara had done some welfare, charitable work. They were staying in Eureka for the night and it was a shame not to be able to spend more time with them. Maybe we’ll meet up again in Bristol or in Oslo! That’d be good.
Just outside Eureka on the last leg of the day to Miranda, puncture #3 (Matthew – rear, another piece of fine wire – this time it had pierced the tube three times, the holes weren’t close enough together to repair with one patch and two patches overlapped and leaked – so annoying. We ended up taking the wheel off and replacing the inner tube. The whole thing was a pain and wasted lots of time. But once we were off we were soon in the Avenue of the Giants – mile, after mile of great, soaring redwood trees along the Eel River, (31 miles in all). There was even a Butler Grove (my mother’s family name). The Magic Moment of the Day – just us on our bikes on a winding road, it was like cycling down the nave of a massive, ancient, twisted, high cathedral. Stupendous.
We arrived in Miranda at 7.30 – just as the local store had closed – so we ate the extra bagels that we’d bought at lunchtime with cheese and then some fruit. There was a huge log fire outside and we could hear people talking around it – but we were too tired to join them. In bed and asleep by 9.30 feeling safe and somehow protected by all those beautiful giant redwoods.
Today has been our longest day’s ride so far and the longest of our trip. 122 miles covered today from the foggy coast of north California to the sun-dappled giant redwoods. The final 30 miles were along the Avenue of the Giants – phenomenal, words can’t really describe how awesome these trees are. As it turned out, an unfortunate puncture (a thin piece of wire put three holes in the same inner tube), that held us up by about 30 minutes earlier turned out to be a blessing as it meant we had the avenue virtually to ourselves – hardly any cars at all. We were treated to wafts of cedar, pine and fennel that grows wild along the roadside wherever the sunlight gets through the trees. Tonight we’re sleeping amongst the trees in a wooden cabin – magical. If we weren’t both so sleepy after our long ride it would also be romantic!
Summary – day 09 – Port Orford to Klamath (Saturday 3 September) Posted by Mike
Estimate: 102 miles, actual: 100.9 miles Avg. speed: 13.2 mph Cumulative distance: 732.39 miles
Today has been quite challenging. We didn’t want to hang about in Port Orford, so we set off at 8.00 am. We ought to have arrived in Klamath between 4 and 5 pm, depending on how long we spent on our breaks. In fact, we arrived at 7.30 pm. Why? The wind. The bloody wind. A headwind. It’s been a horrendously difficult ride today because if it. It was a strong and almost constant southerly headwind that dogged most of our journey. Managing more than 8 mph for long stretches of time was almost impossible. What’s worse is that today’s headwind followed on from yesterday’s headwind, so we were already pretty tired.
This. Was. Not. Supposed. To. Happen. We spent some time before the trip discussing and finding out whether it would be better to ride from south to north or vice versa. We chose north to south because we read that the prevailing wind would assist us that way. Hmmm.
Apart from selfish drivers, wind is cyclist’s worst enemy – there’s nothing that can be done about it, it can wreck schedules and turn what should have been a lovely day’s ride like today’s into a bad-tempered slog. Tailwinds can be nice, but sometimes they’re not noticeable and a rider will just think that they’re going particularly well! Headwinds are always obvious and on a longish journey like today, where we were always heading south and the wind was always coming from the south there was just no respite. So my knees are feeling a bit sore and we’re both a little demoralised. A few more days like this could really threaten the success of our trip.
Otherwise, today was an incredible day in terms of scenery; southern Oregon is sparsely populated and enjoys lots of long wide beaches – with no one, or almost no-one on them, high wooded headlands and beautiful mountains. Mist was clinging to the sea and the shore early on. At one point a deer wandered across the road in front of us, paused to look, then continued on into the forest. It was magical (but not The Magic Moment of the Day).
Puncture #2 (Matthew’s front tyre had a piece of fine wire embedded in it), so we had a break in Gold Beach – just a coffee and leftover pizza from last night. Mike wondered if the town’s name was anything to do with the codename of of the WWII Normandy landing beaches – Juno, Sword and Gold. We asked a local, who said that there was no connection and the name had rather more prosaic origins – gold was found here.
We sat outside a diner while Mike fixed the puncture. The diner was next to a hairdresser’s and we could hear the women chatting inside through an open door – they all seemed nice, but then we noticed a poster in the window of the hairdresser’s advertising a fundraising benefit for the Friends of the NRA, (National Rifle Association – a very influential pro-guns lobby). Eek, we scarpered pretty quickly then.
Next stop was Brookings for our lunch. We called at a Fred Meyer supermarket, but there was nowhere outside to sit and no bicycle racks – just an enormous car park. Depressing. Safeway’s always seems to have tables and chairs outside. We decided to pack the food into our bags and ride to try to find a little park or a square where we could eat. This was a mistake – there was just nowhere nice to stop and we kept riding for hours without having anything to eat.
We were feeling quite tired hungry by now, but our spirits were raised as we approached the Oregon-California border. The rest of our journey south will be in California – only trouble is, California is over 700 miles long! (and we’re not travelling in a straight line from north to south).
Just south of Brookings a cold sea fog rolled in, but at least the wind had dropped somewhat! The white mist remained for the rest of the day – sometimes we’d climb out, then we’d be back in it. As we descended into Klamath along the coast, we could see out to sea, only it wasn’t the sea that we were looking at, it was the tops of the sea mist – is was like being just above the clouds. The Magic Moment of the Day, definitely.
The route south of the border has also brought us into Giant Redwood country – high, beautiful trees with deep ridges on their reddish brown trunks – incredible. We should see the real biggies tomorrow in the ‘Avenue of the Giants’.
We arrived at the Ravenwood Hotel in Klamath, a bit the worse for wear. The owner came out to the reception desk with a huge blue and yellow parrot on his shoulder – a real one! Matthew had a bit of a shock and went pale … he’s not good with birds for some reason. Otherwise, the Ravenwood Hotel is lovely – with two very nice, if a little camp, gay hosts: Perry and Gary. That cheered us up a bit.
It’s going to be a long, hilly ride tomorrow – let’s hope that the wind has dropped, or that at least it’s doing what it’s supposed to and helps us along.
Every holiday has them – the days that don’t go to plan or the off-day. The days that you’d quite like to delete. This was one of them. Today should have been an excellent day, beginning with the final 40 miles of Oregon coast and ending with the start of the superb giant redwood forests. Although we got both, fate also intervened leading to some less favourable occurrences. First we had headwind almost all day, as any cyclist knows this saps your soul. It also holds your speed right back, (so we didn’t reach our goal of averaging 15mph today).
Second we had punctures. Not one but two – one of which was a slow one which we pumped up twice to keep us going.
Finally we had cold fog. So much for welcome to sunny California! From the moment we passed the state border it was a virtual ‘white-out’. It made climbing through the redwoods pretty eerie – although reaching the viewing point above the clouds was amazing, (it was like being in a plane above clouds) before we descended at high speed (terrifyingly) into the fog again. All of this made our ride the longest yet and very tiring. It was a huge relief to get to the Ravenwood Motel in Klameth, our (very comfortable) refuge for tonight. A good night’s rest is what’s needed and a less challenging day tomorrow (fingers crossed).
Cars in the USA are huge. Almost every one that passes is an SUV (the equivalent of Land Rover in the UK). Of course they’re fitted with all mod cons including air-conditioning – but who needs all that expense? As the temperature rises, the touring cyclists can take advantage of the free air-conditioner provided by mother nature. Not only do we get free air-con, we also get free air freshener in a variety of scents. We’ve had fantastic pine forest (think magic tree car air fresheners – but a million times better), ocean breeze (with real ocean), sand dune spray (with exfoliating sand) and cedar sensation (courtesy of the redwood trunks being transported by logging trucks along our route). It’s only a pity that there isn’t a ‘nose-press’ option on this blog for me to share these scents with you. I’m afraid you’ll have to use your imagination (or just visit the toilet cleaner aisle in your nearest supermarket for a very poor approximation!).
Summary – day 08 – Florence to Port Orford (Friday 2 September) Posted by Mike
Estimate: 98.6 miles, actual: 103 miles
Avg. speed: 15.7 mph – not bad, given the wind
Cumulative distance: 631.49 miles
Our hotel in Florence, the River Inn had a lovely breakfast room – with two big round electric waffle machines, alongside there was even an automatic batter dispenser! Matthew couldn’t resist and set about making two, (then ate one and three-quarters, I can’t think what happened to the other quarter!). Otherwise Captain Sensible (that’s me), had oats and toast for breakfast.
While we were having breakfast, I sat and pondered the Dilemma of the Day: short and horrible or long and nice? Now when faced with that sort of decision, what’s a cycling boy to do? Actually, this sort of dilemma must be resolved by touring cyclists all the time; shorter, flatter, faster routes are inevitably on roads that are ugly and choked with traffic, while the nicer, quieter routes are usually further. We were dealing with dilemma because Mr. Garmin was having an off day, (quite literally – when I realised that he wanted to send us on a 200 mile trip to cover the estimated 98 miles from Florence to Port Orford I turned off Garmin routing). I probably looked a bit odd sat in the Riverside Inn breakfast room, dressed in Lycra cycling shorts and poring over maps and web pages on an iPad AND an iPhone. Yes, we have an iPad with us, as well as our phones.
This might be an appropriate point for me to eat a little bit of humble pie, as I didn’t want Matthew to bring the iPad. In fact, I may have said that bringing an iPad was ‘ridiculous.’ Any of you who are reading this that know me well (“Hi Mom”), will know that I tend to take the view that I’m always right. However, very rarely and occasionally I might be misinformed about something and in consequence discover that someone else is responsible for my making a mistake. So I am usually prepared to concede, that while I may not always right – I am never wrong! It’s taken Matthew quite a while to accommodate himself to this fact, but after 17 years of extra-marital bliss, he has more or less learned that trying to argue with me is futile. It is therefore extremely difficult for me to suggest that bringing the iPad might, just, possibly, maybe, have been quite a good idea. We’ve watched movies on it, checked emails on it, faffed about on the blog with it, found out a little about some of places that we’re visiting on it and sorted out some of our route dilemmas on it. We could do all those things on the iPhone, of course, but it’s easer with a bigger screen and being able to compare two pieces of routing information on a phone and a pad is really useful. So there you are, I admit it – bringing the iPad might have been a good idea!
Unsurprisingly, we decided to take the long and nice route. Essentially following the well-marked Oregon Coast Cycle Route.
In the morning this route took us through the Oregon Dunes. I sometimes find that as an Englishman in America, I run out of superlatives to describe the things that I see … so much is beautiful, amazing, the most, the biggest, etc. Well the Oregon Dunes are difficult to describe – they’re huge! They must stretch for at least 40 miles and sometimes occupy a really wide area. They’re the biggest sand dunes that I think I’ve ever seen … some are 150 meters (500 ft) high (and I write as someone who’s been to the Sahara!) Occasionally a dune spills into the road and it was necessary for us to slowly negotiate our way around the massive drifts of sand spilling across the carriageway. The dunes are a popular attraction, and we could often hear the buzz of quad bikes in the distance. As well as towing boats, lots of cars here were towing trailers with fancy-looking quad bikes in them. Between the dunes, the roads were tree-lined with pines and there were quite a few inland lakes, making for a very pleasant morning’s ride.
We passed a couple of touring cyclists, who were very heavily loaded. She was pulling a little single-wheeled Bob trailer with their camping gear in it, while he was carrying two panniers at the front as well as two on the rear. They were from North Carolina and had taken 9 Greyhound buses to the start of their cycle trip in north Washington. It had cost them only $100 and they said that they’d seen lots of drop-outs en route! She was planning on returning to college to train as an art teacher and he had just finished college, he was a sociology major – yay! We cycled away from them, (they were going quite slowly and aiming for Coos Bay that night – Matthew said, “Oh, we’re heading there for lunch!” Ouch!) Afterwards Mike remarked, “A sociologist on a bicycle? Result!” Matthew replied rather sardonically: “Oh, that? They’re everywhere.”
Just before North Bend a huge inlet fed by the Coos River is crossed by Super Scary Bridge #3: the Conde B. McCullough Memorial Bridge. This bridge is 242 m (793 ft) long and is about 50 m (150 ft) above the water. The main bridge is connected to the land at each end by a series of high arched sections that make the whole thing over 500 m (1700 ft) long.
I find these bridges so scary for all the usual reasons, they’re extremely high up, but also because either the balustrades seem to be so low, (compared to those on European bridges) and because we are forced by traffic into cycling very close to the edge. It’s very easy to imagine coming off the bicycle and falling over the balustrade off the bridge, (well, I find this easy to imagine!). Roads usually narrow on bridges and either there is no sidewalk, or it’s very narrow too. This all means that there’s not much room for vehicles to pass in both directions and drivers don’t seem to slow down on the bridges. I’m reminded of what happened to poor Johnny Hoogerland and Antonia Flecha in this year’s Tour de France – a car nudged them as it tried to pass and sent them flying – Hoogerland went into barbed wire fence – it was horrible. If you want to see it for yourself, go here:
The Conde B. McCullough Memorial Bridge has a button at each end for cyclists to press, a bit like the one at the tunnel outside of Florence. The button sets off big flashing orange lights and reduces the speed limit on the bridge to (a still too fast) 35 mph. There are big signs for drivers warning of cyclists in the roadway. We approached the bridge rather nervously and pressed the button. To our surprise, delight and amazement a driver behind us in a big Winnebago slowed down to our cycling speed and kept well behind us all the way across the bridge. I wanted to hug him – and my ardour increased even more when we heard horns sounding from some frustrated drivers behind him who couldn’t see that we were on front – he just ignored them. When we came off the bridge we pulled over to wave to the driver and gave thumbs up signs. As the line of traffic streamed past us someone in a red car yelled some abuse about #*<$¥+•! bikes on the bridge. That spoiled things a little – cyclists are explicitly allowed on the bridge, it’s part of a state-wide official bicycle route and the next bridge upstream was miles away.
The wind was blowing an absolute gale around North Bend, so we decided to take a break and headed to Safeway’s for lunch. I’ve been trying to work out why this particular supermarket has more or less become our second home on this holiday. I don’t think it’s because Safeway’s is like Waitrose, as Matthew has suggested – that’s just silly. It’s more that they’re pretty ubiquitous, fairly reliable, not expensive, usually have free wi-fi and that we can buy food in small-ish quantities.
While Matthew was picking up our freshly-made sandwiches from April who was working on the counter, she told him that her father is a State patrolman and that they’ve been clamping down heavily and fining people for speeding on the bridge. Good. There’s a sweary man in a red car out there just itching to be caught!
After lunch we continued south on much quieter roads – it’s amazing how soon off the main highways the traffic dwindles to virtually nothing. Barview then Charleston – small hard-working fishing towns by the looks of them. Not especially prosperous. In Charleston we rode past several huge piles of shells. There was a very strong smell of off-fish – yuk. Once away from Charleston the road pitched up and there was lots of climbing through wooded hills for a while. Spectacular views for miles from high up – but the wind has been a real trial today – coming at us from the west, (our right and in front of us), gusting so hard that causes our bicycles to wobble a bit alarmingly sometimes. Matthew almost ran over a squirrel on the West Beaver Hill Road, it ran out in front of him from the grass on the verge, stopped in front of him, seemed to do a little dance as it wasn’t certain which way to go next, then it jumped back into the undergrowth. We wondered if there was a squirrel equivalent of the children’s ‘chicken’ game being played!
On to Bandon, a beautiful little seaside town, with some very nice modern housing developments on a high cliff overlooking the sea. Through Langlois, a place-name that sounds a bit Welsh to me – but perhaps it isn’t. Then a tiny little town called Denmark, (a hilarious name) and on into Port Orford down a long straight descent, (which I was grateful for after all that climbing and buffeting by the wind).
I was rather looking forward to Port Orford, it sounded like it would be nice. Orford and Orford Ness on the Suffolk coast are beautiful … so it seemed to follow logically that Port Orford would be nice too. Unfortunately it’s a complete dump, a five lane highway runs through the centre of town and I saw lots of houses for sale. Shops are boarded up and there didn’t seem to be much going on.
We stayed in a hotel called Castaway-by-the-Sea, another romantic-sounding place. The sea views are wonderful, but the place is horrid – black mould on the walls in the bathroom, a hook coming out of the ceiling – perhaps someone hung themselves when they saw the mould? And strange notices forbidding the cooking of crab in the room! (This is doubly odd, as the room doesn’t even have any cooking facilities!).
The most famous eatery in town is the Crazy Norwegian’s Fish & Chips Shop – but there wasn’t much there for vegetarians, so we walked for ages into a headwind to find somewhere to eat. Everywhere seemed to be closing up for the day, so we had to act fast – always a mistake! We went into a diner. It smelled quite strongly of disinfectant. The seats were sagging and the black vinyl covers were all patched with lengths of black electrical tape. There was lots if fish, clams, crab etc on the menu … I asked if I could have a plain omelette with French fries and our waitress looked doubtful. ‘That’s on the breakfast menu and we don’t have the breakfast chef in right now, but I can go and ask’. She asked and the ‘not breakfast chef’ said he couldn’t make an omelette, so the answer was no! I’ve never heard of a chef, (breakfast or any other kind who couldn’t make an omelette – so there’s a first! We ended up with giant pizzas and walked back to the hotel in the dark.
Day 07 – Thursday – Neskowin to Florence Posted by Mike
Estimate: 87.8 miles, actual: 88.88 miles
Avg speed: 16.7 mph – our fastest day yet – I think the tailwind might have helped us today a little though!
Cumulative distance: 528.49 miles
Neskowin is magical and we really enjoyed our stay at the Proposal Rock Inn – something special about reaching the Pacific Ocean.
Proposal Rock Inn
At the end of out first week, our first full day riding down Highway 101 along the Oregon Coast Highway.
We set off a little later than usual at about 10.30. But we knew it was a relatively short day’s riding and our accommodation was so nice, it was good to chill out for a while. Mike’s OCD-tendencies drove him to polish and oil our bicycles. There was a small, (but perhaps inevitably, quite expensive) general store and we bought some coffee, cereal and soya milk and brought it back to our room to have for breakfast. Our room had beautiful views of Neskowin Creek flowing past Proposal Rock and into the ocean.
The coastal landscape is obviously very different from what we’ve experienced so far. Still lots of pine woods on either side of the road, steep climbs followed by spectacularly fast descents. The highway sometimes runs by the sea (and it’s clear how much damage it can do, as the edge of the road is sometimes eroded and collapsing). Sometimes we’re cycling through woodland and then through lots of small, pretty towns with buildings painted in pastel colours and decorated with flags and banners. There are some very dramatic sections of coast with incredible views of rocky outcrops, cliffs, sandy beaches, and there are viewpoints, it’s very easy to linger and just enjoy,
After 10 miles, we arrived in Lincoln City and stopped to take on more coffee and fuel up on croissant. As we set off from Lincoln City, a man drove past and shouted: “Keep on riding!” Fantastic – made us feel really welcome and determined to do just that!
Next stop Newport, where we stopped for lunch. Today, we eschewed Safeway’s and opted instead for Fred Mayer – Roberto in Portland thought that they’d be more likely to stock organic products and soya – which was true. The fresh fruit has been amazing on our trip so far and we had some beautiful peaches, blueberries, strawberries and melon.
While we were eating, a shiny black BMW car pulled up with a rather amusing number plate: IAM007. I think that USA number (licence) plates look a bit odd to us Europeans. The man who stepped out of the car, was no James Bond, however! Mike took a photograph of the car, but didn’t have the courage to get a picture the man … just in case we’re wrong about the Bond thing!
Just to the south of Newport we had to cross yet another scary bridge. Not in quite the same league as the Lewis and Clarke Bridge in Longview, the Yaquina Bay Bridge is arch-shaped like the Sydney Harbour Bridge, almost 1 km long and 41 m (133 ft) high. Eek!
The final 30 miles or so was the most beautiful, along the coast and through the Siuslaw National Forest. By Sea Lion Caves, we saw seals swimming in the Ocean! We passed some beautiful big inland lakes and at one point the road passed through a short, narrow tunnel. As cyclists entered we had to push a button to reduce the speed limit and trigger flashing warning lights for other road-users – it was brilliant – we could definitely do with that sort of thing in the UK.
Finally, a long straight road into Florence – the River House Inn – the most select hotel that we’ve stayed at so far. It had lovely colourful flower beds against the building. We did our laundry and then headed into the ‘historic old town’ for dinner at The Bridgwater: a big diner with cream coloured wood walls, high ceilings with lovely old ceiling fans, huge windows fronting the street – so lots to look at. Mike ordered pasta and Matthew asked for a salad – we thought that we’d start with a serving of onion rings … when that arrived I nearly fell off my seat, it was a massive portion … we didn’t need anything else … along came the pasta and Matthew’s salad – both meals arrived on truly giant plates … we could hardly eat any of it, I felt rather guilty about leaving so much.
After dinner a rather romantic walk along the river in the moonlight and a good night’s sleep.
Before we set off, when telling people about our trip lots of people would say “Why do you want to cycle 1800 miles?”
There are clearly many reasons: the thrill of travelling, seeing sights we’d miss if travelling in a car, the challenge and sense of achievement of doing such a journey by bicycle – all very good reasons. There is of course one other good reason – cake! The average male needs to consume about 2500 calories a day. When you’re pedalling around 100 miles a day you can add easily an extra 1500 calories to that.
So ‘guilt-free’ indulgence is the name of the game. Cake for breakfast, lunch and dinner – and while we’re at it, throw in a few muesli bars to munch on whilst in the saddle. So far I’ve sampled several local delicacies: blueberry fritter, blueberry muffins, blueberry scone (can you see a blueberry trend here!), Portland coffee cake, morning buns, (we all like nice morning bun, don’t we!), oatmeal cookies, (not to be confused with biscuits), banana bread, croissants … the choice just goes on and on … all delicious!
I should point out that we are also consuming more nutritious food stuffs too, (fruit, veg, soya protein etc) and that so far not so much as a lick of ice cream has passed my lips. 1400 or so miles left to go though, so still plenty of time for that when we reach sunny California.
Day 06 – Wednesday – Portland to Neskowin Posted by Mike
Estimate: 97.6 miles, actual: 92.63 miles – result! Well done Garmin, (actually a little less than expected because we’re not cycling from Sauvie Island where we were originally planning to stay).
Avg speed: 15.3 mph – good – feeling that we’re getting into our stride now. Cumulative distance: 439.61 miles
The Magic Moment of the Day occurred very early on. We’d said goodbye to Roberto and Dave and were riding towards the city centre. Just as we approached the riverside cycleway entrance ramp on NE 1st Street and NE Lloyd Blvd, someone caught up with us on their bicycle and behind me I could hear them say: “Hi, Matthew. Where are you riding to today?”
This was surreal to say the least. We know – and could name by sight – precisely three people in Portland, (and we could account for all their whereabouts: Roberto was at work, Dave was at a garage having the tyres on his car replaced and Larry was probably still in bed with his boyfriend, but definitely in Seattle and not in Portland at all). In any case, this person was a woman on a bicycle … and we definitely didn’t know any women in Portland.
Matthew was completely thrown by this encounter. Who was she? How did she know his name? He said that we were heading to San Diego. “Oh, I know that,” she said, “but where are you going TODAY?” “Neskowin” he said rather meekly. It turned out that this was Lisa, a member of Warm Showers and she was someone who we had e-mailed to ask if she could accommodate us. (She had offered us a place to stay, but we’d already agreed that we’d stay with Roberto, so we’d sent her a message thanking her for her kind offer, and explaining that we’d already secured somewhere else to stay). But what are the chances of this happening? Anyone?! Almost 2.3 million people live in the Portland metropolitan area, thousands and thousands of them are cyclists. How on earth did she manage to be in the same place at the same time as us and how did she recognise us? Lisa? You must put in a comment and let us know, otherwise people won’t believe us! I imagine that if a movie were ever made of our trip, this would be the point where people would think that our story is unbelievable!
We had a nice chat with Lisa – who works as an analyst at a medical insurance company. She told us about her cycling trip to France using Warm Showers, but she was heading to work over the Steel Bridge – in the other direction to us, so we said goodbye and headed out of town on along the river to route 99 West.
As we left Portland heading south-west to the Pacific coast, we passed under a cable car over the river. Later we rode past a ‘Self-Service Dog Wash’ Matthew wondered, “How does the dog serve itself?” Mike found this laugh-out-loud, uproariously funny and it kept him giggling for about the next 20 miles. (Perhaps he’s been exposed to a bit too much sun than is good for a pale Englishman). There was also a sign for a ‘Psychic Reader’, someone who knows what’s in a book without opening it we wondered?!
The tone was set for the day now and I was reminded of one if the funniest stories I was ever told. It was at a Colston Hall symphony concert in Bristol with an academic friend who told me of the research worker who was visiting a university department to ask one of the administrators if they could have “a list of faculty staff, broken down by age and sex.” The administrator replied: “That would be all of them.” I laughed so much my sides hurt, face streaming with tears and I was still guffawing and stifling giggles all the way through Bruckner’s 5th Symphony, which is really quite a serious piece and hardly the stuff of mirth.
Perhaps it’s necessary to be an academic to find this story so funny. University administrative and clerical staff are special; they do an incredible job, usually for not very much money. As well as all the usual admin-type tasks, their work involves them guarding and protecting academics from students. Academics spend most of their time trying to avoid students of course, so the work of the university administrator is hardly inconsequential. I suspect that university administrative and clerical staff are not really appreciated by academics as much as they should be – they do their jobs with enormous professionalism and it’s not often that they let their guard down. So that’s why the story is so funny.
Anyway, it doesn’t take much to get Mike laughing, so perhaps some of you would like to comment with your funniest stories or jokes to keep Mike giggling on the road? If you want, he knows a couple of other very funny stories, (that is, he thinks they’re very funny, while Matthew just rolls his eyes). Anyway, Mike is happy to relate some other funny stories as we wend our way south – if people want him to, that is. (*pause while tumbleweed blows in the wind*).
So … “Do pray tell us your hilarious joke.”(That line borrowed from Priscilla Queen of the Desert, just in case you feared that we were only interested in highbrow culture after the earlier Bruckner reference. Although, come to think of it, anyone would only need to read this blog for two minutes to know that high culture is, unfortunately all too rare here).
By McMinnville Municipal Airport, we passed the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum. This looked fantastic from the road – they obviously have an impressive collection, some of it displayed outside – including on the roofs of the main exhibition buildings, which were cleverly designed to look like the planes were taking off from them. On one there was a Boeing 747 – it looked amazing. Mike would have liked to go in, but Matthew put his foot down, (quite literally, as he pedalled off and left Mike gawping at the planes).
At about McMinnville the west wind picked up and we were battling with it on an off most of the rest of the way to Neskowin. This made the 15.3 mph average speed particularly pleasing – some of the riding was hard work today.
As some (very small) compensation, we stopped for lunch in McMinnville. When I asked for an oat biscuit the sales assistant started laughing uncontrollably – I keep forgetting that they’re ‘cookies’ in the US, but perhaps someone can explain why saying biscuit is so funny – we asked her why oat biscuit was funny, but she was laughing so much, that what she said didn’t make any sense.
At McMinnville we turned onto Highway 18 and then passed through the Grand Ronde Indian Reservation – there were local election posters for seats on the Indian Council. Just after Willamina we changed to a much quieter route, the Little Nestucca River Road – it was stunning, we rode along a narrow, twisting, undulating road through the Nestucca valley. Pine trees, steep mountain sides giving way to open fields with grazing cows and fast-flowing streams cascading over waterfalls – it reminded us of Austria. The damp conditions are perfect for the moss that grows on almost all of the trees and branches. On some trees it grows so profusely that it hangs down like cobwebs – very dark green, quite eerie and beautiful at the same time. Matthew had read about these Oregon ‘rain-forests’, so to see them first-hand on such a lovely stretch of road was a bonus. We enjoyed a fantastic descent, crossing little single-lane bridges towards Highway 101 – the north-south coast road that we’ll be following now for most of the rest of our journey south.
As we approached Highway 101 we could see some high exposed rocks in the distance, that we assumed were part of the coast or in the sea.
It was so tantalising, to be nearing the Pacific Ocean ‘proper’, (the areas further north, was the Pacific Ocean, of course – but it was interrupted by islands and promontories). This time we expected to get an uninterrupted view of the Pacific. And then we saw it. Just before Neskowin. Matthew has never been to the west coast of the USA or seen the Pacific Ocean. It’s incredible and huge and thousands of shades of blue and white – a white translucent mist hovered just above the water near the shore.
A few minutes later we arrived at Neskowin and our accommodation. A third floor ‘condo’ – not a word we use in Britain, we’d call it a furnished studio flat I suppose. The windows and balcony looked out to the sea and an islet called Proposal Rock, (curiously, Mike resisted any temptation to propose). We checked in and went down to the beach, the sun was setting, the beach was beautiful and Matthew’s took his first paddle in the Pacific Ocean, (the water was bloody cold!).
Proposal Rock, Neskown
While we were having lunch in McMinnville, (and after the oat biscuit incident), a women asked us where we were heading and recommended Oregon Pinot Noir, (we’ve been riding past lots of vineyards and ‘wineries’) and she also said that pizza at the Hawk Creek Café in Neskowin was good, so we went to have a pizza. While we were waiting another customer said that I had cool shoes – I wear my vivo barefoot running shoes when I’m not cycling – they’re very light and fold flat. We talked a bit about our journey so far. Ruth and her partner Glen are on vacation too – seeing where they end up each day. We were called to our table and had been there a few minutes, when Ruth came back over to our table say: “I just had to ask, how far are you going?” We said that we were going to Mexico and told her about our blog – she gave us her email address and I said that I’d send a link for my shoes too. So it’d be good to hear from Ruth about how her journey continued after we parted company.
Dilemma of the Day: Should Mike have some Oregon wine? Decision? No. He doesn’t really drink. Matthew had some though, he said it was lovely – cheers!
Today has been our first full day of cycling on route 101 along the Pacific Ocean. You don’t have to travel far to be reminded of the power of the sea and wind. In Neskowin, our port for last night, our room looked out over the creek towards the sea. Washed high up on the beach was a huge tree stump that could only have been moved by an almighty storm. Further along the coast there were several signs of the ocean’s attempt to take chunks out of the road. The most startling reminder of the danger from the sea are the frequent road signs telling you that you’re entering a ‘Tsunami hazard zone’. Alongside the usual fire evacuation signs in our hotel were Tsunami evacuation emergency procedures. It’s a very stark reminder that the awful scenes we saw in Japan recently could easily affect any part of this coastline. Fingers crossed that the earth won’t move while we’re here. Thankfully the power of nature helped us on our way today – blowing us all the way! It would be nice if that keeps up all the way to Mexico, but I don’t expect that it will!
There is a saying in the UK, usually referring to women and their dads, that they are likely to ‘marry their fathers’. In these increasingly progressive days of civil partnerships, I think that this phrase is increasingly relevant for gay couples too.
Actually, I have thought for some time that I ‘married my dad’. Not literally, of course, (that would be very odd) and in fact not even technically, as Mike and I are not married or civil-partnered; but after 17 years together I think we’re ‘as good as’. When I say ‘marry my dad’, I mean that Mike and my Dad seem to share a lot of similar interests: engineering marvels (especially transport-related) such as steam and high-speed trains; planes airbus vs Boeing, the beauty of Concorde, trams (and th lack of them in UK cities); computers: they can talk about spreadsheets – yes, they talk about Excel spreadsheets! On many occasions!! All that has always been more-or-less apparent, but it now seems that not only have I ‘married my dad’, it also appears that I’ve ‘married my aunty’ too! Aunt Janet can barely take two steps down the street before she’s struck up a conversation with a complete stranger and found out half their life story. Since we left the UK I can’t leave Mike for five minutes before he, too, has become engaged in conversation with complete strangers – and it’s getting worse.
Since we crossed the border into the USA, he has become very adept at working ‘The Blog’ into any conversations with strangers. I’m wondering if he’s working on commission for WordPress! This is all a bit strange for someone who often says ruefully that he is an introvert and anti-social. Not that I’m complaining about his new found sociability – I’m simply observing it. It’s quite nice to have things that remind you of people you love all wrapped up in your lifetime companion. However, if you’re on the USA west coast this week looking for peace and tranquility, beware – there is a talkative British cyclist on the move!
Matthew and Mike Travel from Bristol 