Final Thoughts

The ride was beautiful, amazing, tedious, scary and worth it all.  We both agree one of the best parts was the people we met and the relationships we formed.  Leanne, Katherine, Dietmar & Domien, Heinrich & Sabine and the many other people we met along the way and the kindness shown by many.  The redwood forest, the whales and seals, the long, tough hills, the logging trucks and RV's, the beach rides and the fun trip to Tijuana - we wouldn't want to have missed any of it!

Scott & Angela

Day 37. PB to Tijuana and back.

The capstone to our journey, a 65 mile round trip journey to Tijuana, Mexico for lunch.  We had great weather on this Monday and multi-modal travel of cycling, ferry, walking and light rail but only about 45 miles was on our bikes. 

Starting off around 9 this morning in sunny skies. 

We didn't do our usual routine of packing up all of our panniers today because it was a round trip and we had the same place for another night. Getting out of our routine meant we forgot to fill and load our water bottles on our bikes. We realized this 2 miles down the road. Oh well, what's 4 extra miles out of 1,500?  Not much. 

 

Downtown San Diego in the morning sun from the harbor area. 

Waiting for the Coronado Island Ferry we rested and refreshed with a frosty coffee drink. 

We met Alec on the ferry to Coronado Island, a really nice guy.  28 years old and from  Manchester, England, he started his trip in Anchorage 5 months ago. He's not quite halfway through his planned journey to Argentina. We exchanged emails and blogs. I took a look at his and you might find it interesting. 

 http://www.broken-spokes.com/

And onto the bike paths and suburban streets of Coronado leading to the Silver Strand. 

On the Silver Strand we caught up to Alec on the right with his new surf board in tow and a new found cycling friend riding along his side.  Kudos to Alec, not only for making this great cross continents cycling trip but also for buying himself a surf board in SoCal to work on his surfing skills down the coast of Mexico and Central America. Good luck Alec!

🏄

Winding our way through El Chaparal Mexican border crossing at San Ysidro.  It is the busiest border crossing in the world.  We found it on a rather calm day in the new Pedwest upgrade. 

Ta daaaa!  A happy Angela celebrates the fact that we have now gone "Border to Border", Vancouver, BC to Tijuana, MX!!!  

One of the nicest border agents I ever met graciously gave us our visas and even recommended a good restaurant for us. 

 

Angela finding some ease on Avenida de la Revolucion as we've spent almost 15 minutes walking or riding our bikes in TJ and nothing bad has happened. It's actually been very interesting and exciting. 

We found a great little place off the Avenida to sit and enjoy great margaritas, a Dos Equis for me, and some delicious tacos with guacamole. Riding into Pacific Beach two days ago felt absolutely great, essentially the end of our trip. But the ride to the border and experiencing Tijuana was like icing on the cake, it made the whole trip that much more special. 

We were serenaded by two musicians, Carlo and Pablo with his accordion accompanist, both doing their renditions of "Besame Mucho" for Angela and I. We ate it up and I was singing Besame Mucho all the way back to San Diego. 


Saying good bye to Mexico as we cross back onto US territory. 

It was rush hour when we got to the Transit Center right at the border crossing but we had no trouble finding spots for ourselves and our bikes as we road the trolley back up through downtown San Diego and on to Old Town where we would get back on our bikes and ride the final 7 miles of our trip.  ☹️

As the sun sets over the Pacific we ride the last mile to our spot on the beach and to put our bikes away for awhile.  Tomorrow we will start our drive back home to Colorado, our family and friends. I'm filled with joy to be heading home tomorrow but also a little sad for the trip to be over.   

Day 35. Oceanside to Pacific Beach!!

Yep, we're in San Diego now. Pacific Beach to be more precise, one of our favorite places to go since we lived in the Phoenix area 35 years ago.  A very nice, joyous 35 mile Saturday morning ride arriving about 1pm. 

  

Leaving Oceanside around 9am on the bike path. We would see lots of walkers, runners, and cyclist today all along the beachside communities. 

After Oceanside comes Carlsbad.  There was a fair amount of traffic but really good bike lanes for the most part, plus the hundreds of cyclists, mostly what I call OWGOB's (Old White Guys On Bikes) help make the motorists more aware and generally more considerate. 

After Carlsbad comes Encinitas.   That's an atypical OWGOB ahead of Angela. No spandex or a carbon bike frame for him!! Many of the cyclist today were friendly, curious and very celebratory of us finishing our journey, some riding along side of us or stopping to chat when we stopped. It helped make the day more special.  

We stopped in Solana Beach at the halfway point to enjoy the sea views and a little snack. 

Leaving Del Mar and getting ready to climb up that hill ahead of us into Torrey Pines. From there we'll ride through the upper crust of La Jolla before cruising into funky PB.  

Riding down Mission Blvd we have just a few blocks before we end the bicycle touring part of our adventure. 

   We made it!!  They were having the Pacific Beach Festival with live acts and lots of vendors so the boardwalk was crazy. We gave our victory picture poses and went to check in. 

We'll be here for 3 nights in a row!!  We haven't slept in the same place for more than one night in a row since August 30, 38 days ago. Yea!!

Our place has a nice view of the beach and was very comfortable.  

And a Pacifico beer to celebrate a great trip and many fond memories of places and people on our trip. But it's not over yet. We're still planning on making this a Border to Border trip by visiting Tijuana on our bikes in a couple of days. 

Day 34. Laguna Beach to Oceanside

Coasting down to San Diego with a 39 mile day into Oceanside from Laguna Beach. More sun and help from a tailwind from the NW for a good part of the day. 

We had a nice beachside breakfast at the hotel and then took a walk along Laguna Beach.  We found this long haired blond guy leading some women's lost souls by blowing a song on a recorder and then saying it was time to get smudged as he carried a little smoking bowl of something and waiving a big feather over it.  Holy cow. 

Angela leaves the Laguna Hotel to start our day around 10:30 this morning. 

A full moon has helped cause some abnormally high tides. We found several places along our ride this morning where washed up sand had covered the bike path. 

The San Onofre Nuclear Plant along the beach. 1 unit commissioned in the late 60's and the other 2 in the early 80's that haven't run since 2012 due to a faulty steam generators meant to extend their life but they leaked radioactive steam and could never be affordably fixed.  The plants are now being decommissioned.  The early promise of nuclear power, too cheap to meter, has failed so far. 

We hadn't seen any touring cyclist since we left San Luis Obispo 6 days ago but today we ran into a couple about our age riding to San Diego from their home near San Francisco. 

Our route takes us through Marine base Camp Pendleton.  Shortly after I took this picture I heard from a Marine carrying a gun that taking pictures weren't allowed. Oops. 

We checked into the hotel around 3 and settled in by the pool to relax while I rehydrated with beer watching the sun set.

 🍺

Day 33. Redondo Beach to Laguna Beach

A 49 mile day as we gradually wind down our mileage and tempo into the final days of our trip.  Sunny, of course, with comfortably warm weather and a nice evening in Laguna Beach. 

Angela and I are about to start our trip across LA and into Orange County. We were a little apprehensive about the traffic and our route across LA so we started riding after rush hour, about 9:30. 

Headed east from Redondo on Torrence. Not too bad so far. 

This is what is called the Las Angelas River.  We're about to turn south on it and ride the "Greenway" into Long Beach.  It's been a good morning through Torrance and Carson. So far, crossing LA has been pretty nice for big city riding. 

The bike path along the LA River was great but the scenery and neighborhood not. Workers below are scrapping out sludge from the bottom, the smell, not so nice. Angela and I kept talking about the scene in Terminator 2 with Arnold riding a motorcycle with young John Connor on the back down a drainage like this by the newer, more powerful Terminator in a semi-truck. Iconic. 

 

About 18 miles into our day and we stop for brunch in downtown Long Beach. 

Hmmmm, chicken fried steak, gravy, and eggs over potatoes and peppers.  I love breakfast at lunchtime when you're riding a bike all day. 

Heading out of Long Beach at the harbor. It seemed like a very nice city.  I haven't seen a beach all day. Time to ride. 

And here come the beaches again-Long Beach, Seal, Sunset, Huntington....

Only 5 miles to go in our day so we have to squeeze in a milk shake from Ruby's Crystal Cove Shake Shock before we stop. Great shake and great views to match. 

 

Back on PC 1 which gets worse for bike riders in towns like Newport and Laguna Beach. Orange County gets the prize for the most aggressive drivers, therefore the worst. We had some close calls with some either stupid or just mean drivers. 

Checked into the Laguna Hotel right off the beach and we immediately headed that way. 

And I'm starting to see these beers not as the way to end the day, but a way to end the trip. Only a few days left.