First Couple of Stops

As I write this post I am riding the Sunset Express train from Tucson to LA after two fun and somewhat adventurous days in southeast Arizona. Part of my planning for this trip involved thinking about places that I have heard about but never visited and despite living in Arizona many years ago I have never been the mining towns in the southeastern part of the state or even to downtown Tucson, so I figured I'd get off of the train in Tucson, rent a car and drive around and to some of the more storied places in Arizona. After a great stay in The Hotel Congress which is a very nice, albeit small, very old hotel right across the street from the Amtrak station I headed southeast towards the towns of Bisbee, Tombstone and some of the lesser known 'old west' towns. 

Tombstone was very quiet with just a handful of tourists milling in and out of the souvenir and western wear stores, saloons, and restaurants. Nothing in the stores really caught my eye but I did see a lot of good native American ceramics and a gunfight just outside of the OK Coral. I also met a few interesting characters at the Oriental Saloon and enjoyed hearing their stories of how they came to live in the Tombstone area. After an acceptable slice of '3 Berry' pie I headed to Bisbee and got to marvel at the landscape that is part of the attraction to the area. 

Bisbee is home to the Copper Queen mine and many other mines. and they have set up a small segment of the Copper Queen mine to give tours and talk about the history of mining in Arizona. Bisbee is also a very cool little town and does not have the theatrical feeling that Tombstone has. It was neat to walk around but at the time i was there many of the stores were closed. The pretour of the mine was very cool with a lot of displays and interesting film on the history of the mine. For the tour they put you on to a small train where you ride down into the mine. The train goes into a several large areas where the mining operation removed a substantial part of the interior of the mine and you can see the large areas where they removed the ore and a demonstration of how they blasted the ore out of the wall at the end of every shift. One of the most interesting things I learned is that for some period of time they actually used mules to pull the ore carts around inside the mine. They trained them, somehow, for years to work the mines and then moved them down into the mines where they stayed for several years working to pull ore carts around. After several years of continuous underground service they would be finally brought back up and put out to pasture as a retired mine mule. I could relate. 

 

 

I left Bisbee after a short walking tour of the town and headed to Sierra Vista to find a place to stay. Unfortunately I came to an intersection that said "Sierra Vista" straight and "Tombstone" left. I recalled that the Oriental Saloon bartender told me that I would be back to Tombstone 'soon', so I felt compelled to go that way. When I got there most of the shops were closed but the saloons were still open, so I dropped in to see what was on the schedule for entertainment that evening. When i was told that karaoke started at 7pm I asked for 'just one beer, I need to leave before karaoke'. Some of you are aware of what happened next, and to you I am truly sorry, for those of you who didn't receive a constant barrage of text messages let me give you the abbreviated story. I stayed way too long and ended up singing karaoke with two couples from Australia. Believe me when I tell you...Tombstone is two different cities and "Tombstone After Dark" is something that everyone one should experience.

The next day I did some more desert driving and a tour of the Kartchner Caverns which are really cool. I met my spirit animal, the Cave Sloth, there and got to see a lot of interesting geologic phenomena. It is a 'must see' if you're ever in the area. 

I scurried back to Tucson just in time to meet up with long time friend Jack for Mexican dinner and then hopped on the train to Los Angeles. 

I got down to San Diego for a weekend with other long time friends Scott & Angela and also managed to squeeze in dinner with pseudo niece Amanda, husband Philly and lovely daughter Cora. It is ALWAYS good to see extended Clemson family and get caught up with them when possible.  

 

Now I'm on the train to Flagstaff where I'll drive around northern Arizona (breaking my rule of not going to somewhere I have been to before) and having dinner in my favorite northern AZ town of Jerome with some Arizona Public Service alumna. 

 

Till next time.... follow your dream, unless it's becoming a world famous Karaoke signer, then find another dream.  

 

Photos Below: Wall art in Tucson, adding another smashed penny to my collection, luckily this guy let me off with a "cant sign karaoke" warning,  the cave sloth - my true spirit animal, entrance to Kartcher Cavern, and what is a trip to southern AZ without a saguaro cactus photo? 

 

And as before...if you comment anonymously please put your name in the body of your comment so we know who to attribute it to!  

IF we were ALL the Same, What Fun Would THAT Be?

 I usually do jump to conclusions quite quickly, and this may indeed be one of those times; but, here goes. 

There are A LOT of different KINDS of people in this world and many of them ride the train. Let's start with those who do not ride the train: rich people, especially nuevo rich people, and that is a good thing in my mind. Rich people, especially nuevo and young rich people, seem to be very self absorbed - "instagramers" if you will. That's not to say there are no instagramers on the train, but the ones that are seem to be more genuine than the ones that go to a place, pose, snap and leave,. The instagramers on the train do pose and snap, but they then go back to doing whatever it was they were doing before they compose and framed their post - to me, that is a good thing if you're going to have instagramers. Other than those pesky rich people it seems that EVERYONE else rides the train, and I mean EVERYONE else. There are old people, unhealthy people, young people, and tied for most of all - retired people and people who seem to be less well off. They both want to travel on the cheap and both seem to have plenty of time to do so. I suppose I fall into a crossover between those two groups :) 

There are also "Train People", and what an interesting subset of society they are! I met a young couple that have traveled around on Rail Passes for several years and always try to find train related things to see and do in the towns along the rail lines. They had good records from train engines they've seen and a spreadsheet showing the different rail routes and lines they've ridden. I think they've used at least one pass each year over the last several years and don't seem like they're giving up on the hobby anytime soon. Then there were the retired guys who have time and inclination to seek out bucket list things such as long distance train travel, and I suppose I also fall into that category. Some are experts at train riding and admit to have used  Rail Passes every year for years and ridden a high percentage of the rail lines. Oddly enough, they are not all widowers, while many are, many are just using time away from their spouses to do what they like and see the back yards of the US (more on that in a later blog) while getting some time to read, relax, and just sit and stare out of the window of the observation car.  

So yeah, there are different people on the train...different than a plane, different from a car and different from those that don't travel at all. One thing they all see to have in common is that they're enjoying the journey (and it's challenges) as much as their destinations. And that's a good thing - for a bumper sticker, a t-shirt AND life in general.  

And for those of you without access to the Book of Faces, here are a few photos from the observation car, mostly of landscapes in Texas and sunsets in western New Mexico and eastern Arizona along with a few of the railway stations. 

 

 

Amtrak Trip 2026

 Well, here we are...after 44+ years of full time work I've finally decided to join the leagues of the retirement crowd as of April 17, 2026. It has been interesting to say the least but I've almost always enjoyed my work and the people I worked with. I'll miss the camaraderie, but as you know "The Office" just hasn't been the same since COVID, so there isn't much of that good old bonding around the water cooler any more. 

"What are you going to do with your free time?" was the most prevalent question over the last couple of weeks and I figured I would reestablish this blog so I can tell the answers to that question in near real time. First up, and I do mean first as it started on Sunday morning after my last Friday, is an Amtrak trip around the western half of the country. So, let's get started with that story, shall we? 

Amtrak sells what they call a "USA Rail Pass" and it is a one price pass that is good for 10 segments over 30 days. They define a segment as any given set of city pairs...so Washington, DC to Baltimore, MD could be a segment OR New Orleans to Los Angeles, CA could be a segment. Once you start the first ride of the pass, you have 30 days to complete all 10. After looking at the map for not nearly long enough and thinking about how best to optimize the total pass I came up with a loose itinerary that I hope will be flexible enough to keep me amused and satisfied that I'm getting the most for the cost of the pass. Right now, on the first day, the plan is to start in Charlotte, NC and then take my first segment to New Orleans. I'll only be there for about 10 hours and then I'll take the "Sunset Limited" (Amtrak has these cute names for their routes) from New Orleans towards Los Angeles, CA as my second segment. The secondary goal of this adventure is trying to see parts of America that I have not seen in my previous travels. So, after studying the map for about 5 minutes I decided that I would get off of the Sunset LTD in Benson AZ and tour around southeast Arizona to places I have  NOT been to before. After a few google searches it turns out that there are no rental car agencies in Benson, so I changed my plan to Tucson where I could visit the historic part of town, get a car and drive around to some of the famous and infamous towns of the old west. After I'm done with that tour I will get back on the Sunset LTD and go to LA and then transfer to a train down to San Diego where I'll visit with old friends Scott & Angela for the weekend, which will be a nice cap to my first week of retirement. 

So, here I am, somewhere in the 'wilds' of southern Alabama in the early Sunday afternoon after leaving Charlotte this morning at 3AM and watching the world go by my large window from the comfort of my nearly 'first class sized' seat. There's a interesting collection of people riding and working on the train and I'm sure I'll build up enough tales about them over the next few days so that I can make a whole post just about them. In the meantime I'll get back to trying to plan my next stop(s) for the next week. 

Till next time.... Ever Forward my Friends.  

 

ps: Everyone loves a good comment, but if you're anonymous I don't know who to thank. Put your name in your comment and that way you don't have to sign in to the google overlords!  

 

 

2020 RECAP

A few years ago my friends Scott & Angela got me into cycling organization called “Adventure Cycling” which is mostly focused on touring and longer distance rides, very little racing or ‘exercise’, mostly just getting out and riding your bike. As part of that mission the organization sponsors and advocates for cycling routes all across the US and can provide maps of those routes and other support equipment necessary to ride. They also publish a print magazine called “Adventure Cyclist” which has articles about riding, equipment and other related ‘stuff’. A recent edition opened with the “Letter from the Editor” story about how the Editor in Chief had checked his total biking miles for 2020 and was very surprised that, despite the pandemic and its ramifications on socialization, he managed to ride more miles in 2020 than he had ridden in previous years. I think he said that he rode more miles last year than any other year in his adult life. I found that to be very interesting and so I checked into my Strava account to see what I had ridden for last year.

Strava is a program (I deplore the abbreviation “app” in both cyberspace and restaurants as I feel it is lazy) that gives you all sorts of tools to track your riding (running, swimming, hiking, any kind of activity) by miles, feet of elevation, hours, etc. It’s fairly widely used and allows for you to share your rides with others on the program along with keeps track of your activities over time. Well, according to Strava, I rode at least 81 rides covering 2,426 miles on my bikes in 2020. I say ‘at least’ because I don’t always use Strava when I’m riding around town, just when I’m going to be out for 15+ miles or so. And it turns out that those 2,400+ miles are more miles that I’ve ridden in a year since 2016 when I rode 2,900+ miles in a couple of cross state rides and a lot of three day rides. And I did all of these 2020 miles without the benefit of any organized multi-day rides and only a small number of single day rides like the Tour de Elvis in lovely Albemarle, NC. Also, 81 rides is the most number of rides I’ve done in any year since I started riding and that is even more amazing given the lack of organized rides.

So just like the editor of Adventure Cyclist I’m pleasantly surprised at how riding my bike was more than just a normalcy in the Year of COVID but was actually a high point! While I. and many of my cycling friends, constantly lamented the cancellation of any trips that we wanted to go on I was quietly getting out on my bike 2, sometimes 3, times a week and riding with a core group of friends. We did struggle with COVID protocols at first – learning how to keep our distance from each other, keeping the group small, etc but once we got in stride with a fairly secure and steady bubble of friends we rode quite a bit. And even now we are still struggling with COVID protocols so we can ride as a group but we are doing it, at least when it’s warm enough for my old bones. Granted we have missed the opportunities for post ride meals & beers and general socialization, but we apparently offset that with more rides than usual. We are off to a strong start in 2021!! Looking back through 2020 it’s a wonder to see how I kept my sanity but now that I see how many times I rode and how many miles I covered I realize that my bike was a key component to beating the “COVID Blues”.

So the moral of this story is twofold I suppose…. Always surprise yourself and never stop riding, you’ll find the road, while it may go in circles like last year, never ends. Until next time, keep riding.

 

62 for 62

In late May (May 28 for those keeping records) I did a 62 (actually 63) mile bike ride for my 62nd birthday and I figured I would use that occasion to re-start my blogging about my riding.

Unfortunately I haven’t been riding nearly as much as I’d like, both recently (thanks Corona 😏) and over the last several years (thanks full time employment 😒 ) but I have managed to squeeze in a few rides that have all been fun, so I’ll try to do a quick 3 year catch up and then get to the 62 for 62 story.

#4 comes in handy fetching
beer from the local brewery.

Since my last posting in 2017 I’ve ridden roughly 5,000 miles and most have been on our weekly club rides of about 25 miles at a time with many ~60 mile ‘event’ rides sprinkled in. Most of the event rides have been just one day events but I did ride in several 2 and 3 day rides, most notably the Cycle NC Coastal, Mountain and Mountains to Coast rides. Cycle NC continues to do a great job with all their events and I highly suggest that you try one out, once they start up again – hopefully this August for their annual Mountain Ride. All the rides I went on, whether ‘weekly’ or as part of a larger event, were fun; as I’ve finally gotten to the point where riding is not ‘training’ but either to stay in shape or just for fun. I did manage, with help from Wendy and others from our local club, to ride a 100 mile route from Clayton, NC to Greenville, NC last year on the hottest October day on record in North Carolina. There were times during that ride that I didn’t think I was having fun, yet when looking back, it seems to be one of the best rides I’ve been on in a while. So, nearly six years into my riding experience I am having more and more fun on every ride all while still learning to be a better rider. Some goals have been accomplished while some have been postponed… pretty much a lesson consistent with life in general I suppose.




Ride 100 Miles, Get the Sticker :)

It has been a "long time" tradition (of about 6 years) that on some day near my birthday I go out for a solo ride and cover the same number of miles as my new age, so this year it was 62 miles for 62 years. In the past many of you have asked me "What do you think about when you’re riding by yourself?" and mostly it is "where am I and where is my next turn and then ‘holy cow, did you see that?’ " but sometimes I actually try to pick a theme to focus on and this ride was one of those – I decided to try and come up with a memory of what I was doing and/or what was happening to me at each year of my life as it matched up with the mile I was at. So at the 5 mile mark I recounted a classic family story of how I snuck out of my kindergarten class and threw everyone into a full on panic until my sister brought me home from school. According to the story (legend) I had snuck into her classroom, laid down beside her desk and took a nice nap. So that’s how my day progressed from mile to mile, year to year. As the miles/years ticked off I recounted stories of where I was at that point in my life and significant things that were going on around me. It didn’t take long of doing this before I started to notice that my surroundings were beginning to mimic the events I was thinking of and that’s when the weirdness took over. The first occurrence of this symbiotic occurrence was at about mile 18. At that time I was enjoying myself during my freshman year of college but yet dark clouds started to roll in and I instantly related them to the fact that at the end of my freshman year I was dismissed from school for (extremely) low grades. It seemed to be worst event in my life and I really didn’t see a path forward. The clouds built and threatened rain with a small sprinkle but relented into just a cloudy, overcast day as I cycled through working at the Duracell plant in my hometown, gaining my feet, and charting a path forward and back to school. Over the next several miles the clouds built and regressed and built again, just as I continued my struggles through school, but all along I could always see an edge to them where they gave way to a clear blue sky and calm breeze at about mile 23 – when I graduated college and took my first job as an engineer. At that point the clouds virtually disappeared and gave way to blue skies that continued on and off with a cloud here and there as I (metaphorically) pedaled through my twenties and well into my thirties. The sky was blue, the wind at a minimum and road was smooth… cycling was very good, as was my life at that time. This is where it got really, really weird…. All during the trip so far I was following a local route that our club uses for their annual "Cotton Country Century" ride. I was following the 62 mile route and it overlaps with the 100 mile route. For this ride the 62 mile route uses yellow markings to guide you and the 100 uses white, but at nearly the same point where those two routes diverge someone swapped the colors and threw me a curve ball… the 62 was painted white and the 100 was yellow… which color should I follow? So I sucked it up and with some help from a friend decided that this little impasse was just that, a minor bump and I decided that I should follow the yellow and continue on. Oddly enough at just about that age I moved from Arizona to Delaware. The riding got a little rough for a few miles as I tried to ensure myself I made the right choice today which was the same self-doubt I was going through back then also. But lo and behold I came across another route marker and it was the correct color and the location agreed with the route list I was carrying. I was clearly on the right path for me and things were good… both today and a few years after moving to Delaware. Then at mile 36, like a lightning bolt, the sky turned dark and it began to rain again. Late in that year, during a night school class on Finance, my appendix ruptured and I woke up in the hospital with tubes in every orifice I had, plus a few new ones. But while I suffered through that ‘bump in the road’ I came to realize just how strong I was and pedaled my way through recovery and into a brighter and clearer future. After that year, my work years and personal years had many more ups than downs and I was pretty happy with my lot in life and the road & weather during this ride. But the real bad weather was up ahead and I could barely see it at the horizon. As I pedaled up to mile 49 everything seemed fine. The road was straight with no turns in sight but all of a sudden everything turned to shit. The road surface got much rougher, the winds picked up and were right in my face causing my speed to drop to nearly single digits. And with those winds came clouds, no, not clouds… just one large cloud that covered from horizon to horizon for the first time today. The rain began and competed the triad of a cyclist’s worst ride – rough road, headwinds and rain. Over the next many years as Sara battled cancer and I stood helplessly by I was buffeted by what can only be described as the worst time of my life and this ride was presenting itself as such. It took hard pedaling to work my way through these gloomy, overcast and rough road miles but I often would feel the wind shift and become a tailwind helping me along as my friends grew tight around me and continued their support in unprecedented ways. I felt their hands on my back pushing me along, not pulling me to somewhere I didn’t necessarily need to be, but pushing me along in the direction I felt I needed to go. I recounted visits and calls and cards all full of empathy and hope and knew that I would be ok because today, unlike then, I knew the outcome (at least up until now). A few miles later the overcast broke up and the rain became a drizzle. Things started looking up and then boom…just like that at about mile 55 my phone blew up with texts and notifications. It was Wendy and our cycling buddies trying to plan our next ride, at just about the very same mile when we met. The skies cleared, the sprinkles subsided and the road got smoother. That left me only seven more miles to finish my day and I can’t say that those were the best seven miles of the day as the sprinkles came and went and the clouds rolled through, but I can say I felt empowered and strong enough to ride through those minor ‘bumps’ as I knew that I had family and friends – both old and new, all metaphorically waiting for me to arrive at mile 62. No, that’s not quite right. They weren’t waiting for me, they were there with me all along, mile for mile, pulling for me and helping me get here today.


Ride 63 Miles, Eat What You Want :)

SO, thank you all for your support, encouragement, willingness to listen and guidance. Although I rode 62 miles yesterday by myself, I could not have ridden these 62 years without you. Cycle On my Friends. Until next time, stay healthy and keep your chain lubed





Greetings Loyal Readers :) !!!

I'm Back !!

At the end of my last blog entry I talked about falling off of my bike and hurting myself. Turns out I actually had three hairline fractures to my pelvis and I had to stay off of my left foot for quite some time as I healed. I did go to physical therapy quite a bit in order to try and make sure I healed the best way possible and to try to improve my flexibility. In early March I rode my hybrid for a few miles off and on and then I rode 'sag' on my hybrid for the ECVELO "VeloDame" ride. All of that was a good experience so I gradually moved myself onto my road bike and back out on the road with the club rides. Now I'm happy to say I'm back on my bike and riding at almost the same level as before...it was nice to have to take time off from my bike during the winter and stay warm inside whenever everyone else was suffering the cold winter rides :)

Riding...

Lena (my road bike) and I got back on the road just in time for spring and have managed to go on lots of good rides. The CycleNC "Coastal" ride in beautiful, tiny Oriental, NC was a great weekend ride with old and new friends. The wind was a little more than we would have liked but we couldn't really ask for nicer temperatures and sunnier skies. Turns out that I wasn't quite as ready to ride as I thought as I hit the wall (virtually, not another accident) at about mile 60...the problem is that we were on a 70 mile ride ! After limping home and taking a few minutes to rehydrate I was just about back to normal and ready for the 'fried seafood extravaganza' of a dinner...I told you that CycleNC does THE best job of all and they didn't disappoint. Our Sunday ride was just as breezy but short enough that I managed to avoid the virtual wall and enjoy our whole ride with the bonus ferry ride.
Shortly, and I mean shortly, after the Coastal ride I drove down to Greenville, SC to meet up with the "Greenville Spinners" and join them on their annual cross state ride of South Carolina.What a great ride it was as I got to ride across my 'home' state of SC. Leaving out of Moonville (just south of Greenville) on Wednesday morning we rode about 70 miles thru the beautiful upstate area down to Newberry. The next day we rode 68 miles from Newberry to Aiken and got to see some of SC's "Horse Country" and have a great meal at Auten's after the long day's ride. Just about 2 hours after I arrived in Aiken the bottom dropped out and it rained well into the night. The next morning was clear and cool and the road was drying as we started out on the 'Long Day' of the trip for 95 miles down to Walterboro. It was really cool to pass thru beautiful downtown Blackville and see the town where my Sister and her family lived for a while several years ago. After a quick stop at the southern fixture of Waffle House fine dining establishment I was done for the day and anxious for a 95 mile shower! The last day of our ride really had me riding down memory lane as we rode what was planned to be a short 45 mile ride from Walterboro to Beaufort. As I pedaled along some roads my family drove when I was very young it was really cool to see some of the lowcountry scenery and also to pass thru the town of Yemassee which has been part of my family's lore for many, many years.

"Beautiful Beaufort By the Sea, 24 Miles from Yemassee"

 

Marines Flying Low Near MCAS Beaufort

I also got to see the entry gate of one of Frank Lloyd Wright's most elusive project "Auldbrass" and stop to see if I could get someone to give me the inside tour...no luck there. Pedaling into Beaufort along the really cool Spanish Moss Trail was fun and then after a short stop for lunch I let me sister talk me into making a ride down to the town of Port Royal in search of my childhood home. (Well, at least for 3 years.) After a quick conversation with a helpful church lady (and with my sister on the phone) I found our house and took a quick photo and pedaled back towards Beaufort where I met up with college buds Michael and Beverly Whitaker for a couple of beers dockside at one of the local yacht clubs. All in all it was a great trip put on by a great club from Greenville. Every day they had at least three well stocked rest stops along the route and did a great job coordinating the hotels, return bus, luggage handling, etc in order to make the ride as pleasant as possible. The weather was beautiful except for the fairly strong winds every day but given it was the first week of May in SC I'd take that wind over the possibility of 90+ degree, humid SC days!

So, now my list of states that I've ridden across stands at five - Iowa, North Carolina, Virginia, Mississippi and South Carolina (and 1/3 of California). All have been great in their own way with their own highs and lows and I'm glad to have ridden all of them. Hopefully I can get another state on my list sometime this summer/fall, so stay tuned for updates.

NEW BIKE!

What?!?!?! Another new bike?
Yep, just last week I made my next step of becoming a touring cyclist when I picked up my shiny new Salsa Marrakesh from Frank's Cyclery in Raleigh, NC. It's a great setup for touring with racks on the back and front, spare spokes, Brooks leather saddle, three bottle holders, super duty steel frame and extra low gearing for hill climbing with lots of load. And it's orange. Her name will be #4. :)
 

I took it for a ride today (41 miles) and yesterday (25 miles) with a few of the local club members and it was quite the haul pedaling 30 pounds around on super soft tires, BUT I managed to end up with an average speed of about 16mph which is pretty much my normal speed so I got that going for me. I'm looking forward to putting many, many miles on it over the next many years, so let me know if you've got a ride you're looking into, I'm likely to join you for a few days !

That's about it for now. I hope you all enjoy these goofy blogs and look forward to your questions and comments. Enjoy your day!!

Tour de SoCal 2016 and Into Fall

In early August I spent a few days riding from Santa Barbara, CA to San Diego, CA and enjoyed the ride immensely. It was my first attempt at a 'solo' ride while carrying my stuff for longer than two days and it was my next step in working towards being a 'Touring Cyclist'. 

In order to make this trip 'easy' I decided to rent a bike in San Diego rather than ship mine there. I found a guy that rents nice bikes with racks and bags (aka: panniers) for a really reasonable price and he did a great job in setting me up with a bike and the other 'stuff' I would need to ride. (Peter at 'Stay Classy Bikes' in case you're ever in San Diego and want a great bike!). Once he delivered the bike on Sunday afternoon I added my handlebar bag and my iPhone holder and was ready to go. I spent the rest of the afternoon packing the panniers with my clothes and test riding the whole assembly around the neighborhood. 

Bright and early Monday morning I rode to the Amtrak terminal and caught the train to Santa Barbara. It's a great ride along the coast and you get great views of the beaches and many small towns along the way. You also get great views of the West Coast Marine training base (Camp Pendleton) and the San Onfre Nuclear Generating Station for those of you so inclined. Once I got to Santa Barbara I hopped on my bike and toured around the cool town for a few hours before beginning my trek southward towards my first overnight town of Ventura. The ride was about 33 miles and most of it was along or fairly close to the beach but there was a portion of the route where I had to ride on US 101 for a mile or two. That ride along the shoulder of a four lane divided highway was just a little more unnerving than I cared for! Once I got to Ventura I made my way to the lovely Vagabond Inn and checked in. Ventura is a cool town and I found a nice place for dinner and a couple of beers before hitting the bed early to rest up for my long day tomorrow.

Leaning Against a SeaBee bulldozer

I headed out bright and early Tuesday morning and started making my way along the beach towards Santa Monica. This day was planned to be a long one in order to make up for the short mileage the day before and keep me on schedule. I rode thru quite a few cool towns and stopped in at the "Seabees Museum in Port Hueneme to take a look at some of the history and accomplishments of the Navy's Construction Battalions. After that stop I found a place to eat some breakfast and then headed on down the beach. I rode along the Pacific Coast Highway ("PCH") for several miles including thru the beach houses of Malibu. Once I go through Malibu I stopped at a grocery store to find some lunch and ended up in a great conversation with a young dude who gave me some tips on the route and traffic. A little while later I veered off of the beach walk in Santa Monica and rode up the Santa Monica Boulevard to my hotel.

The requisite photo of the Santa Monica pier.

I found a nice Japanese place for dinner and then crashed into my bed, very tired after the 70 mile and 8 hour ride.
Wednesday was supposed to be a relatively short ride down to Long Beach but instead it turned into a long, long day....the ride thru Venice, Hermosa, Redondo beaches was really cool. I found a great little breakfast spot to fill up before my 'off route' ride thru Rancho Palos Verdes. The Adventure Cycling route that I used prefers to ride inland and thru Los Angeles but I really didn't want that kind of hassle so I found a guy who had a route thru the Palos Verdes area and chose to ride it. Riding up hill from Redondo Beach was quite a challenge and then as I went thru Palos Verdes there were more and more hills although they were quite short. In the middle of Palos Verdes I found a neat museum called the Point Vicente Interpretive Center. It was a cool display of some of the artifacts found in the area and some exhibits about the whales that are often seen right off the point.

The view from the Point Vicente Interpretive Center

 After leaving the center I continued on thru Palos Verdes and then down the hill into San Pedro, the port of Los Angeles. As I rode past the Battleship Iowa I noticed that bumps felt a little rougher in the rear and that the bike squirmed a little more than usual under braking as I came down any hill. Yep, the rear tire was just about flat. Being tired and lazy I quickly asked Siri where the nearest bike store was. (For those of you who don't know, Siri and I have a very contentious relationship and she rarely answers any question for me but I figured she'd be kind enough to sense the urgency and help out.) Much to my surprise the 'nearest bike store' was only 800 feet behind me so I made a quick u-turn and slowly pedaled back to (wait for it) Captain Kirk's KiteBoard store. Luckily Captain Kirk is a cyclist and he let me use his pump to reinflate my tire and then he gave me directions to the true nearest bike store. They changed my tube quickly and I was again on my way. I finished the last many miles of the day riding in rush hour traffic along a six lane road just south of Long Beach and into the Long Beach community to find my hosts for the evening. When I started planning this trip I was hoping to make use of a web community called "Warm Showers" that puts touring cyclists together with hosts that are also cyclists. Unfortunately I only found one for the five days that I would be traveling as many that I contacted did not reply and almost all the others seemed to be busy. But Tracey and Amy were great hosts in Long Beach and shared their place and dinner with me along with stories of touring around South America!
I got up really early the next morning and quickly rode to the Catalina Island ferry terminal. I had not originally planned to go out to Catalina but when I realized that the terminal was close and that there was another terminal several miles to the south I figured I could put in a side trip without adding lots of miles to my trip. Catalina is a really cool little island and has some of the most interesting plant life in the southwest with much of it only found on the island. It's fun to tour around but as it is an island there are quite a few hills. I made my way up to the Wrigley Botanical Garden and enjoyed the time off the bike to see some of the interesting plants and buildings there.

The view from the "Wrigley Memorial"

 I rode around a few more of the roads, had yet another extra large breakfast burrito and then caught the ferry back to Dana Point beach for some more coastal riding. Leaving Dana Pt and heading south is perhaps my favorite segment of the ride. Directly south is San Clemente and it is a pretty cool little town. I stopped in a bike store to ask advice about the route and as I walked in the owner looked at me and said "Stay on the route, you don't want to try and short cut over towards the highway." He said that many people stop in and ask about the route that appears to be lots of stop and go compared to what appears to be an easier route a little further inland. I chatted with him and his wife for a few minutes and found out that they met on a 'cross country' touring ride when she was in high school and he was in college. They had lots of good stories from the years riding together and were eager to share them all it seems. After a while I thanked them for their help and stories and headed south. Once I got out of San Clemente the scenery was good as it turned from urban to dessert and then passed by the San Onefre Nuclear Generating Station ("SONGS"), many campgrounds on the beach and then onto Camp Pendleton Marine Base for a short period of time.

Campground on a short cliff right above the  ocean just south of San Clemente.

My Father was stationed at Camp Pendleton way back on 1967 or so right before he took his 'beautiful and fun tour of scenic southeast asia' with a bunch of Marines but I doubt there's much left at Camp Pendleton that was the same ~50 years ago. Once I got off of the base (before they shaved my head) I headed into Oceanside to find the home of my old friend Julianna.
It was a rough ride up lots of hills to get to Julianna's house and at one point I even heard myself 'wheezing', after which I pulled over for a few minutes of rest. After dinner and a few beers with friends I hit the bed for a much needed rest. Early the next morning I was up and heading back to the beach route for a short ride down to San Diego. I had hoped to ride all the way to the Mexican border but I was running short on time and couldn't seem to figure out the logistics of getting a place to stay down there and then a ride back up to SD.
The segment between Oceanside and San Diego was varied and very nice. The route passed thru quite a few towns - Carlsbad, Encinitas, DelMar and LaJolla. All are 'famous' for their own reasons and each present a different challenge to a bike rider. There is one spot just north of LaJolla where the road drops out of the hills and all the way down to the beach. The view of that drop from above was pretty cool but it served as a harbinger for the hills to come as LaJolla sits up high on a cliff. The grind up the hill seemed relentless as it was almost straight and you could barely see the end. It turns out that 'the end' was merely a turn and there were several more feet to climb as I passed by the famous Torrey Pines golf course and various Scripps research facilities. LaJolla is a very pretty area with lots of cool shops and lots of small coves along the beach.

 

People hassling seals at "Seal Cove" in LaJolla. Come on, it's "Seal Cove" not "People Cove", leave 'em alone!

It's a quick trip downhill from LaJolla into the San Diego beach community of Pacific Beach where my friends and I vacation together every August. I rode to the hotel we always stay at, had a quick visit with a few friends from the area, checked into alternate hotel prices and then decided to settle in for the night the Beach Cottages for the night. After I picked up my bag from a local friend (thanks Rachel!!) I could finally change into some clean clothes, get dinner and then hit the bed for the evening. I fell asleep agonizing over not riding all the way down to Mexico but when I woke in the morning I was happy to know I had just ridden the distance I had, seen the towns and views I had seen and met the people I met. 

California is a cool place and I have always enjoyed my visits there but seeing the 400+ miles I saw from my bike gave me a new perspective on the place. It's even more scenic than I thought, still cool with a 'hippie vibe' that seems to be natural to many of the residents and a culture that really supports the cycling community. Almost every town had nice painted lanes for cyclists and some of them even had dedicated and separated cycling lanes, very few drivers seemed to resent having cyclists around and the local cycling community is enthusiastic in their activities and support of cycling as a daily activity. All in all it was a great ride ! ! !

Into Fall

After returning from California I have basically just been riding in our weekly club rides and a few one day rides into the Fall. Our club (ECVelo) has also sponsored a couple of really fun rides including their "Cotton Country Century" ride in September and more recently their "Toys for Tots" ride in late November. The century ride went really well and we had a great turn-out for a nice ride thru the cotton fields and other fields of Eastern North Carolina. On the other hand the Toys for Tots ride was one of the most brutally cold and windy rides I have ever been on, but at least we did some good by collecting toys for the Toys for Tots program so that warmed us up some once we finished the ride.
I also rode in the annual "Hincapie Gran Fondo" that is put on my Hincapie Sportswear and benefits the "Meals on Wheels" program in Greenville, SC. It is a great ride with lots of people participating and wonderful views of where the Blue Ridge Yawns It's Greatness along the NC/SC border. The day before the big ride it was good to meet some of the other Hincapie Ambassadors and ride with them for a few miles and then to ride along several miles of scenic roads and steep hills as the leaves started to turn during the 50 mile ride.

So, that's about it for now except for my recent fall. On Wednesday before Thanksgiving I was riding with a few friends when another rider and I collided. Unfortunately I couldn't get my foot out of my pedal before I fell over and I landed square on my left hip. It seems that I have issues with falling to my left as that is the same side I fell on in Mississippi back in April. My hip is still pretty sore and I am still using crutches to get around about a week later but I can tell it is getting better so I'm hoping to be back on my bike sometime next week!  I'm sorry this edition has taken so long to publish but I just got lazy and quit writing it right after California. Hopefully my spring update won't be this behind schedule and I'll have a lot of good rides to report on! Until then - stay safe, happy holidays and Go Tigers ! ! !