Day 0: Hanging Out in San Diego

Day 0

May 16, 2015

Miles: 7.5

San Diego Coast to San Diego Holiday Inn

Di and I are riding our bikes across the U.S.!  We first got the idea for this trip last October while attending a pot luck dinner at Casey Farm in North Kingstown, RI.  Di and I were talking to a couple that had ridden their motorcycles across the country and I remarked that it was something I would like to do some day.  I asked Di if she would be up for such a trip and she replied that a motorcycle trip across the country was a crazy idea.  Instead, she said, why don't we ride our bicycles across the country.  At this the motorcycle couple laughed and said that was the truly crazy idea.  I laughed too, until I realized Di was serious.  And now here we are in San Diego, riding our bikes across the country from here to Yorktown, VA.  The lesson here is don't tell your significant other their idea is crazy or you may find yourself embarking on a 3600 mile bike ride.

Yesterday, Jen and Ben drove us to the airport.  Jen has been our mentor for this trip.  She has been imparting to us the wisdom she and Ben gained when they rode across the country back in 2011.  They rode from Yorktown, VA to Florence, OR.  Di and I had never toured before Jen and Ben took their big ride, but we were in such awe of their trip that we were inspired to start touring and we fell in love with it.  And now look where that has brought us.  As Jen said her goodbyes she offered one last piece of advice: have fun!  Here's hoping.   

Di and I at the airport.

We arrived in San Diego around 8:30pm.  It was a long flight, but we passed the time by playing a game Ben had given us called Set (Di was better than me, but I'm not sure that is saying much because the woman sitting next to Di asked if she could play and she also was better than me.)  We got to our hotel around 9pm and our friend Steve was waiting for us in the lobby!  He was attending some business meetings in San Diego and wasn't flying back to RI until the next day, so we were able to enjoy a lovely dinner together (made even more enjoyable because Steve treated!)

Steve and Di at dinner.

Our hotel has extremely long hallways.

We got up early this morning and went to the San Diego Bike Shop to meet Cliff, who was putting our bikes together.  We had shipped our bikes five days earlier and Cliff was assembling the parts that needed to be removed so the bikes could fit in the shipping boxes.  Cliff was still working on my bike, but Di's was already finished.

Di working on her bike at the San Diego Bike Shop

Big Cliff, ace mechanic, who did a great job getting our bikes ready.

Cliff needed about 30 more minutes to finish my bike, so we went to the Donut Bar to get him a coffee and doughnut.  The Donut Bar is quite famous and always has long lines of people waiting to get in.  The line goes right past Roben's Juice, which advertises all the health benefits of drinking fresh juice.  Nobody goes into Roben's Juice.  Maybe they should start selling doughnuts.

Di in line for doughnuts.

Cliff finished our bikes and Di and I rode back to the hotel and packed all our gear.  We decided we had too much stuff, so we put a whole bunch of things we didn't really need into a box and rode to the post office and mailed the box home.  You might think it was pretty silly that we took that stuff all the way to San Diego just so we could send it back to RI before the trip had even begun, and you would be right.  

Anyway, Di and I then rode to the coast and then back to our hotel so we can get an early start tomorrow morning and immediately head east instead of backtracking west merely to make it official that we went from coast to coast.  Also, I want to stop and get a good breakfast and the miles we save by riding to the coast today translates into more time drinking coffee and eating pancakes tomorrow.

Di at Embarcardero Marina Park in search of the coast

That's us at the coast!

The trip starts in earnest tomorrow.  A difficult trip that taxes you physically and mentally can be very rewarding.  For instance, I'll be able to eat as much Ben and Jerry's as I want and I'll still lose weight.  Its hard to get more rewarding than that!

Our target destination tomorrow is Pine Valley, CA, routing through Alpine, CA.  About 50 miles.