Up the coast we go!

Well it official...we're begging to log actual miles and not just "practice runs". We spent Monday warming up our bikes and ourselves by biking from our friends' house in east San Diego down to the beach to dip our back tires and then get a final tune-up at a bike shop (shout out to Adams Avenue Bicycles for the great staff!!). We also made a friend on this jaunt (Bill) who advised our novice-selves to instead of spending the first few days of our trip climbing mountains, to instead head north along the coast and then cut east just south of LA....thus avoiding some significant climbs right away and getting a few days of "flatter" practice under our belts. So that's what we're doing with our end of the week destination being Dot's cousin near Joshua Tree National Park.

So for this blog I'm going to give you a list of some of our highlights/ interesting sights from the last 48 hours:

1.) Passing a guy by the side of the road who had his entire drumset set up and was playing for a marsh

2.) Staying with our first warmshowers.org host family in Carlsbad and having an amazing dinner and then breakfast....they set the bar very high, thank you Erin and Steve!

3.) Biking through Pendleton military base and watching the personnel train and listening while they blew things up...only a bit unnerving.

4.) Passing a guy with two miles on a bike trail...check out 3mules.com to see their story....I think they are on an adventure like us!

5.) Camping out tonight at Crystal Coce state park on a cliff overlooking the Pacific....aaaand route 1.

6.) Making some new biking friends along the way: Bill and Neil, thanks for the encouragement and advise!

Tomorrow the journey will begin to head eastward and as sad as it will be to say goodbye to the coast, I think we're ready to face our tires homeward. Besides, I don't think anyone we've met so far really believes we are actually heading to Florida!

 

Posted with Blogsy