We arrive!

The ticket tape parade and mayor holding the key to the city for us is
just out of frame to the left... ;-)

Tomorrow Bill and possibly some guys might bike us down to the Mexican
border so we can dip our toe over!
Miles Today: 42. Total Trip Miles: 641.

Views coming into San Diego

Jodi heading downhill about 20 miles into the ride today.

Jodi's aunts drove up and got our bike bags for us and brought them
back so we could go faster and "the guys" wouldn't have to wait for us
quite so much. So we got to ride 42 miles today without all our stuff.

Totally amazing what a difference it was. I way underestimated the
effect of carrying the weight in those bags. Hills we would have
labored up in our easiest gear, we powered up in a medium gear. We
could cruise the flats at 16-18 mph without working too hard. I never
felt like I was killing myself.

I'd say the bags slow you down/increase your workload by 30-40%. The
more you're hauling, the worse it gets very quickly. I think it would
have taken 90 more minutes to get here if we had our bags on.

If we did this again there's a few things we could leave behind I
guess (nerf football, deck of cards), but not a lot. We met a couple
biking from Anchorage to Argentina. They bought and carried ten days
of food at a time. They had a bigger tent than we had. I'm sure
overall they were carrying slightly more weight.

What we've learned is that the bags basically slow you down 5-7 mph,
or more when it's hilly, and there's nothing you can do about it. The
Anchorage couple were planning 50 mile days for California, and they
were already very fit from ten weeks of biking. 60 miles with bags
feels like 100 without. Not a big thing as long as you're mentally
prepared for it. We were lucky we had plenty of days to get here
because it took more days than I expected.

Important stop

"The Guys" have a delicious breakfast spot. You can see the excitement
in Jodi's taste buds from here!

Our welcoming committee

Bill and his friends Dave and Craig riding us in the last 40 miles!

Lots of nice roads!

Today varied a lot as far as hills and roads. We had some small
residential streets with constant up/down hills. We had flat bike path
along the beach. We had 4 lane busy roads dodging parked cars and
traffic. We also had some nice miles on a part of old highway 1 which
is totally unused andno longer accessible to cars, which they've now
allowed to be a huuuge wide bike path.

It was hot! Like 78 it said. I has to wet my jersey and head down at
one of the beaches.

We've got about 38 miles to Jodi's aunt and uncle's place in San
Diego tomorrow. Her Uncle Bill is riding with one or "some of" his
biking buddies up to where we are in the morning to escort us in from
here. That will be a very nice way to come in. If they don't mind
riding at our pack mule speeds, hehe!

Miles today: 56. Total trip miles: 599

Ferry ride

Hi Gavin! we took our bikes on a ferry today. Here we are on it in
this picture. Have you ever been on a ferry? In Texas possibly?

Love, Jodi and chris

Biking to breakfast

With Carla and Damon on their tandem beach cruiser.

Carla and Damon live so close to the beach, and a short ride from lotsa Huntingdon Beach food n' fun. What as great place to live. Those guys were totally awesome hosts. Last night after dinner we had a nice firepit session with some of their neighbors and some hot chocolate and booze.

So nice to get to stay with friends on a trip like this. Thanks you guys!!