Signing Off...

This is it for now... I'm signing off from the blogging world until the next time we decide to hit the road and I feel the need to bore everyone with our adventures. Thanks to those of you who have commented favorably about the blog, and to the brave souls who actually left a comment here; it took me a while to realize they were there (it's easier to review and maintain the blog on a computer than it is on a Blackberry, but much easier to carry the Blackberry around than the computer)!

The Rear Admiral

Some people have different names for the person who rides on the back end of a tandem; the conventional term is "stoker". The person up front is the "captain". There are times, however, when the person in back pulls rank and becomes the "rear admiral". But who's going to quibble about rank with someone that looks this good? Certainly not me!

Sunset Cliffs

This photo was taken during our first ride in San Diego, looking northward toward Ocean Beach. A great day to ride, other than the monster hill we had to grunt up to meet up with the road that would get us to the Cabrillo National Monument...

There are plenty of tidepools along this stretch of beach, and opportunities abound to witness various little marine creatures living out their lives unaware of the value of the beach property they call "home". Some people call me a "crab", yet I don't get to live on the beach... what's up with that???

More Photos Coming Soon...

Give us a couple of days for the dust to settle and I'll take a look and see what sort of shots our "staff photographer" captured. I'll upload any good one prior to putting the blog back to "sleep"!

Back in Boise...

We are back in Boise!

Now if we can just get home to our own bed and get some SLEEP!

In Reno...

After all my worrying about being ale to the airport, our plane was late in arriving. We finally got up and went back out through security to the main portion of the terminal to where the Starbucks was located and got ourselves some mochas. We then went outside for our last bit of California sunshine.

When we came back in we found that the plane had arrived ahead of the projected time and was in the final stages of boarding -- had we delayed a couple more minutes we might have found ourselves spending an extra night here!

We took off from east west as is the fashion in San Diego to find in the brief few minutes since we'd been outside a fog had rolled in and was now starting to shroud the west end of the runway. So much for the California sunshine!

Flight Delayed...

Just got word that the inbound flight was delayed, so it looks like we'll be leaving San Diego 50 minutes late.

At SAN

Our friend got off work 10 minutes early and drove her little Toyota truck like a bat out of hell, and we were at the airport by 2:00 PM. Check-in was easy and we're ready to go through the security checkpoint which has no line at the moment. This is unlike the line they had Friday that stretched as far as the eye could see!

Waiting for the "Airport Shuttle"

We're waiting for our friend to get off from work so we can make the mad dash to the San Diego airport. She gets off at 1:30 and our flight is at 3:30 -- she says it only takes half an hour to get to the airport from where we're at... and I'm thinking it's going to be tighter than that. Will we taste success or discover a new recipe for disaster? Stay tuned...

Riding Back Into the Case...

6:35 AM -- After another night of very poor sleep, I'm happy to say that I'm ready to head out to the back patio and star breaking the bike down to return its various pieces to the case so we can fly back home. If nothing else we'll at least be in a familiar bed and MAYBE will be able to sleep through most of the night. I thought that after yesterday's 49 mile ride nothing would wake me up... It was more along the line of nothing would put me to sleep! And I was tired last night, too... in fact, I still am!

Yesterday's ride ended on a strange note; there is a "bicycle curfew" imposed on Camp Pendleton, and the public is only allowed to cycle through there during those hours. When we first entered the base I asked the young guard at the gate what time we had to be back at the gate to be allowed access to the bike trail, and he said he thought it was 5:00 PM. The key word here was "thought".

It turns out that we hit the northern gate a few minutes too late to be allowed to make our return trip through the base. A few minutes past five o'clock? Nooo... a few minutes past THREE. There is no other way for a cyclist to get from San Clemente to Oceanside, California except to pedal through Camp Pendleton. Well, there is ONE other way; pedal on the shoulder on Interstate 5 for the seven or eight miles of freeway that runs from that particular gate to Oceanside.

So we went from several peaceful miles of NO traffic from the State Park along the coast that uses parts of the abandoned Pacific Coast Highway to riding on the $€¥£%&! freeway! It just doesn't get much better than that!

Well, it's time for me to go tear our freeway assault vehicle down and put it in its case...

Oops...

Here's the photo I forgot to upload...

San Onofre State Beach

Okay... Here's a quick shot of the bike, a ravine and the Pacific Ocean!

In San Clemente

1:55 PM -- We've ridden from Oceanside to San Clemente and are currently sitting outside a little store eating snacks and loading up on liquid so we can make the return trip. We have to ride through abandoned portions of the old Pacific Coast Highway and part of Camp Pendleton (USMC) so there's either no traffic or very little.... and also no services until we're back in Oceanside.

Sorry about the lack of a photo; there's no view whatsoever from the store we're at!