Monday Morning Coming Down...

I'm NOT sitting here looking out upon Fallen Leaf Lake... instead I'm sitting in the Post Office parking lot thinking about going in and getting back to the routine known as work.  Sigh...

Our next vacation is slotted for the end of October; we'll be visiting family in Florida and riding with a group of tandem enthusiasts if all goes according to plan.  So until then, this blog will be in sleep mode!

41 Tough Miles

We rode around South Lake Tahoe today.  Traffic was thick and the sides of the road narrow, and much of the time strewn with debris.  Some of the best riding was found on the side roads, one which led to a small seasonal community called Fallen Leaf Lake.  The picture with this post was taken on the way up to Fallen Leaf Lake.

There was a post office there, complete with its own zip code, that is open about 11 weeks out of the year, from the day after Father's day to the day after Labor Day.  It wasn't much bigger than a closet, shared a building with the grocery and snack bar, and had the post office boxes mounted facing outside the building's outer wall.  

We will start our drive back to Idaho (and reality) tomorrow...

No More Driving...

We have arrived in Stateline-Lake Tahoe and have all of our necessary stuff (including the bike) in our room.  Shower and then the buffet?  I think that would be the best order of business!

We're staying at the Horizon; the Mont Bleu Ian pictured across US-50.

Fare Thee Well, Blue Pacific...

So this was our last day of cycling alongside the Pacific Ocean... we rode from Escondido to Carlsbad, then south along the Pacific Coast Highway to Del Mar. Then we turned around and backtracked our way back "home". The grand total was 60 miles of riding.

Now it's time to start thinking about packing up and heading home. Did we get it all? Did we forget something? I thought you said that you packed it!

Thank You, Lord...

We're on our final San Diego County ride before staring the trek back north.  Somewhere along the way on San Marcos Blvd. there was a sewage treatment plant.  What an odor!

Immediately following this olfactory annoyance was a modern day center of worship called "The Movement Church".  How appropriate... thank you Jesus for regularity.

If I had been the pastor of this church, and got stuck with this aromatic location I would have named it the "It Wasn't Us!" church!

Where I Went Today...

Today we stayed off the bike. I took it to a bike shop in San Diego to get a new chain, and while waiting made a quick drive up to the VA Medical Center where I worked in the late 70's as a pharmacy technician. There were two people there who I knew, the rest were all dead. What a comforting trip that was!

Went back to the bike shop, collected the bike and went "home". In addition to the chain being stretched out, it seems that one of the teeth on the center chainring was bent. This was also helpful in causing the chain to ride up and float. When the mechanic tried to bend the tooth back, it broke off. So... we're hoping for the best until the end of the cycling season, and then I'll probably replace all the gears and chains over the winter.

We went to the Bates Nut Farm to do some shopping for mixed nuts. Afterwards it was out to a Chinese restaurant for dinner... and then an early evening back home. It seems that I've made a convert for "Orange Peel Tofu" out of our Escondido friend. Of course, this isn't the only thing that I've opened her eyes to...

It was several years ago that we all piled into the car and headed to Magic Mountain for the day. She hadn't ridden on a roller coaster before and we had talked her into it. As we hit the drops and sped earthward, she cussed me from start to finish with things that you could only imagine, as I won't even attempt to repeat them here. As we finished the end of the ride (and what I thought might be the end of my life as soon as she got unstrapped), she turned and said, "That was FUN! Let's go again!"

I guess it only goes to show that you never know until you try...

4th of July Failure...

We were on the road by 10:00 AM this morning, pedaling toward the coast with the idea in our heads to turn left at Carlsbad and head into San Diego. We wanted to have a “mega-mileage” day, going as far as we could knowing that we'd meet up with our friend at some point in the late afternoon or early evening.

Did we achieve our goal? Sort of... we rode 60 miles. But we rode the last 15 or so with some very limited gear selections. As we pedaled into La Jolla our chain started riding up between the middle and outer (larger) chainring whenever I shifted to any cog (gears on the rear wheel) other than the largest two. That left eight other cogs we couldn't use (actually 6 that I would actually use) because the chain was “floating” instead of engaging on the chainrings.

If I shifted up to the large chainring, I could use all the gears in the rear (except the largest cog in the rear) – but climbing hill in this gear doesn't work for us. As we got into San Diego, the need for hill climbing gears would have intensified any time we wanted to head inland.

So... I guess I'll have to find a good bike shop tomorrow and see if we can figure out what's going on, or else just pack everything up and head back home. We came here to ride... and if we can't ride, we might as well go home and whine to our regular mechanic.

Do you like today's picture of the beautiful Pacific Coast? Yeah... we were so busy riding that I didn't even think of pulling out the camera. After the bike started acting up, I was fuming too much to even remember that we should get a picture or two. Next time???

Sunday - Like Having a Day Off!

We rode a whopping 14.8 miles today, and we came close to draining both of our water bottles in the process.   We were in Ramona, CA, an area I don't care to ever try riding in again.  Either it's heavy traffic and narrow shoulders or lighter traffic, no shoulders and steep hills.  And the heat somehow just seemed hotter up there...

Thank God that we were actually there for a family gathering/food-fest/pool party... our hostess' family, not ours.  Lots of food, lots of fun, and although there wasn't a lot of effort expended today, I'm ready to fall face-first into the carpet.

They say that tomorrow is another day... I hope it takes its time getting here, 'cause I need the sleep!

The Coffee Loop... Again.

Slow day today. We drove to Ramona this morning to scout out whether there's a road we'd actually want to cycle on between Escondido and Ramona. So far my first inclination is "no".

After that little excursion, we decided to ride the same loop as we did yesterday. Another stop at the coffee shop, another 50 mile day. All in a day's work... um, I mean... vacation.

We made it back home, had left-overs from last night and the Chinese dinner from the night before that. There's a Razzleberry pie from Marie Callender's sitting on the counter, along with some vanilla ice cream just waiting for somebody here to get up enough energy to go serve it up. Sadly, nobody's moving...

Cycling for Coffee

The sun was out, the weather warm and Valerie wanted her afternoon coffee. Like a daily treat, only with a kick... and all we had to do was hop on the tandem and go get it. Our hostess has a family member who owns a place in Carlsbad, a chain store called "It's a Grind". (Or click here for her store's page.)

So 30 miles later we're just a couple of blocks away from the Pacific Ocean enjoying our beverages of choice and a little sugar laced treat to help us pedal back home when our break was over. This was the same loop we rode a few weeks back; 30 miles to the coffee shop and 20 miles back to Escondido. It's a good loop, and relatively easy... all things (and hills) considered. We don't feel tired at the moment, unlike the ride we took to Chula Vista on our last trip down here (which left both of us totally ready to sleep all night).

We're not sure what the difference was. Perhaps the weather had something to do with it; the temperatures were cooler on the Chula Vista excursion. We had more traffic to contend with. (The Oceanside/Carlsbad loop has a lot of bike lanes, and an 8 mile bike path with NO cars.)

Personally speaking... I think I could ride this loop several times a week and not be dissatisfied with it. Especially when we get back home and find that our friend has been cooking something wonderful for dinner!

Thursday: The Road South

Thursday morning came with the 4:00 AM alarm... although for me it started at 3:00 with a trip to the bathroom followed by an hour of not being able to get back to sleep... because I knew that the alarm would be going off in just an hour. The mind can be such a cruel thing. So instead of relaxing, I was busy thinking about bicycles, what parts I might need, accessories that we had seen earlier that day at Crank 2, and so on. Anything BUT mindless relaxation to get in one more hour of sleep.

The alarm went off as scheduled, I got up and decided that while Valerie was dilly-dallying as is her morning style (I say we need to be on the road at 5:00 AM knowing that 6:00 AM is when we'll actually be walking out the door) I would head out the door and go to WalMart. We needed a few drinks and some ice for our cooler, and as I have come to expect... WalMart is always open. Except for this one. Great... I manage to find one of the old style WalMarts that actually closes at night (and probably didn't have a grocery section either!

A quick web search for “24 hour grocery” on my cell phone's web browser revealed a store in Oakland... which was nowhere near Pleasanton. I decided to drive past a Safeway we had been to a few days earlier and, much to my amazement, it was welcoming me with open arms (and doors).

Mission accomplished, and now it was late enough (5:00 AM) for the Starbucks close to the motel to be open, so I had one more stop to make. Back at the motel, we got the motivational mojo flowing and were indeed on the road by 6:00 AM. Heading east toward Interstate 5, feeling like a salmon swimming upstream again the solid sea of cars on the other side of the freeway heading west. Slowly creeping, for miles... and miles... and miles they went. I'm so glad that I don't have to make a daily drive in that madness!

We made it to La Verne, California around 12:30 to see Bill McCready at Santana. There were a couple of questions we had concerning our bike, and who better to ask than the people who created it? This is one of those places where I could spend hours just wandering around looking at things that I don't understand. Like a kid in a candy store, I don't know what everything tastes like but I know it's all good! This is the factory where the best tandems in the world are made – and we have one of them.

There were rows of tandem frames hanging from the walls in a regimented order that just lulled me into a drooling stupor. Different materials, different colors... it was mesmerizing for my inner-tandem lover. We also got a peek at a special project that was in the final assembly; a quint. This, for those of you who either don't know or really don't care, is not a bicycle-built-for-two but is instead a bicycle-built-for-five. Yes, FIVE. But if that's not enough for you, Santana built this six seater. (Click on the the phrase "The Bike" under the heading "Menu" on the right-hand sidebar ... and you'll see a slide show of this monster!)

From Santana we continued our drive to Escondido, where our friend was waiting for us with open arms. No, stop the presses... she wasn't waiting... she forgot all about us and thought we were coming in the next day! We were like little unloved orphans standing outside the gate of her condo, with no one to call and nowhere to go. (Except on an evening bike ride... to kill time and enjoy what evening light was left.)

Our friend finally came home and then spent the rest of the evening wondering how she could have forgotten the day we were coming in, and apologizing profusely about every ten minutes! Sweetie...it's alright. Forgetfulness comes honestly for people your age! (Yes, I'll be sleeping on the patio tonight, but it was worth it!!!)

Seriously, we all went out and had a Chinese dinner which was great – I was really craving some Asian cuisine and dinner hit the spot perfectly. We came back home, and it wasn't long before I hit the sack and passed out without any problem. It's nice to be back “home” among friends!

Oh... that picture of the cycling socks? Something I found at a local shop on our ride last night. My “signature” fashion statement!