Day One –Sunday - June 29, 2008 Breakfast at Carrows, Dublin (thanks to Carol, Elena, Nick & Colleen for joining us), departure at 8 am for our adventure. Because of the fire situation, we will be changing our route to avoid Hwy 1 and the Big Sur fires. Today we rode to an auto park campground in San Mateo County. The biggest challenge was over the coastal mountains.

Quotes of the day: Terry, “Why are we going uphill when we already went over the summit?” and Mark: “Don’t ask bicyclists for directions, and take more breaks.”

STATS: Total of 72.2 miles, max. spd. 33 mph, aver. spd. 11.1 mph . total time today was 6 hr. 30 min.

Day Two - After breakfast at the campground we had coffee in Pescadero and rode down the coast to Santa Cruz and the Board Walk. The coast was beautiful; we even had a tail wind. The ride then took us through acres of strawberry fields to Moss Landing and then to camp in Prunedale. We had no mechanical problems and lots of interesting conversations with the locals. Most were concerned with the fires.

Quote of the day: Terry, “There are just too many things to do and remember.”” and Mark, “Damn!” Mark has promised an explanation of this quote at a later time.

STATS: Total of 83.3 miles, max. spd. 38 mph, aver. spd. 12.9 mph, total time 6 hrs, 25 min. Total trip mileage = 155.5 miles.

Day Three - This morning we left Prunedale and turned toward Salinas. We will go down the Salinas Valley paralleling highway 101 on country roads to avoid the fire area in the Los Padres National Forest. Today we have a new appreciation of the farm workers life as they harvest our lettuce and strawberries. A very difficult job.

The unusual sight of the day was a herd of buffaloes.

The day was warm with a great tail wind. We had lunch in Gonzales and could see the smoke to the west. Tonight a motel in King City....warm showers and a real bed!

STATS:71.47 miles, max. spd. 38.5, av. spd. 14.2, total time 5 hr. 1 min. and one flat tire in the morning (Terry). Total trip mileage = 226.97 miles.

Day Four -This was an overcast day that turned really hot (95 degrees).We went through beautiful small towns, leaving one was an adventure as we took the local’s advice and ended up on a “killer hill.” Mark, “Getting out of town is always an adventure.”

We are in a motel tonight in Paso Robles, where we dropped our things and headed for the pool. Elena meets us each night.

Our detour to our original route will add a day on our trip. We will head back out to the coast at Morro Bay.

STATS: Total miles 64.51, max spd 37 mph, av spd 11.6 mph, total time 5 hrs 33 min. Total trip mileage = 291.48 miles.

Day Five - We rode from Paso Robles to Pismo Beach today. It was an easier trip than yesterday, hilly but smaller hills and great weather for riding. Since we only rode for about 5 hours we arrived at Pismo Beach early enough to enjoy the beach, a good dinner followed by ice cream. Elena had arrived earlier and found that all the campgrounds were full (4^th of July weekend) so she managed to get us a hotel room. She is managing some time to paint along the way.

We had breakfast in Paso Robles this morning where we met a man from Montreal riding from Canada to Mexico. Now that’s an ambitious ride.

The memorable moment today was the descent on Old Creek Road, a narrow, long, winding, beautiful road. One could attain some serious speed on this road.

We will leave early tomorrow morning to ride to Santa Barbara, approximately 80 miles away.

STATS: Total miles 59.88, max. spd. 35.5, av. spd, 12.4, total time today 4 hours 48 min. Total trip mileage is now 351.36 miles.

Day Six – We arrived in Goleta today. The smoke is very close and the ashes fall on us. We went through a lot of farm land today, were on the free way several times. The morning was cool but the day very HOT with a tail wind. We were going up a particularly long hill when a local guy went by, “Yep….steep hill….some people make it!"

Lunch was in Lompoc. Tonight we are in a hotel that also is housing many fire fighters and evacuees. The electricity is going off and on, many restaurants are closed. The sky looks very weird.

STATS: Total miles 90.69, max. spd. 40, av. spd. 13.4, total time today 6 hr. 45 min. Total trip mileage is now 442.05 miles

Day Seven - .As we left Goleta this morning the air was a little clearer. Our ride was at sea level today with pleasant weather. The beaches are very busy this holiday weekend, lots to see and people to talk with. We rode down the Pacific Coast Highway, entered Los Angeles County (a milestone), Terry had another flat tire. We found a group of motorhomes that lent us a patio area for our repair. Stopped in Carpenteria at the local Starbuck’s for coffee, many people were interested in what we were doing.

Port Hueneme was a beautiful area of homes and boats.

We found what is probably the last hotel room in Malibu for the night.

Terry’s question of the day, “How far have we come?” was answered when we made our nightly check in with JoAn…..The total at the end of today is 522.43 miles. Our trip will exceed the 650 estimate, due to the detour. We will go to Newport Beach tomorrow.

STATS: Total miles 80.38, max. spd. 34, av. spd. 13.2, total time today was 6 hours 3 min. Total trip mileage is now 522.43.

Day Eight –Sunday - Left Malibu about 6:30 this morning and went down Highway 1. There were some bike trails along the way and lots of people. The ride was flat along the beaches, lots of traffic. We went through Venice and then Terry had a spoke break. We were fortunate to find a bike shop in Manhattan Beach and had the spoke fixed while we had lunch at “Johnny Rocket’s.” We went through Torrance and then on the bike trail along the Los Angeles River bed. Our destination was Orange, where Terry’s friends, Larry and Karen McQurrey live. After a wonderful dinner of lasagna, salad and strawberry shortcake and a good nights sleep, we said goodbye to them and headed out.

STATS: 95.8 miles (BIG day), max. spd. 30.5, av. spd. 12.0, time 7 hours, 57 min. Total mileage of the trip today is 618.23 miles.

Day Nine (Monday) – Left Orange about 8:30 am after a great breakfast with the McQurreys. We rode to Huntington Beach, Newport Beach, Laguna Beach….all beautiful, artsy communities. Mark took many photographs and Elena is painting the scenes. There were no mechanical difficulties today. Our destination tonight is a campground 8 mi. north of Camp Pendleton at San Onofre, The campgrounds are finally available after the holiday weekend. Terry’s quote while sightseeing, “Let’s hurry back to camp so I can have a beer.”

Explanation of quote in Day Two: Terry had a minor collision with a motorist in Santa Cruz…the car appeared in front of him and Terry had nowhere to go but to run into his door. Little damage but it knocked Terry down, tore his pants leg…and the quote was Mark’s reaction.”

STATS: Total miles 59.62 miles, max. spd. 30.5, av. spd. 11.9, time 5 hours.

Total trip mileage today is 677.85 miles.

Day Ten – Tuesday - We left camp at 6:50 am, rode through Camp Pendleton where we saw soldiers training, through Oceanside, Coronado, Del Mar, Torrey Pines, San Diego and the beautiful scenery along the coast. We had to take a ferry from Coronado to the silver strand and then rode to Imperial Beach. We came back to Coronado and the Boat House Restaurant for our celebration dinner.

We met many interesting people along the way: One older gentleman who had ridden to his 50^th high school reunion, a couple from Switzerland, a navy man who showed us how to get from Coronado to Imperial Beach where we secured a hotel to really get cleaned up.

No mechanical problems today!

”At one point I saw Mark clutch his chest…my heart sank….but it turned out that he was stung by a bee,” Terry.

STATS: Time 5 hours 59 min., max. spd. 33 mph, av. spd. 12.5. Total trip mileage to Imperial Beach was 753.01 miles!

Day Eleven – Wednesday – We reported in as we traveled in luxury in Mark’s van up highway 5 toward home. We come home with a real sense of accomplishment, of having handled the little problems along the way, of having added a detour of approximately 100 miles to avoid the fires, of meeting many new people, of experiencing the crowds of a holiday weekend, and enjoying our friendship. Mark will publish photos on this site and Elena brings paintings of the scenery…..Mark will add some photos of these to the exhibit!

Well done, Mark, Terry and Elena!