Knocked off and the End of the Road

Hello all.

Well I have made it to the end of my journey. I got to the border with Mexico on Saturday afternoon and have since been hanging out in San Diego.

The feelings of finishing the ride were a lot more dramatic than the actual event itself as there were no cheerleaders, fanfares or fireworks at the end funnily enough just a bit of a dull checkpoint! I spent the last few miles leading up to the border fairly emotional as it was the end of the adventure.

The finish line!
The day of the last ride I found pretty difficult. I wasn't liking the thought of not having another days riding and destination ahead of me as it is what has been driving me along for the past month and a bit. It was also a fairly uneventful days riding, certainly compared with having to ride through the metropolis of L.A. a few days before.

The night before riding through I had stayed a ca campsite in Malibu which was although as expensive as some of the Motels I had stayed in in the NW did have a certain charm to it as hopefully this picture justifies

Malibu Campsite

I'd also managed to get there in good time so spent a little while on an empty beach which is not so easy to find around here. Check the hipster beer shot.

I made a really early start the following morning as I thought it was going to be a stressful days riding through the city. Stress was an understatement as I made it through relatively unscathed as much through luck than judgement. It was the scariest riding I have ever done in my life and not something that I would choose to do again.

Entering LA
This stretch was fine as there was a 4 mile long traffic jam but before this I had to weave through parked cars and wheelie bins with 3 lanes of traffic behind me all going at least 50mph, not nice.

Thankfully after that there was a really well looked after cycle path through a lot of the northern beaches. It was surreal riding along these as it was about 8am and no one was around, not what I had imagined from LA city beaches. I got to Venice beach just as it was waking up which was an interesting spectacle. There were a lot of homeless people around and all of them looking pretty strung out, I sat and got a coffee and watched the world go by for an hour or so which was an interesting sight.

On my way again and through more deserted beach cycle paths such as this. It was a shame the sun was not out but it felt great to be making such good progress with the ride.

The peace and quiet soon ended though as I had to get back on to the Pacific Coast Highway with the goal of Newport beach being the end of the days ride. This was the hairiest riding I have ever done and it is no coincidence that this is where I got knocked off my bike for the first time ever. I was sat stationary at some traffic lights for 30 seconds or so and next thing I knew I was on the floor! Some old man in a big 4x4 had just driven straight into the back of me! Thankfully there was no harm done and after I had exchanged a number of angry words with the guy and picked my bike up and dusted myself down he had thrown $20 at me and driven off!!! A little shaken up I got to Huntington as quickly as I could where another cycle path started and the sun had come out bringing the beach to life.

Huntington
Leigh who I know from trade shows down the years had kindly agreed to host me in Costa Mesa that evening and it was great to see a friendly face after such an eventful day.

Leigh

The next days ride to Encinitas was nowhere near as eventful thankfully and again it was great to know someone there, one of Hughs' friends from his US tours out here Mike Sherk. Thanks Mike. That then lead to the last days ride to the border and a trip back to San Diego after I had completed the ride where I am now.

A great day yesterday taking in the sunshine, the city and my first ever baseball game.

Go Padres!

I fully embraced the culture by drinking horrible beer and eating a veggie hot dog (the only Baseball stadium in the US which serves them) The padres won which apparently is rare and I missed the only 2 runs of the entire game as we arrived late due to watching England lose on penalties....again! A great day out though and a massive thank you to Taryn for hosting me so well here.

I fly back on Wednesday and have to now go and find a bike box and suitcase from somewhere but I'm thinking I will go and have a ride around the velodrome http://sdvelodrome.com/ .

Thanks for your time in reading the blog, it may well be my last but then again maybe not. It's been good to know that some of you have enjoyed reading it and has cheered me up to hear some responses when times have become a little tricky or lonely.

It's been an amazing trip and has really opened my eyes up to cycle touring as it is so much fun and as cheesy as it may sound I feel as though I have learnt a fair bit more about myself by spending this amount of time on my own.

Nice one,
Sam x