The winds are gusting to 45 mph, the clouds are coming in, and I have about a half hour before the sun goes down behind the Malibu cliffs. I am ensconced on the concrete floor in front of the public bathroom, with the cords to the laptop and cell phone on an extension cord running into the bathroom. We need to charge everything, and we used up the battery for the laptop in the tent this morning by loading the photos for the last two albums and doing the sorting and organizing. Chelsea has just finished putting the computer onto my new Novara Safari, and is headed in to take a shower – I just finished mine (two quarters gives enough time for a very efficient hair and body wash, and not much else).
It’s hard to believe, but we’ve been here 8 days now, and we’re all set to move on tomorrow. We’ll head out along Pacific Coast Highway, through Santa Monica and Venice, to Redondo Beach, where we’ve been told we can camp at a city park for $5 a night per person. After that, we’re hoping to hit Laguna Beach, and stay with Dave Roper, then on to Oceanside where Paul offered another place to stay. We may stay two days at each of these places (if they’ll have us) because we really need to finish all the last minute things here in the US, like canceling part of our Verizon contract, getting powers of attorney to the right people, shipping home any final things we know we don’t need, making sure Alex’s name is on all the utilities back in FL, and so on. We’re leaving it open as to when we enter Mexico, but we want to be sure that we are really ready to go, and that all our ducks are in a row.
Getting to Leo Carrillo
We’ve had a very interesting time here at Leo Carrillo. Dave and Katy decided to stay with us on Christmas Eve, and we had a wonderful, peaceful time out on the beach looking at the tide pools (check out Chelsea’s underwater photography in the photo gallery) and watching sunset, then having a spaghetti dinner by the fire. We were all so tired we hit the sleeping bags early, but about 4 a.m. the winds kicked up, and were they ever fierce! We were in a regular campsite, out in the open, and our tent was just rockin’ and rollin’. Dave and Katy called it quits about 5 a.m. and packed up and left, but we were committed to stay (as in nowhere else to go!) so we stuck it out – the winds lasted well into Christmas night, and gusted consistently up to 50 mph. The wind was so strong it drove grit and sand right through our rain fly and tent, into our faces and all over everything in the tent. But we celebrated Christmas Day by having hot dogs and polenta on the cook stove. Mmmmm….
Michael, Eva and Sterling
One fun part about Christmas Day was meeting Eva and Michael, who had driven from Ashland Oregon with Eva’s son Sterling, down the coast to San Diego, working their way slowly back up, stopping to surf along the way. We had a great time talking over adventures. Michael has done a fair number of cycling adventures, and is thinking seriously about doing a cross-country cycling trip. Eva has a background in working with horses, and considers those her passion, though she’s a successful real estate investor and has done her share of outdoor adventures. They were headed out to sightsee in Santa Monica and Venice, but they graciously volunteered the use of their stove while they were gone.
We opted to just hang out in the tent, as the winds were really strong still, and the air temps were cold and getting colder, so we passed on the offer of the use of the stove, but we went down to see them again on Wednesday and chatted some more. Sterling, Eva’s son, is a computer programmer in his first or second year of college, and we are thinking seriously about working with him on some of our website issues. His hourly rate is really reasonable, and we definitely need someone who is good in Drupal and can do security patches, updates, and so on for us. He promised to look at Drupal and see what he thought about it.
One really big kindness Eva did for us was to give us several packaged dinners they had gotten from Trader Joes. Each one was an Indian vegetarian dish, sealed in a pouch, so all we had to do was boil water and heat the pouch, then make polenta or couscous to go with it. We had one right away that day, and another one a few days later, and it was heaven to have something so tasty and so hearty. Plain pasta and oatmeal and polenta get very boring after awhile! And, even though they were a bit heavy, at least we know what we can get for a special treat now and then (or have our buddies send us when we are south of the border).
Getting the bike sale settled
I knew I needed to check and see whether the person who bought my bike had paid, but we have no Internet here and no cell phone signal either. I was feeling pretty frantic about it, but we couldn’t figure out what to do. We don’t have the budget for a $70 night at the hostel in Santa Monica (though that would have been perfect), but we didn’t really want to be here, either. We finally moved from the “expensive” $20 a night sites to the hike and bike sites at $6 a night (for two) to give ourselves a chance to think things through.
The challenge was that I had to see if the buyer had paid, and then transfer the money into my account. That takes several days. Then we needed to get into Santa Monica, ship my bike, and go to REI in Santa Monica, where they were holding the Safari for me. I was getting really concerned that they weren’t holding it any longer, as the hold had been up on Christmas Eve, and this was already the 26th. Obviously if the new buyer wanted my Dolce bike right away, I would have to ship it immediately, but then if I didn’t have the money for the new bike yet, I wouldn’t have any transportation, and we were nearly six miles from any bus lines! Arrrgh…
Warren
As we got settled in to our new spot (much more protected and much farther from the mainstream campsites) we met Warren. Warren is a very interesting guy who lives on his bike. He’s 68 years old, and thinks nothing of hopping on his bike to do a 42 mile ride into Camarillo for food, shopping and to check the Internet at the library. He shifts back and forth between campgrounds, staying only the allowed 2 nights at each hike and bike place. He lives extremely frugally, and showed us a number of techniques like staying warm in the tent, saving money on local buses, and so on. He lives on a VA pension, and recently cycled and hitchbiked from Southern California to Labrador and back. He rode over 5,000 miles and hitchbiked about 7500. How awesome is that? He has what he calls a ministry (we didn’t find out too much about that) and he teaches early Christian history.
Warren filled us in on all the local issues. He explained who the regular locals were and told us where they like to camp. He filled us in on personalities, and on the rules of the campground. But perhaps the best thing he told us was that we could ride five and half miles down the road to Trancas Canyon, then catch a bus into Santa Monica, and better yet, we could even take the bikes on the bus with us! Not only did he give us times and fees, he gave us a bus schedule. What a lifesaver! Warren gets our Hero of the Day for that one!
Warren was also the one who let us use his favorite campsite, telling us it had a great deal more privacy and was more protected from the elements. He strongly urged us to move from our first hike and bike site back to “his”. Little did he or we know that we’d be there six nights!
Heading out to Trancas
Thursday and Friday Chelsea and I suited up and rode down to the Starbucks at Trancas Canyon. We were warm, dry, and we had great Internet signal. The ride itself was a bear – it’s hilly, it’s along a highway with heavy fast traffic, and the first day we had 25 mph gusts coming out of the canyons. It was pretty unnerving, but we felt great getting out and riding and honing our skills again. We typed like mad on Internet for a few hours each time, then we headed for the store to grab supplies, and we’d ride home. We were late on Friday night, and scared ourselves to death by having to ride home along the freeway in the dark. We still can’t adjust to the fact that sun sets at about 4:45, and it takes us about 45 minutes to make the ride. That means we had leave Trancas absolutely no later than 4. We didn’t leave until almost five, and it was nearly pitch black by the time we rolled into our campsite. I could hardly even see the road for the last 2 miles. I swore we would never do that again!
I saw that I did get paid, and I was able to start the transfer process to my account. I wrote several emails to the buyer, explaining that I hoped to keep the bike until Monday, but as of late Friday hadn’t heard from her. We decided to take the weekend off, and trust that everything would have cleared by Monday.
More bike adventures – Santa Monica here we come!
We got up bright and early on Monday and took off for our big bike and bus adventure to Santa Monica. What a day we had! The winds had picked up again, and we were trying not to think about how awful it would be riding back from Trancas at the end of the day. Everything went really well, though. We made to Trancas, checked the emails and bank account really fast, and got ourselves and our bikes on the bus. We got to talk to Alex on the way to Santa Monica (persevering through a number of dropped signals), and that improved my mood even more (talking to Alex, not the dropped signals). We got off the bus only about 4 blocks from REI, and the next 5 hours were an absolute blur.
We stopped by REI – had to log on to the internet to transfer money, had to pay for the bike and get the fitting and set-up underway, then had to ride to Cynergy Cycles about 2 miles down the road to settle everything with shipping my bike and to get a saddle for Chelsea and bar phat tape (the only way to go for handlebars!), then we had to race back to REI to finish up there, and try to catch a bus absolutely no later than 3:28.
REI and Cynergy were both absolutely incredible. Sal at REI took us under his wing – doing what he could on my bike to make sure it was in perfect condition, putting water bottle cages on both bikes, and then waiting for us to return.
Cynergy was just awesome. They are a Specialized store, and are incredibly well-stocked. They have such a clean crisp feeling about the store, that one would half expect the staff to be snooty, but the opposite turned out to be true. We explained our challenges, and Davio took us in hand for the taking down of the bike to ship, and DJ let me use his computer to use my FedEx account for the shipping, including printing out the waybill.
While I got the whole shipping process completed, Chelsea got my saddle, lights, computer, and pedals off the Dolce, and got it ready for Davio. They got the smallest box possible to ship it, saving me $60, and then only charged us $20 to take it down for us. The alternative would have been for us to drag the bike and box off their property somewhere, working in someone’s downtown parking lot, take the bike down and pack it, then drag the box back to them for a FedEx pickup. Not only the hassle of that sounded awful, but we had a really tight time schedule, and we were already pushing the limits. $20 sounded like an incredible deal to us. We need to award Davio and DJ a Hero of the Day award for their attitude and help!
We bolted out of Cynergy to catch a bus back to REI, now with only Chelsea’s bike. Sal was ready and waiting for us, so we gave him the seats, pedals and bar phat tape. He told us to go eat lunch (we were near dropping from hunger) so we got a huge burrito right down the street – really good food! Sal was almost done when we got back, and then James the “master mechanic” took over the final touches. We got Chelsea’s disc brakes tuned, we got fitted to the bikes, we got the saddles on and adjusted, we got the handlebars awesomely cushy – we were ready for some serious touring! And I rolled out of the store with a brand new bike…. Needless to say, Sal and James get a Hero of the Day award from us for service above and beyond the call of duty.
Mark and Scott – LAFD – to the rescue
And of course, here’s the denouement… we missed our bus schedule, and ended up leaving at 4:28 instead of 3:28. We were going to end up in Trancas unable to ride back to the campground, and having to hitchhike in the pitch dark. Ah well…we sure enjoyed the sunset over the ocean from the bus and sure enjoyed the local flavor of the bus riders! We hit Trancas (with really fierce winds kicking up again) and comforted ourselves by getting two cans of soup and a loaf of fresh bread while we tried to decide what to do. I happened to cross paths several times in the store with an LAFD fireman, and it gave me an idea. When we checked out, and couldn’t figure out what on earth to do, I figured who would know the area better than a fireman?
When he came out, I explained our situation, and asked if he had any ideas. The upshot was that Mark Gocke and Scott Christie, from the LAFD, put our bikes in the back of the fire truck and drove us back to the campground. We were warm and dry and had no awful winds to deal with – at least until we got back. Not only did they bring us back to the campground, they dropped us off right in front of the hike and bike section, and we had great conversation along the way. We got a great photo of them – you have to check our photo gallery. We know for sure that these two get a Hero of the Day! Can you imagine what a difference they made to us?!
Ian and Rachel
We’ve also begun seeing other touring cyclists. On Christmas Eve we met Rachael, who is in grad school at Stanford, going for her doctorate in physics. Since she had a short break over the holidays, she decided to ride from Palo Alto to San Diego, where she has family. She arrived at close to sunset, and joined us for a while over the fire pit that Dave and Katy had going. It was great fun swapping experiences and gear stories, then she headed out early the next morning, despite the truly fierce winds.
After we had switched to the hike and bike area, we met Ian, who arrived just as we were arriving back from one of our jaunts to Trancas. We spoke for a while that night, then had a chance to talk more as he got ready to take off the next morning. Ian is a college graduate who had already traveled extensively, primarily hiking and backpacking in Central America. This is his first cycle touring experience, and he was struck by how different it is than the backpacking/hiking – he said that it is much more of a solitary experience. He is now riding from Portland Oregon to Tierra del Fuego, at the tip of South America. Like us, he has stopped along the way – he spent over a month in Santa Barbara working and hanging out with friends. Also like us, he is working his way through the trip, and is remaining open and creative about how it will all work out. We thoroughly enjoyed talking to him, so much so that we exchanged phone numbers and emails, and we hope to catch up to him along the way. I feel certain that we will, and that we’ll have a raft of experiences to share when we see him again.
Gil
Gil is another main character of our stay in Leo Carrillo. He’s a volunteer with the park service, and has some kind of arrangement set up to work at the campground in exchange for being able to camp there. He also is allowed to go through the dumpsters looking for cans and other recyclable materials. When he gets enough, he cycles down Pacific Coast Highway to Trancas to the recyclers there, and cashes in on his haul. I never did understand exactly what the story was, but he wasn’t currently staying at the campground. I believe it was something about having reached his limit on the number days he was allowed to stay at the campground in any given year, and he was looking forward to being able to move back in after the first of the year.
Since he couldn’t stay there, Gil had a stash of items that he kept under tarps in back of our campsite. He’d be there at our site faithfully every morning between 7:40 and 8:20, rustling around under the tarps and then he wouldn’t usually show up until this last run of the day, usually just before the sunset. We had a chance to chat each time, and we’d ask him all the questions we wanted answers to, like what the weather forecast was, how strong those wind gusts really were, when the campground was going to be busy, and what New Years Even would be like. Whenever we asked a question he didn’t have the answer for, he’d go find the answer and come back immediately. He’d let us know that the newspapers were in at the rangers’ kiosk and that we should get them immediately, and told us stories about campers abandoning entire tents after the big windstorms, thinking they were damaged beyond repair.
Finally the last morning I asked Gil about his background, and discovered that he’d been raised on a ranch/farm in Idaho, apparently with a lot of acreage, and with an environment that was similar in some respects to the Leo Carrillo area. Somehow the family lost everything in some kind of political dispute. Gil has a college degree, and worked for a number of years in accountancy, at least seven of them in Fort Lauderdale in FL. I’ve no idea what happened that Gil ended up homeless and collecting cans from dumpsters for recycling, living in campgrounds, but he’s feeling relatively peaceful about his life now. After four years of doing this however, he confided that he’s ready to make changes, and that 2008 may be the year he does it.
Malibu and peace signs in Christmas lights
We had over a week to get to know Malibu and what a personality it has! You’ll find an incredible variety of people coming through, and though we were nearly 15 miles up the road, many locals prefer this particular Starbucks, and come several times a week. We saw tourists – mostly from California and the west coast, who were passing through on their Christmas holidays; laborers; corporate types; entrepreneurs, and everything in between. One morning we heard a group of locals who run concession stands or who are buskers down at the piers in Santa Monica and Venice Beach, and we listened to all their concerns and comments (there’s a good profit in selling water, and food is a sure thing). We sat and listened to self-anointed philosophers expand on their philosophies to anyone who came in hearing distance, and I was reminded acutely of the 70’s and 80’s and the big human potential movements that arose in Big Sur and spread down the coast.
Kathy, a woman with whom we are now staying, described Malibu as urban hippies, and that’s very accurate from our observations. She said there are urban hippies, artists, movie stars, corporate types, and entrepreneurs, all in one big mix. It was certainly very entertaining! And the final non-verbal comment on the area was the huge peace sign lit up in Christmas lights, the last night we were there. It felt like one of those “only in Southern California” type of sights.
New Years Day
So here we are, getting ready to go after our tiring but very successful day in Santa Monica. The winds have howled all night long, and are continuing to howl right now. We are just praying that they die down tonight, but no matter what, we are leaving tomorrow!
Signing off from Leo Carrillo State Beach near Malibu CA…