January 2 to January 4, 2008
Getting out of town
What a wild day we had the day we left Leo Carrillo! We woke up early and started in right away with our packing up and organizing, but despite our steady movement forward, it still took nearly four hours before we were ready to leave. We said good-bye to Gil, and then Warren showed up again ready to reclaim his favorite spot. We exchanged good-byes with him, and he did a short prayer for us. We finally rolled out of the campground at 10:45 a.m. with a 44-mile ride ahead of us.
The biggest downside to our start from the campground is the fact that the first thing we hit leaving camp each time is a long stiff uphill. Here we were after not having ridden these bikes ever with the trailers, and in my case, having only ridden the new bike about 3 blocks. Chelsea had a total of about 40 miles advantage on me, riding her Safari, but those were “unloaded” miles. And, we haven’t done any significant riding in over 4 months. All that led to a distinct lack of confidence that we’d really make the 44 miles in one day, and that we’d really be able to ride all those hills without walking any of them.
And sure enough, I mixed up the gearing right off the bat, and ended having to walk the first half-mile, pushing a 70 lb trailer uphill. Ahh…pride is a painful thing. Then we looked around, and who is tooling brightly up the hill behind us but Warren! Being who he is, he stopped and chatted with us, cheering us immensely. We got a ways and then Chelsea realized she had issues with her trailer pin, and Warren cheerfully bent down to help. Then once we got riding, I realized that my derailleur was doing some ghost shifting, and that I couldn’t get it into my lowest gears. That also didn’t bode well for finishing the whole 44 miles. However, once we got warmed up, it started feeling like old times – loving the air in our faces, and feeling that sense of freedom of being out on the road again.
At Trancas, we stopped with Warren, and I asked if there was any way we could get a ride into Santa Monica, or if he had any ideas of how we could take the trailers on the bus. Warren is a can-do kind of guy, and he suggested a very clever idea – that we ask the bus driver to let the trailers on as wheelchairs. The side seats for the handicapped can be lifted up, and the trailers could be fit in tightly. Warren agreed to do the negotiating for us, and that driver did not want to do it. I will never as long as I live forget Warren leaning into the bus, after giving it his best shot, letting the request and the reasoning sit in silence for a few seconds and then simply saying “Please?” The bus driver just couldn’t resist, and in a matter of moments we were on our way by bus to Santa Monica. Warren gets another Hero of the Day for the clever idea, and for pulling it off for us!
REI, James and Jaron
We got dropped off as before only a few blocks from REI, but we walked the bikes over to the park on the bluffs overlooking the ocean and the Santa Monica pier to eat some of our snacks and to do some Internet work. We took a wonderful hour or so to sit in the shade, get our photos downloaded to the laptop, and eat, all the while watching and being watched by the locals in the park. It’s an odd feeling to feel like we are one of the local attractions.
REI was, as usual, just awesome. We asked for James, our “master mechanic” from two days before, and he popped right out to help us. We got the derailleur adjusted, and he tightened down the rear quick release, really hard. For you techies, we think that the weight of the trailer was pulling the real wheel out (the entire wheel dropped off the bike when we disengaged the trailer from the hitch at Trancas), and that that is what was causing the derailleur to be out of alignment as well. While James was working on it, and taking it out for a test run, Jaron came to talk to us.
I had met Jaron by phone the week before, when I called in a panic about the bike remaining on hold, and had a great conversation with him. He and his dad cycled southern France, Italy, Spain and Greece this last year, and I was very interested in that, as Chelsea and I are talking about doing it after we finish this trip. Meeting Jaron in person was even better! He’s an absolute doll, like James, and we think the two of them will come later this year and ride with us, wherever we are at the time. Meanwhile, the word of us being there spread throughout the bike shop area, and Phillip and Zach came over and introduced themselves as well – two more wonderful guys who want to do some long distance touring.
When it was clear that we were done, James asked us if we needed anything else, and I told him that our budget was pathetically tight, but that we needed at least one spare tube. He managed to find us a new tube, a patch kit, some slime liners for the tires, and then managed to find us a back rack bag.
The bag had been returned and had been sitting in the back so long no one could remember why it was there. It wasn’t until we put it on that we realized it had faulty attachment straps, but true to form, James figured out a way to make it work. So we left REI with the derailleur fixed, the quick release tightened, a spare tube, slime liners, and a super new back rack bag (which we badly needed), and we left amidst many good wishes. Honest to heaven, it felt like a small going away party, those guys were so awesome!
Heading out again
We headed out for the bike path along the coast, but we didn’t get down there until almost 3:30, and we still had at least 16 miles to go. The bike path in this area is clogged with cyclists, roller bladers, walkers, and anything else you can imagine. The going is very slow, although we did mange to keep it at about 12 mph in the moments when we weren’t dodging other cyclists and walkers, and it helped that the terrain is very flat. We had a wonderful time seeing the beach and watching the characters that abound.
In Venice Beach we took 45 minutes or more going through the actual vendors, checking out the sights and looking for a particular item I have been wanting for a number of years. We kept stopping and asking different vendors if they’ve heard of it, and each one would send us on down the road. I finally gave up after an hour, and we headed out to the bike path, but it was almost 4:30 by that time, and the dark was setting in fast.
Joe
After Venice everything cleared up fast, and we tooled right along, but we were still riding well into the dark. We finally found Redondo Beach, where we’d heard we could camp at a city campground, but we were cold, tired, hungry, and didn’t know how to get where we were going. While sitting and trying to figure out what to do, a guy walking past us came over to talk and we ended up chatting for almost a half hour. He, Joe, works at Gold’s Gym, loves fishing passionately, and volunteers at a local place that works to increase the sea bass population. We really enjoyed our conversation, and he ended by giving us specific road directions to the campground.
Our guardian angels
The ride was about 2 miles or so, and it seemed absolutely forever. We had eaten almost nothing all day, the temperature was dropping into the 50s, it was pitch black, we had nothing for dinner, it was nearing 7 p.m., we still had to set up camp, we needed and wanted a shower, and we had no idea what we’d have at the campground, or if we could even get in. We just kept trucking along, with the trailers feeling heavier with every slight incline.
We managed a couple of hills, but then, just when we thought we were getting really close, we realized there was still another hill. I stopped for a breather and told Chelsea I was so tired that I’d likely be walking the hill. Right then a car pulled up next to us, and the occupants – a woman driving and a guy riding shotgun – starting chatting with us. After only a few minutes, they asked if we would like to stay at their house for the night! We were flabbergasted, and said yes immediately.
Turns out that we had met Steve and Kathy Fillman, and their two wonderful kids, Dave (12) and Keely (almost 9). They lived only a few blocks away, and we were able to roll our bikes and trailers right into their living room. We had a wonderful spaghetti and meatballs dinner with fresh salad, a plate of fresh fruit, bread, and even a beer to top things off. And that was after a hot shower and hair wash! We went to sleep in crisp fresh white sheets that night. I told Steve I kept wanting to pinch myself to see if I was really awake. We ended up doing 26 miles in spite of everything.
Steve and Kathy have graciously agreed to keep us until the severe storm hitting the west coast has cleared up. We have done our laundry for the first time in nearly two weeks, and we have Verizon signal inside the house so we can finish up our fundraising letter and our blogs. They have very kindly been making sure we have enough to eat, and that we are okay in every way. They have an amazing parakeet (I had no idea parakeets could have funny personalities!) and an even more amazing dog – a 90 lb. labradoodle. We are thrilled and incredibly appreciative. This family sure gets our Hero of the Day for their amazing generosity!
We are watching the weather channel hourly, and it looks as though we may be able to leave as soon as Sunday, and certainly by Monday. I’ve already called Dave Roper (of Carpinteria and Leo Carrillo fame) and he’s agreed to meet us in Laguna Beach and keep us for a night. We can’t wait to start riding again, as we could tell from Wednesday’s ride that we badly need the strength building. Meanwhile we are safe and sound and very happy.
Signing off from Redondo Beach CA…