Well, I’m back. And, much to my surprise, I made it to LA without any serious issues along the way! It was an amazing, amazing trip, but I wasn’t sure at all that I was going to be able to do it. My bike was relatively-untested, and before I got it, I hadn’t really gone on a ride over 40 miles long. Seven days and 470 miles later, I’ve done some of the best rides I’ve ever been on. Wow.

Day 1: Mountain View to Santa Cruz, 50.2 miles

The day didn’t start on a good note, as I was kicked off the first train I got on down the peninsula. I haven’t ever taken the CalTrain south with a bike before, and I assumed that the bike car was at the front, as it is going north. Alas, it was at the back. The doors were closing as I raced back, so I hopped into a car and was asked by the conductor to leave. Lame. When I eventually got to Mountain View, I met M and S, and we were off!

On the first day, we had the most climbing of the whole trip, about 3000 feet up and over the Santa Cruz mountains. When we finally came down the other side, we explored the Santa Cruz coast a bit before grabbing copious amounts of Indian food and passing out.

Day 2: Santa Cruz to Carmel, 52.5 miles

This was more of a travelling day (not so much in sightseeing). There was a nice bike path for most of the trip, but the road quality was questionable, and there was a bit of headwind. That said, once we got near Monterey, we had a great look at the coastline (a preview for the next day), and an even better look at clam chowder in a bread bowl. Yum. We ended up staying at this ridiculous place in a small cottage. Apparently, they’re having trouble renting rooms (I wonder why), so we got the place for half-price!

Day 3: Carmel to San Simeon Village, 93.2 miles

Here’s the day I was really, really worried about. Because of the spacing of the towns (and the availability of cheap places to stop), we had to do a pretty big jump, certainly much, much further than I’d ever gone. Also, the whole ride was hilly, so we were doing a lot of work.

But the views were incredible. Right along the coastline, we cruised through forests, over hills, and across bridges. And at the end, after a great descent on the last hill, we had a tail wind for about 15 miles into San Simeon. Just a perfect day. Too bad Motel 6 doesn’t give you shampoo.

Day 4: San Simeon Village to Pismo Beach, 60.0 miles

Here was another travelling/recovery day, though we got to see some pretty neat stuff. In Morro Bay, there was an old-car show, so we got to see a bunch of awesome cars driving down the highway towards Morro Bay. The only downside of the day is that we got rained on a little bit.

Day 5: Pismo Beach to Santa Barbara, 107.2 miles

This was an amazing ride, down Highway 1, through farmland to Guadalupe, up and over some hills to Lompoc, up and over more hills out of Lompoc, then finally joining up with 101 down the coast into Santa Barbara. Unfortunately, M had some tire issues, so we spent a bit of time on the side of the road until we could get him a new one in Lompoc. As an interesting coincidence, along the road the whole way down were these “3 Amigos 200X” markings (where X was either 4, 7, or 8), probably labelling a ride that some three amigos had done in those years. We also were three amigos, so it fit well.

This ride was a killer, and it was my first century (over 100 miles)! To celebrate, once we got into Santa Barbara after hours of riding, we went out on the town.

Day 6: Santa Barbara to Port Hueneme, 43.2 miles

Since we’d ridden over 100 miles and then decided to go out, we had a decidedly slow start this morning. Fortunately, there were all sorts of cool things to do in town, including a mariachi festival. L would have loved it. She really enjoys mariachi. A lot.

Anyway, this was a pretty easy ride, mostly off the freeway. Port Hueneme (wah-NEE-me) is a quiet town, and we were ready to rest, anyway!

Day 7: Port Hueneme to El Segundo, 62.6 miles

The final leg of the trip! We burned down Highway 1, through Malibu and into Los Angeles. There’s a great bike path on the beach, so we rode down through Santa Monica, Venice, and Marina Del Rey before stopping in El Segundo for some pictures. Earlier, M and I had left our wallets there, so it was nice to get them back. If you didn’t catch the reference, A Tribe Called Quest would be happy to fill you in.

At the conclusion of our journey, we went and visited meebo’s LA employee, R. He generously had us over for beer, barbecue, and basketball. I’d never met him, and as it turns out, he’s a neat guy.

All in all, it was an amazing, amazing trip. I had a really great time with M and S, too. When you can spend a full week with someone and not run out of things to talk about (even if they did keep coming back to robotic bears) and not getting on each other’s nerves, it really means something, so that was super-cool. I definitely see more bike touring in my future.