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***Special Note***
Border War on HD - "Name That Bike"
It has come to my attention that my bicycle feels deprived, because it doesn't have a name. Mandy has "Flash" and Charlotte has "Annie," but my dark blue metallic colored Trek 520 is nameless (but not clueless).
Therefore, I am announcing "Name That Bike." From now through 3 pm on Thursday, June 28, there will be a contest to name my bike. Prize will be a Border War T-shirt.
Submit name suggestions to me at: Bike4Cure@bigfoot.com
I will announce the winning name at the Hunt-Dis list poolside party. Winner need not be present to win.
Looking forward to what suggestions will come in, and my bicycle is looking forward to having a name.
With anticipation,
Marie Nemec
Day 22 - Border War on HD - Windsor - Larkspur CA
Another day in the land of the eternal bike ride. We had a great day today! We are forming a pattern; two days in a row we made it on the road by about 6:30 am.
Today we made it into Marin County and the land of traffic, traffic, and more traffic. After leaving Teddie and Gary's home we traveled south on the Old Redwood Highway. We made a pit stop for restrooms and Gatorade at Marissa's Mexican Market. Marie conversed with the storekeeper in Spanish. It's funny; the expression is the same on people's faces, in any language, when people hear about Border War on HD.
From the market we headed south on Fulton then onto a paved bike path. While we were on Fulton we passed a labor pool where there were about 75 men waiting for day labor. I hope there were enough jobs to go around.
After the bike trail we headed South again on Stoney Point Road. This took us through farmland and a few more vineyards. We passed the Kendall-Jackson winery and also the Washoe House.
The Washoe House was a pioneer hostlery built by Robert Ayers in 1859. It served as a stagecoach station between Petaluma, Santa Rosa, and Bodega in the early days of Sonoma County. It is now a restaurant and pub.
Stoney Point road became Petaluma Blvd. and that brought us into the town of Petaluma, CA (pop. 51,688 elev. 17) at about 10:15 this morning. There is a quaint downtown area with small shops and an old-fashioned movie theater. In Petaluma we stopped at a bike shop to get chain-cleaning fluid and then went to the visitors center to eat lunch and get a few post cards.
We left Petaluma on Hwy. 116 and headed out into farm country again. We passed a sign that warned us about falling trees. We thought that was photo worthy and Marie snapped a shot. The trees were some very tall and old eucalyptus trees that did seem to shed a bit. There were lots of horses, cows, and more vineyards.
From Hwy 116 we turned west onto Hwy 37 and ran into a strong head-side wind (the vote amongst ourselves was 2 for a straight on headwind and 1 for a side wind); either way it was tough/slow going for about 6 miles.
On 37 we crossed the Petaluma River that seemed awfully low. There was more exposed shore on the south side of the bridge than there was water. It was a high bridge with a low swing bridge next to it.
After leaving Hwy 37 we really started to come into some traffic. We used a combination of bike paths and streets to reach our destination, the home of Lelia and Larry Lanctot in Larkspur.
We need to express a great big THANK YOU to Sunny Mawson for loaning us her invaluable bike maps of Marin County.
We had only a few good-sized hills today though there was one exceptionally tough hill (Wolfes Grade) that had all of us off our bikes and pushing them up the hill. The hill was literally too steep to bicycle up. It was a good thing that it was downhill from there to Lelia and Larry's home.
Lelia and Marie attended Immaculate Heart High School together in Hollywood CA. They got reacquainted last month at their 40th high school reunion. Lelia and Larry are having dinner tonight with their daughter Michelle and her fiancé John. They will be discussing wedding plans (the wedding will be in CA although Michelle and John live in New York City) lots to talk about.
We are getting our laundry done this evening and catching up on our journals, post cards, and thank yous.
Today's mileage - 59
Cumulative Miles - about 996
Road Change Report - $1.65!!!
With love from the road,
Charlotte
Marie
Amanda
Day 23 - Part 1 - Border War on HD - Larkspur - San Francisco CA
"San Francisco, open your Golden Gate, let no stranger wait outside your door"
Left Larkspur a little after 7:00 a.m. Since Lelia and Larry are recreational bicyclists, Lelia was able to give us directions on bike paths and surface streets, on how to get to the Golden Gate Bridge.
We had a little trouble in the beginning, but then things smoothed out. Marin County's bike trails are used by many joggers, dog walkers, and bicyclists. A series of hills greeted us in Corte Madera and Mill Valley before arriving in Sausalito. At Richardson Bay (a marsh at low tide) we got our first glimpse of San Francisco.
Big climb up Alexander Hill to the breathtaking overlook of the Golden Gate Bridge. The Golden Gate Bridge was partially shrouded in fog, but still awesome. The bridge construction began in early 1933 after two men with vision (Joseph Strauss-engineer and A.R. Gianini-founder of Bank of America) got bonds to finance this project. The bridge opened for traffic May 28, 1937 and has required continuous painting of International Orange to keep it well maintained.
Before bicycling across, we visited with a motorcycle State Patrol officer J.S.Denham on motorcycle, who initiated a conversation with Charlotte when he saw her Bicycle Tour of Colorado riding jersey, since he had one just like it! He had done the BTOC the same year as she did!
As we rode across, in a separate lane for pedestrians and bicyclists, we enjoyed the foghorn blasts from the SS Benecia as it steamed under the bridge and into the harbor. For Marie, it was one of the highlights of the trip!
After arriving at the Southern Terminus, we called Suzanne Wyckoff, our San Francisco hostess. We looked around at Fort Point Nat'l Historic Site, which, along with the famed Alcatraz Island, was responsible for defending the harbor against enemies.
Suzanne arrived, with hugs for all. Her brand new metallic burgundy Nissan Altima was magically transformed into the SAG vehicle for Border War! We placed the magnetic signs on the doors, offloaded our panniers and trailer/red bag, and we were off on an "official unofficial" tour of some of the sights of San Francisco. She led us by the Seaside Section, past Robin Williams' home, and then to the Palace of the Legion of Honor Art Museum in Lincoln Park. (For those who can afford, the building alone can be rented out at $10,000/night.)
Next stop was the Veteran's Hospital where Kirt Wyckoff (Suzanne's 39 year old son) resides. Kirt has HD and is confined to bed much of the day, although he was in a wheelchair when we were there. He's very alert, but has trouble communicating with because of his myoclonus tremors. As a former bicyclist, he was very interested in our bikes. Such a sweet man, almost 40, but trapped in the ravages of this horrible disease.
After a photo shoot and good-byes, we followed Suzanne through a portion of Golden Gate Park to her lovely row home on 40th Street.
We changed from riding to sightseeing, clothing, and Suzanne drove us through the Presidio again. The Presidio used to be an Army facility, but it has been demilitarized. The Crissy Field portion along the bay has been restored to its natural vegetative state.
We drove past the Marina and Ft. Mason. I recalled that in the early 1960's, my father worked for MSTS out of Ft. Mason.
So much to tell about today, that it will be a two-part message.
Today's mileage - 20
Cumulative mileage - 1016
Road Change Report - 2 cents
From the city by the Bay, over 1000 miles into Border War on HD,
Marie
Charlotte
Amanda
Day 24 - Border War on HD - San Francisco - Pigeon Point CA
What an awesome day! According to our host, Suzanne Wyckoff, it doesn't get any better than this. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, the wind is NOT blowing, andall is well in our little world. We got on the road by about 8 am. We decided to sleep in until all of 6:00 because we were up way past our usual bedtime enjoying a wonderful evening with members of the Northern California Chapter of HDSA. The evening was finished in grand style with excellent guitar music played by Vince.
Leaving San Francisco this morning couldn't have been simpler. Suzanne gave us excellent directions and we were off on Highway 35 for our rendezvous with Highway 1. On the way we saw some wonderful things.
There were surfers out this morning, some coming and others going, but allof them looked relaxed and amiable. We also encountered a man walking downthe shoulder of the highway playing a violin! The music reminded me of someScottish music I like to listen to. Unfortunately we passed him pretty quickly.
Still on 35 we passed through Daly City (pop. 101,500). To this point the trip had been mostly flat though the hills were starting to get bigger. There were lots of row houses in Daly City though they didn't have the charm of those in San Francisco.
We had to ask two cycling fellows for some local info when we were about to turn onto Hwy. 1 since there was a sign that said that we had to stay on 35. About 3 miles down the road we cut over to Hwy 1 on Sharp Park Rd. (steep downhill).
After getting on Hwy 1 it was only a matter of miles (mostly uphill) before we encountered Devil's Slide. This is a big scary pass that takes Hwy 1 right to the coast. The uphill is steep with little if any shoulder. The downhill is not quite as steep with probably less shoulder. There are cement barricades that have been placed along the road. These gave us a small modicum of security. At points the barricades were all that separated the road from thin air. The view was spectacular.
By the time we got through Devil's Slide we had only gone about 15 miles in 3 hours. We now found ourselves in the envious position of rider's paradise (having flat land in front of you and a great tailwind). Flash, Annie, and "no-name" did their thing and by 12:15 we were able to make it thru 26 miles.
On the flat we sailed through a string of small towns. South of Princeton there was a beautiful little harbor with lots of boats and great looking rock jetties. Just after entering Half Moon Bay the air seemed to turn warm. We were layering and unlayering all day; the wind was very strong, but so was the sun.
Suzanne and Vince had on their hero hats today. They SAGged our gear down to the Pigeon Point Hostel for us. They also had an awesome spread for lunch. We supped at the quaint Cowell Ranch Beach Park. A virtual repeat of the potluck dinner we enjoyed at Suzanne's the evening before.
After lunch Suzanne and Vince dropped the gear at the hostel and clocked the distance back to us. We didn't have that far to go. After a few tough uphill climbs we were at the lighthouse (approx. 4pm). The hostel didn't open until 4:30 so we were able to visit with other hostel guests and hand out lots of brochures.
We met some neat people tonight. Most notable is Judy, who's a student at UC Santa Cruz. She is up here on a little vacation just for the evening. She has volunteered to SAG our gear to Santa Cruz tomorrow. We also have SAG again on Friday. Les Pue is going to SAG our gear from Santa Cruz to Monterey, YEA Les!
The sun was amazing; a glowing orange ball falling into the horizon. We are looking forward to a short 30-mile day tomorrow.
Today's mileage - 48 Cumulative - 1064 Road Change Report - $.61
With love from the road,
Amanda Marie Charlotte
Day 25 - Border War on HD - Pigeon Point - Santa Cruz CA
Pigeon Point - what an historical building! Built in 1872, it's the second tallest lighthouse in the US. Its fresnel lens was previously installed at Cape Hatteras NC. Although the lens is no longer used, it is still operable. There are plans to use it on Sat. Nov. 17, 2001 at the celebration of its 129th anniversary.
The hostel buildings are adjacent to the lighthouse, and provide the serenity of an oceanside retreat with the cooperative spirit in four cabins (Pelican, Dolphin, Seal, and Whale). Up to 50 guests can be accommodated.
Rode 7 miles to Ano Nuevo (Spanish for New Year) after we were sure Jody was going to SAG the gear. It's the "hangout" for hundreds - thousands of elephant seals, who come here to breed, birth, and molt besides their unique TWICE a year migration North (adults go as far as the Aleutian Islands in Alaska, while juveniles go as far as Vancouver BC, and sub-adults go as far as SE Alaska.) We had to hike out almost 2 miles (in our riding shoes) to see these curious marine mammals sunning themselves on the beach. We heard the constant boisterous barking of the sea lions on the adjoining island. The sea lions have taken over the abandoned lighthouse keepers' house. Red-jacketed Naturalist Docents were very helpful answering questions and volunteering pertinent information.
We ate lunch after we hiked back to the Visitors' Center. Left Ano Nuevo at 1:15 pm or so, and it was HOT! No coastal fog. Many uphills and downhills on the way to Santa Cruz.
Found Messiah Lutheran Church without much trouble. It's within a stone's throw of the UC Santa Cruz campus. The Parish Hall is a wonderful converted mansion from the late 40's or early 1950's. The tile work in the bathrooms (3) and kitchen gave it away! Pink 4" square tiles with thin blue trim (blue free-standing wash stand); peach/maroon trim in another bathroom, and the kitchen had off-white/maroon trim. It reminded me of the tile work in the house I grew up in Monterey Park CA (built in about 1948 or so). And to top it off, there was a 16 step circular staircase with an adjacent crystal chandelier! We will sleep upstairs on couches and couch pads.
Ann (a church member) and Leslie (church administrator) met us at the church and made us feel welcome. Ann ran Amanda and me to Safeway to get dinner for this evening and food for the road tomorrow. Then Ann invited us to have breakfast with her and her husband Bob tomorrow morning; we accepted! Bacon, eggs, English muffins, and potatoes sounded much better than our usual of cold cereal.
Today's mileage - 28 Cumulative mileage - 1053 Road Change Report - 85 cents
Another day closer to the end of the ride in Tijuana on June 28 (just two more weeks "on the road."
With love,
Marie Amanda Charlotte
Day 26 - Border War on HD - Santa Cruz - Monterey CA
Another awesome day! We got a special treat this morning so we were up by 6 am taking advantage of Ann McClaflin's invitation to have breakfast with her and her husband Bob.
As we were pedaling towards their home, we could smell the bacon frying. Ann fixed us bacon, eggs, English muffins, and home fries from potatoes from their own garden. There was also coffee, juice, and raspberry-rhubarb jelly. The meal was fantastic.
Bob and Ann are two people that we would have liked to visited with longer; time flew. Ann is a very talented quilter (we got to see a photo album of all of her quilts.) Bob is an avid fisherman and does volunteer work for the local Lions Club. Both Bob and Ann are wonderful gardeners.
We left their home about 7 am. and made fairly good time getting out of Santa Cruz. We are always cautious while riding in traffic and this slows us down. Our visiting wasn't over for the day though. Between San Francisco and Pigeon Pt., Marie and Charlotte met a lady named Connie when they both were taking pictures of an old pick-up truck that had been turned into a planter (don't think too hard about it fellas, it's a girl thing). Connie invited us ladies to stop by for some coffee when we passed through Aptos.
We stopped at Safeway, called Connie, and 15 minutes later we were on her doorstep. It was a beautiful warm, clear, and sunny day when we stopped to make the call. When we left the Safeway it was cool and foggy with a slight breeze.
Connie had literally jumped out of bed when we called. She brought out melon, strawberries, mixed berries, pound cake, yogurt, and coffee. An excellent early brunch (yes, we did eat again). Connie is an artist, student, small business owner (she owns a floral arrangement business), a wife, mother, and grandmother to sweet baby Phillip. What an awesome lady!
When we left Connie's place the sun was again shining but the wind and coolness in the air hung around, for good. We passed in and out of foggy areas all morning. We were also passing through many, many fields of vegetables that were being harvested.
We saw cauliflower, strawberries, and lettuce being harvested. The lettuce was really interesting. The heads were cut, wrapped, crated, and loaded onto semi-trucks all by the same crew right in the field; it was fascinating to see.
Our route today took us onto some fairly poor quality roads, quite circuitous.
When we finally picked up Hwy 1 just north of Zmudowski State Beach, we had a really strong sidewind. We stopped for lunch around noon in the small town of Moss Landing. There are lots of antique stores there; we were trying to get to Monterey by 3 pm today so unfortunately we didn't have much time for shopping.
Another of our special treats today was that of SAG (support and gear). Les and Margaret Pue (Margaret has HD) picked up our gear from the church in Santa Cruz and drove it to Monterey.
Rendezvousing with Les and Margaret was the reason that we were trying to get to Monterey by 3. However, we did not arrive until 4. Les and Margaret were kind enough to stop in Monterey on their way back to the Bay area so we could meet and visit with them for a few minutes. The time was much to brief.
Deborah Kelly, our hostess for the next two evenings, is the sister of Pat Pillis, our ride treasurer. She is a marriage and family therapist. That must be why she knew exactly what kind of evening we would like.
Dinner was an awesome Trader Joe's roasted garlic pizza and salad. Then it was showers, laundry, and down time. Deborah also had a movie "Miss Congeniality" that we watched, it was a great evening.
Today's mileage - 51.35 Cumulative mileage - 1104.35 Road Change Report - $.54
Love from the road,
Amanda, Marie, & Charlotte
Day 27 - Border war on HD - Monterey CA
Today we slept in and then played "tourists on bikes" for most of the day.
Monterey has a great bike path (Monterey Bay Coastal Trail) that is heavily used by locals and tourists alike. We followed it to Fisherman's Wharf, which dates from 1846. Many sights, smells, and sounds, including barking sea lions. At San Carlos Bay we saw maybe 50-60 novice scuba divers emerging from their first ocean dive! Thought of the Blue Hole in Santa Rosa NM on last year's ride.
Passed the Point Pinos Lighthouse, then rode thru Asilomar State Park, 107 acres of beaches, sand dunes, and Monterey pine forest.
Saw surfers and kayakers trying to catch waves, somewhat unsuccessfully.
Went past the toll booth (bikes are free) onto the famed 17 Mile Drive around the edge of the Monterey peninsula. Saw black tailed deer grazing on a green of the Monterey Peninsula Country Club.
Bird Rock is home to pelicans, cormorants, and gulls alike, as well as sea lions and harbor seals.
Passed Crocker Grove, the largest and oldest Monterey Cypress trees in existence. Ate lunch at Lone Cypress Point, one of the most photographed trees in the world.
The famed Pebble Beach Golf Course is bisected by the 17 Mile Drive. Many of the rich and famous gather here. We decided to turn around and retrace our route instead of completing the full 17 miles. Charlotte's bike chain started giving her problems again (some of the links twisted like they had near Bandon OR. It just kept coming off every 100 yards or so. Amanda waved down a gentleman cyclist, whose name is Robb Talbott. Using our crescent wrench and leatherman tools, he got it straight enough to ride on. Robb has a vineyard and which produces Talbott's Chardonnay wine. He recommended the Winning Wheels Bike Shop in Pacific Grove.
We made it there with no problems, and Charlotte had Hector replace her chain with a much better quality one. It's a family run business; wife Ophie gave us each 3 nutritional bars and a power gel. So thoughtful!
Returned to Deborah's home. Treated ourselves, Deborah, and her boyfriend Charlie Went to dinner at the Fishwife Restaurant; Mexican seafood cuisine. It's one of Deborah's favorite places to eat; I can see why! Entrees are complimented with savory white rice and black beans. Charlotte and Deborah had snapper, Amanda had Alfredo, Charlie had clam chowder and salad, and I had breaded chicken filets.
As with all good things, this pleasant evening came to an end, but lots of memories.
A trip along Big Sur to Cambria awaits us tomorrow.
Total mileage - 29.37 Cumulative mileage - 1133.72 Road Change Report - 0
Your friendly Road Warriors,
Marie Amanda Charlotte
Day 28, Part 1 - Border War on HD - Monterey - Cambria CA
Whew!!! We're getting close. Today we got some of the last really big hills out of the way. Deborah and her boyfriend Charlie sagged us to Lucia this morning. That took us up and over Big Sur. We were concerned about riding this portion of coast for several reasons.
The first was the distance. From Big Sur to Cambria it is 80 miles. With our gear that is an unrealistic expectation for our merry band. The second was the road. In many areas there was no shoulder (nada, zip, zilch shoulder). The last concern was the fog.
After riding in the car we discovered that our concerns were well grounded. We were very happy not to have ridden that section of coastline.
At about 10am Charlie and Deborah dropped us off just across the street from the New Camaloldi Monastery, a place where our Cambria host, Kathleen, would like to attend Midnight Mass this year.
After loading up the bikes with the gear we headed out. We were all wearing lots of reflective clothing and Marie had on her midnight cowboy/construction fashion vest (it has a light in it, way cool). We had only gone a few miles when Kathleen found us and took our gear back to Cambria so we could complete the ride unencumbered. AWESOME!!!
We were very happy to ride without gear especially since the coastline was still very treacherous. By 11:15 we had only been able to ride 6.76 miles, really tough going.
Even though we started riding later we had eaten our breakfast around 7am. Just south of Pacific Valley we stopped at a small park and had our lunch. We had turkey sandwiches with cheese, lettuce, sprouts, and grape tomatoes. It’s a really nice deviation from the norm of peanut butter and lettuce sandwiches (I'll never look at either the same way again).
South of Gorda CA there were two particularly tough peaks that we had to traverse. There was little if any shoulder and a lot of the route had no guardrails or barriers of any kind; the drop was sheer. Coming from Colorado we all likened the riding to going through high mountain passes, without the altitude (though we were sucking wind pretty good by the time we got to the top). We came down off these two peaks into Ragged Point at about 2:40 with 24 miles under our belts.
From Ragged Point the terrain flattened out into grasslands all the way to Cambria. We also had a tailwind most of the time. Just north of San Simeon we came across a vista (a small turnoff with something of note to look at) with lots of people. There were probably 35 elephant seals hanging out on the beach, either basking in the sun or throwing sand on themselves. Several of the seals were REALLY HUGE! The larger the seal the more brown their coat. The young are a beautiful silvery grey color. Several of the seals would occasionally pick a fight with another seal of the same or slightly smaller size and they would butt their upper torsos against each other and make this really funny sound (a growling bark).
About four or five miles down the road from the seals was the Hearst Mansion, perched high on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. We were unable to stop and tour however.
We pedaled into Cambria at about 6pm and ran smack dab into our last BIG hill of the day, a real toughie. We had to crest the hill to get to Kathleen's Conway's house. Kathleen is a high school classmate of Marie's (like Lelia in Larkspur CA).
What a house!!! Set in a very rustic and wooded area the home is something out of Martha Stewart. A quad-level home with lots of wood, vaulted ceilings, and style. We have stayed in some really beautiful homes on our journey. Black-tailed deer frequent her hillside, too.
End Part 1
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