You can't go any farther than this.
I am at the youth hostel in the neighborhood of Ocean Beach. The beach is about a mile away. This neighborhood looks like an older small town. The folks at the hostel say the locals have been fighting tooth and nail to keep it that way.
This is the road to the beach.
Jim is not here yet. He lost his coat with his wallet in it, and he went back to find it. He just called me from the IHOP by last night's motel, where we had breakfast, 20 miles away, all uphill, to say he did not find his coat. This is not good. I called his roommate back home to have him FedEx out a picture ID so he can get on the plane the day after tomorrow.
Meanwhile, I've been relaxing at the hostel, having a nice shower, fixing myself a tasty lunch, and working on the web site. Oh, and also calling every place we stoppped to see if Jim's coat is there. This is so bad.
This is all because Jim does not have a recumbent. If he had a recumbent, he would have been ahead of me more often, and so I might have noticed when his coat fell off his bike. Instead, I'm usually ahead, especially if it's downhill.
Today's ride turned out to be about 20 miles, mostly downhill, on bike lanes through suburbia. As we got close to the ocean, it got chilly and foggy. The fog kept me from getting that great first view of the ocean as I came around the mountain. There was one fabulous scenic stretch through Mission Trails Regional Park, where we were on a hike and bike path called the Father Junipero Serra Trail down a canyon. It was a total birdwatching extravaganza. The other cool part was along the San Diego River by Mission Bay for the last mile to the ocean, which was also a bird fest. Tons of sea ducks and shorebirds.
That's it. This is the end. I feel great, the bike is great, and I'm ready to turn around and ride back. But I'm flying. Woe.
Here's the map.
