day 41: encinitas to the mexican border

it was a slow start to our 50 mile day. we ate most of our leftovers and fueled up to zig zag through san diego. by the time we got out the door, it was already hot. eep.

the four of us decided to ride together today since it was our last (and because m&m were going to stay at my sister's place too, after all was said and done).

(typical meredith move) 

although 50 miles isn't a short distance, i felt like lingering today. there was little urge in me to pedal fast. i wasn't sure i felt ready to be "done." 

the nice thing about cycling is that it's a really nice pace to help with transition. not as slow as walking, but not as fast as flying. our arrival to the border felt well paced, well deserved. 

we stopped by la jolla's the living room for lunch, and saw our friends susan and michael, and then weaved our way through san diego's bicycle path maze. samuel did an excellent job of guiding all four of us to the border. and as we got further and further from the more popular areas of sd, the streets became more tame. it gave me the quiet i needed to just be there to be in my own disbelief of such a feat.

(green bike lanes are the best!)

meanwhile, all four of us tried to come up with a "trail" name as is popular in the thru-hiker community. meredith came up with "song" for me because she said i am someone writing my own song for my life. it really resonated with me and then it clicked!!! my trail name is "songbird" and it's been that all along. samuel gave it to me before we even started dating, and it only clicked now. my heart was thrilled to adopt a special name for my adventures. 

(our first "mexico" sighting) 

we arrived at the border to be greeted by samuel's dad who escorted us to the pedestrian entrance. we took plenty of photos to mark this enormous moment, and then...very simply...turned around and walked away. 

done. finished. complete. 

it's hard to believe that with every push of the pedal, from pain to glee, we cycled from canada to mexico. (i am still having a hard time wrapping my mind around it.)

my sister picked us up and we miraculously packed four bikes and ALL our bags into her honda odyssey and drove ridiculously fast to her home in san marcos. (it would've taken us two days to bike the one hour we drove.) a korean feast was prepared for us by my sister and bro-in-law and we ate until we were more than satisfied.

we started as two and ended as an unexpected four. relationships strengthened and deepened. desires and intentions clarified. darker and more muscular than ever. more confident and humble than our first days of pedaling. and more full of awe. 

what a fulfilling journey indeed.

day 40: long beach to encinitas

"it's freezing. i never come here this early. i usually come at 2 or 3 and it's never this cold." 

(said by attitude-y teen girl in bikini at huntington pier around 11am, temperature in the 70s. samuel and i were sweaty and hot after riding about 15 miles.)

i got a pretty good chuckle after i heard her complaining of the cold, especially now that i really know what "freezing" means since moving to montana in the winter.

in other news, it's our second to last day before reaching the border. we rode 92 miles in 8 hours, our longest day on this whole trip. 12 miles were on accident, 17 miles were on the 5 freeway, AND we ended by finding out there were no more campsites left and had to ride in the dark to the crappiest $110 motel room. (don't worry, we had some lights/reflectors.) it was a CRAZY way to end our 40 day trip, but looking back, it made the journey even more savory, even more memorable. (i'm writing this on my third day off since completing this journey, by the way.)

we left lindsay and chris' home and said goodbye to the sweet leila joy, hopped on the san gabriel trail (aka: la river) down to seal beach. this portion reminded me of the time roy, cindy, sammy and i biked down the same path during high school. i remember it was a hot summer day and it was the furthest i had ever biked at that age, no doubt a grand adventure. it felt like a lifetime ago that i was in high school, most of it a blur, but how is it that this memory came back with such clarity? because adventures are almost always unforgettable. 

along the coast, some older surf dudes were cutting up a watermelon so naturally, i asked for some. they gave us large slices and flocked around when we told them we had biked from canada. disbelief and amazement was their response. to be honest, i really enjoyed their reaction and decided to milk the next two days by telling people where we've come from and where we were headed. my guess was that we would get a lot of oohs and ahhs in so cal. (haha, it turned out to be true.)

orange county, by the way, was exactly as one might imagine it to be. we zipped through as quickly as possible, except for the one stop where i found an older woman with a gash on her forehead and helped her until the paramedics came. 

and then there was the extra 12 miles we rode which aren't worth discussing further except that it happened and we had to accept our mistake. what a cost to pay for not being precise with our questions and not questioning our assumptions! 

then there was the eight lane freeway (the I-5 to be exact) that transitioned us from orange county to san diego county. "head down, pedal fast, and just get through this!" i told myself. although there weren't any massive hills to climb, cycling on the freeway demanded more than i hoped. it was exhausting to my senses!

but the best part of the day? 

finding out we had nowhere to stay for the night. samuel and i stopped at a store to pick up some breakfast food and got a call from m&m telling us that the south carlsbad campsites  were all full AND they had no hiker-biker sites. ??!?!?@&$?! that was a first! we desperately sought out cheap places to stay and m&m found the closest and cheapest option. 

samuel and i were further north than m&m, so we cycled into nightfall down the coast while they checked in and prepared our final dinner. our headlamp batteries were fading, and our backlights weak, but we finally rolled into encinitas after 7:59:59 of cycling and the longest mileage we've ever ridden in one day. (m&m ended up cycling 100 miles that day! wow!) 

what a day.

at least we got to shower and get cleaned up for our final day of this 40-day cycle tour of the pacific coast. we all fell fast asleep, letting our slumber wash away the intensity of the day's affairs and prepare our minds for our journey's end.

day 39: sycamore canyon campground to long beach

we thought today's 70 miles wasn't going to be too bad. recently we've been covering 30 miles in just under 3 hours so we figured 70 miles would be a breeze. never predict the future. i've learned this lesson over and over on this trip. 

we were packing up for the day when suddenly, i saw a guy dressed surprisingly well for a campsite. as my eyesight came into focus, i realized it was scott! "what?! we were supposed to meet him in malibu! what is he doing here?!" 

scott surprised us with trail magic which included bagels, whipped cream cheese, tomato, lox, a cup of COFFEE!, and fresh picked oranges from his yard. we ate everything of course while hearing stories and packing up. it was such a special surprise to have someone (who i have only really met one other time: the day before we summited mt. whitney. and he and his daughter agreed to strip down to their underwear on top of said mountain) come and meet us with so many meaningful treats. he gave some chiropractic advice to michael and then we were off....to elevensies in malibu. 

today was the true entry into los angeles, parts i've never even seen before. how shall i say this? i am grateful that i am merely a visitor passing through. if samuel and i had any hunch before about not living in la, today nailed that into the coffin. we are certain la is not our cup of tea. 

on the pacific coast highway, we were stopped at most traffic lights and then surrounded by big rigs near the port. it was exhasuting to navigate so many cars and noise. we were glad to finally be done as the sun set during our last 1/2 mile to lindsay and chris' home. 

besides scott's surprise visit, some redemptive things included:

1) eating at lily's in malibu where we got a huge and delicious huevos con chorizo burrito

2) meeting up with alice and eating a delicious meal in santa monica

3) riding on a bike path in the middle of the sand

4) arriving at lindsay and chris' home in long beach to a delicious dinner and a beautiful daughter! 

tonight, i am grateful to have seen aspects of los angeles totally new to me and wonderful hosts who welcomed us into their homes. hospitality, what a beautiful gift.

day 38: santa barbara to sycamore canyon campground

we said goodbye to sommer and ben after eating at least a quarter of a loaf of chocolate banana bread smothered with peanut butter and two cups of coffee (that was just my portion). it was so restful to be in that space and to be in good company. 

(look what they had in their bathroom! where can i find this?!) 

we rode for about 30 miles to ventura to have lunch at a taco shop with my oldest sister and two nieces. i didn't ask her to bring much (besides some fruit) because i knew driving out an hour with two small kids was already a big deal.

well, she arrived and said, "i brought galbee jjim [translation: korean pot roast], rice and kimchee. want that?" we simultaneously said, "YES!" i haven't had korean food since we started so it was a huge unexpectes treat. we devoured it immediately and gorged ourselves silly with every fruit variety we could imagine. it was heaven. 

i got super sleepy after the meal and laid down for a bit. my body has never been horizontal during the day when we ride. now i know why: because it never wants to get back up. i was getting scorched though and suddenly had to use the bathroom badly, so that helped remedy my horizontal episode.  

we said our good byes and took off with 30 or so miles more to make our total 60 miles today. we landed at sycamore canyon where we got free hot showers (because the coin machine should've charged us, but didn't), met boston dave (cycling from sf to sd), and went to sleep!

(this is how we know we're in so cal. we just follow the palm trees.) 

(california is going through a drought and apparently, sod must still be grown.)

tomorrow, we make our way into los angeles! CRAZY!