Stage 3: Larkspur CA to Portland OR August 5th:
Today we started riding just before noon and started off with a 10 mile scenic forest road ride to the California coast. After eating some wild blackberries for lunch, we rode another 50sh miles by the water over rolling hills into a pretty strong headwind. At one point we talked to a biking company to try and hitchhike to no avail, so we biked the last 8 miles or so into Bodega Bay. Along the way Andrew rode into a ditch. But, once we made it to Bodega, we tried to get a room at the cheapest motel, which ran $95 a night. But, there was no vacancy, so instead the man behind the counter did an under the table deal for us for only $100. We got to stay at another property... which was a 3 bedroom vacation home with a hot tub and the works that usually ran $350 a night. We were pretty spent, so we made a pasta dinner, read, and hit the hay.














August 6th:

Today was a 53 mile day, and we left around 9:30, after fixing Andrew's flat tire (two busted tubes, I think). Today the headwinds were really rough and we encountered another horrible mountain that shot up for an entire mile. But, at one of the corners there was a really stunning lookout over the ocean, which was just covered by fog to the coast. We rode to Fort Ross and ate some food, and eventually made it to Gualala. We stayed at the Gualala Hotel for only $60 because they were renovating, and the hotel had just changed hands a few days before we arrived. Here, we feasted on yogurt and chips, and Andrew and myself had an intense game of chess that eventually ended in a draw. We figured out a cheap bus to take to Fort Bragg and came up with a ridiculous plan to get three bikes on the bus, because only two were allowed: we took the wheels off my bike and wrapped up my frame in two garbage bags and a sheet, and we wrote "To Tommy, From Steve." We rented Amistad, got some food for breakfast, watched the movie, and went to sleep.


August 7th:
We woke up at 6:30am today to catch the 7:45 bus, packed up my bike so it looked like a present, and got on the bus without any trouble. After 65 miles we got to Fort Bragg after going through hilly terrain, reassembled my bike, and went to the library. After searching for about an hour, ultimately, we discovered that the ride north was extraordinarily dangerous and that the cheapest way to get anywhere was to rent a car (which also checks off another mode of transportation we used for the trip). On the way out, I spotted a day camp and a librarian passing out cookies, and after introducing myself, I got some cookies. They were delicious. Immediately after leaving the library, we went to a tiny storethat rented cars for Hertz, and they had one lone Xterra left. We packed up the stuff into the car and started heading to Eugene. This was maybe one of the smartest things we've done the entire trip. The road from Fort Bragg through the Redwood forests were windy, mountainous, had NO shoulder for bikes, and was so foggy at certain points you couldn't see more than 10 feet ahead of the car. We stopped along the way and saw Paul Bunyan and Babe, and on the outskirts of Crescent City, our rental car died. More specifically, after getting out of the redwood forests when I stepped on the gas pedal, nothing happened. Second try: nothing. The car shut off immediately and we glided onto the shoulder. Apparently, the gas gauge did not work (we should have known something was going to go wrong). So, me and Andrew biked to get gas a mile down the road, and after about an hour we were back on our way. We drove into the night, and stopped at McDonald's a few times to get some coffee, finally arriving to Eugene at 11:30pm. After meeting Donna, our host, we headed out to find a Wendy's because I had been craving their #6 for about 200 miles. We got to Wendy's at 12:08. They closed at 12. I swore off all Wendy's in Eugene. Instead, we stopped at Safeway on the way back, and we got a pizza and wings and made them at around 1am and went to bed around 2am.

August 8th: We woke up at 8 and went to drop off the rental car at the airport at 9. We rode back from the airport about 10 miles (I had to ride barefoot), and while Mike and Andrew napped, I went for a run lasting far longer than I expected: two hours / 15 or 16 miles around Eugene. It was a nice run in Tracktown around their river paths all except for when i got mixed around and ran on a trail that led to railroad tracks, which again was fine, until a train came. We went to the library when I got back, went to the store, and made fajitas for dinner. We hung out with a friend of a friend, Boo, and we came back and went to bed.

So, now it's the 5th of August and we're getting ready to bike from Larkspur, heading along the coast by Point Reyes and up to Jenner, California. We ended up staying a few days in Palo Alto and spending our time watching The Office (that's what she said), playing basketball with 8th graders (results: two games to two games), biking around Stanford, and making some more food (deep dish pizza, apple crumble, eggplant parmesan, zucchini bread, oatmeal cookies, pasta shmorgasborg night).

On Wednesday we DID briefly leave Palo Alto and took the Caltrain into San Francisco for the day just to check it out. We spent the day walking from the station all the way down the embarcadero along the water, passing by Fisherman's Wharf, and heading up into the city to see the Cable Car Museum and Chinatown.

Saturday, 8/2, Arrival to Larkspur, a/k/a one of the great, seemingly impossible relationships of our time:

On Saturday, we finally left Palo Alto and biked 30 miles into San Francisco, where Mike and Andrew were sitting outside of the San Fran Marathon convention place while I was inside checking it out, when two people that replied to an email i sent them on Craigslist spotted our bikes and sold me their Bib# for the first half of the marathon. Afterwards, we biked along the water and over the Golden Gate Bridge, down into Sausalito, and up into Larkspur near Muir Woods (which was another 20 miles). Upon arrival, our host Margie told us there were two full fridges of beer for us and that we should go hang out by the pool until dinner. So, we did. That evening we were also part of the dinner party along with Fernando (aka Nando) and his wife Shannon. After finishing dinner (chicken parm) and a few glasses of wine, we had a few more glasses of wine, while listening to Nando tell stories from the motherland. After a few more glasses of wine, I realized it was almost 11 and we all had to wake up at 4am so I could be driven into San Fran to run a half marathon.

1/2 Marathon Day, Sunday 8/3:

Rose at 4am, got changed, and drove into San Francisco. Mike and Andrew dropped me off near the start of the race. We made plans to meet after the race, either at the finish line or to take a shuttle bus "somewhere" if they were not in sight. Fine plan, what could go wrong? At any rate, i put my headphones on and ran the half marathon under a woman's name in 1hr37 minutes, which for having old shoes a size too small, biking 50 miles the day before, staying up late drinking wine, and feasting on chicken parm, was not so bad. The run was chilly but pretty flat up until the Golden Gate bridge, when it seemed like the past 5 miles were all hills, ending somewhere in Golden Gate Park.

If you didn't catch the foreshadowing earlier, when I finished the race Mike and Andrew were nowhere to be found, and so I got some food and water and hopped the shuttle back to the start of the race, where they were ALSO nowhere to be found. So i ended up walking around shivering for about an hour, where I saw the end of the marathon, the beginning AND end of the 5k, and helped several people find either the drop-off for the shuttle bus or the start of the race. Still, they were nowhere to be found. Eventually, they did show up, after having fallen asleep in the car and waking up after I had already taken the shuttle bus back into San Francisco, after they decided to follow a shuttle bus back to San Francisco to see where it went. But, after driving down the streets for 15 minutes yelling "MATT STRAUB!", they finally decided to park and look for me. The one good thing was that eventually I found a nice sweatshirt and got a free massage after the race, way after the race, when my core temperature had fallen to 48*.

Afterwards, we ended up driving into Chinatown and eating at an all-you-can-eat dim-sum place that had music playing on repeat that sounded like a recording of a dumpster being dragged behind a truck. It took us about 10 minutes to figure out how to order the food we wanted (which never really came). After beginning to feel miserable, we reached the breaking point and headed back to Larkspur to recover. We all passed out for hours and woke up, still feeling under the weather. But, eventually we went for a hike through a redwood forest for an hour or two and played with a french woman and her french dogs (Two bulldogs, a french bulldog, and a boxer). That night we met Kevin, Margie's son, took a soak in the hot tub, ate fajitas, and fell asleep watching a movie.

...

Yesterday, we babysat Kevin and drove him to the store to buy Rockband. After playing that game for a few hours we went outside to play some ping pong and went swimming in the pool. Last night we hung around and mapped out our next move, which now appears like we're biking 85 miles up to Jenner, California to stay in cabins with a fireplace.

That's it for now, who knows what we'll really end up doing.

total time running (matt): 4 hours, 10 minutes

- RMS & Mike (andrew's asleep)

Race Results:

Bib: 18434
Name: Lalanya Gawne
Gender: F
Age: 27
Hometown: Los Angeles CA
Place Overall: 139 out of 6679
Women: 16 out of 3696
F 20-29: 6 out of 1342
AgeGrade: 68.16% Place: 139
FINISH: 1:36:36 pace: 7:23
7.5 Mi: 56:24 pace: 7:32
Chip Time: 1:36:36

7.22 to 7.29: LA to Palo Alto

Tuesday, 7/22

After flying out of either Florida or TF Green in Rhode Island to LAX (after talking our way into four free drinks from a flight attendant and meeting our new friend, Jalyn), Myself, Mike, and Andrew met up in the valley in Los Angeles after taking a bus from the airport to the valley through ridiculous traffic. After getting lost for about an hour, we finally arrived at Mike's sister's house (Alli) and made some pasta, visited Vito, and hit the hay (or the couch or the floor).

Wednesday, 7/23

We woke up and took some fresh oranges and grapefruit to squeeze for juice, and Mike had woken up earlier and built up the bikes. We took it easy in LA today and did stir-fry night after visiting a fruit market, and we watched the Hurricane.

Thursday, 7/24

Today was the first day one of us almost got hit by a car. After biking to a library in LA, some woman in a mercedes pulled out at a red light and almost nailed Mike (tires screeched). After we got back and got a lift to the library and a quick trip to a bike shop to fix the cassette on my wheel, we went to a beach in Santa Monica. As we walked in, we noticed a group of guys eyeing us down, but we didn't think much of it and put down our stuff. About 10 minutes later, two of them came over and asked us to play volleyball, and so it took no time at all to realize that the guys staring us down were really just checking us out. And so, we played 3v3 volleyball with them and eventually played a few games of 6v6 when the rest of their group manned up to play. The innuendos that came out of their mouths were endless, and I think Mike was laughing the entire time. That night we went back and made a fire pit with Alli's roommate Cyril after eating some enchiladas. Story of the night was Cyril and his huge entertainment system, yelling at his girlfriend, and screaming about "Helo's" in his videogame, which at first he made sound like "Helo" meant "lady of the night," but once we found out it was just a helicopter, I literally laughed so hard i threw up.

Friday, 7/25 - The First Day; LA --> Alta Vista

The night before we convinced Cyril to hitch on his trailer and he dropped us off at the top of Topango Canyon Blvd with a Corona in his hand, and the bike trip began with an awesome 10 mile descent at 10:15am. We took the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) for about 45 miles but at that point it turned into a Freeway, where bicycling is prohibited. After a cop pulled over at the military pickup spot we were eating lunch at, we were forced to leave and use the GPS to find an alternate route. Things were going great on a detour inland until about 70 miles in we began to hit hills and mountains on CA-150. The three of us all ran out of water near the top of one of the hills, and we were refused water after buzzing an avocado farming house on the way and explaining we were dehydrated and waterless (they did respond initially, but there was no response after our request for a hose). So, we struggled up the rest of the hills but finally made it out of them in Carpenteria. By the time we made it to 83 miles we stopped at a bus stop to hitch a ride to Santa Barbara, but found out the bus only had two bike racks and the bus driver refused to let us on. Maybe we were destined to ride a century the first day.

After 102 miles we nearly collapsed in front of a liquor store for water and banana's. After a few failed attempts, we managed to hitchhike to State Street in SB from Rusty (biker from bakersville who fit our bikes, and mike) and Ellen Fogle (mother of two from SB who took Greeley and myself). Once we got dropped off downtown, we were picked up by Blake's friends Alex (and alex) in a blazer. We finally arrived in Isla Vista (UCSB) where Alex's girlfriend cooked us pasta, and we bought them some beer in exchange for the ride. That night we went out with them to Del Playa street a few blocks away, which was essentially Bourbon street without pen containers, with tons of kids and bands included. At the party we ended up at, we introduced Chuck Norris (3v3speedpong) and won, and pretty much packed it in and crashed in Alex's apartment, falling asleep watching the lion king and eating burrito's.

quote of the day: "I hope i get hit by a car so i don't have to keep riding"

Saturday, 7/26 - Alta Vista --> Santa Barbara

Recovery was slow this morning, but we woke up and the first stop was the UPS store. I was carrying about 20 lbs i didn't need, which made the hills even worse the day before. Andrew ditched a few things, too. When we rode back to the apartment we went to the beach and played some frisbee and body surfed. Before we left, we decided to cruise back into Santa Barbara for the evening which was about 13 miles (After about 7 miles from earlier), and we booked a hostel and train tickets the next day up to Palo Alto. Partially because we were worried about going through Big Sur, and partially because we had a free place to stay in Palo Alto, plus a few other reasons I'll get to. Anyways, we also refilled the tires at a bike shop (i'm not even going to write the pressure i had in my tires the day before) and went to our private room at Haley's Cottage, and met our new friends Brooklyn Red and his Wife, who latched onto us like leeches as soon as we rolled in. After they took us to the grocery store (they wouldn't just tell us, they had to show us), they convinced Greeley to buy hummus that we would all share after. But, when we got back, I went for a run immediately to check out the pier and Mike went to pack. Luckily for Andrew, there were three british girls that came to hang out with Brooklyn Red and wife as well. After we made some rice and quesedillas, I fell asleep somewhere between 9 and 10, Mike fell asleep shortly after, and Andrew a while after that.

Sunday, 7/27 - Santa Barbara --> San Luis Opisbo

The next morning Mike woke up and felt miserable after a feverish sleep, but the three of us checked out of the hostel and biked to the pier where there was a pretty neat Iraq war memorial. We arrived at the train station for a 10:15am train to San Luis Opisbo, which was a really cool town. We walked around their main street and got some iced coffee before finding a little plaza to watch live music by a creek and rest up. Because we postponed the bus to San Jose until midnight, we got to meet up with Mike's Aunt Sue and Uncle Milt, and we were taken out to Mothers Restaurant which had a 6-piece swing band and lots of swing dancers. This was the first legitimate meal we've had, unless you count trail mix and pb&j.

We parted ways after lunch and went to a grassy area near a Mission, where we took a nap and played some frisbee. Next we went to a a park to hang out and planned our next move, because it started getting cold when the sun went down and we had a midnight bus to catch. So, we went to Barnes & Noble at around 7pm, where Mike and Andrew were delirious to the point they could not look at anything but picture books or calendars. We did eat some food, and got some free scones from a very sympathetic starbucks employee. We rode to the train station at 11 when the store closed and sat outside for an hour, and we caught the midnight bus to San Jose.

Monday, 7/28 - San Luis Opisbo --> San Jose --> Palo Alto

Mike got some sleep on the bus, but me and andrew stayed up watching a movie and arrived in San Jose at 4:15am. After changing into bike shorts and leaving a message with Anna that probably scared her half to death, we turned on the GPS to discover it was not working. So we frantically charged it and set off to Palo Alto before the sun rose and the morning commute began. The ride itself was 18 miles, which we could ride pretty quick since there are pretty good bike paths on the roads and there was no traffic. We arrived at my friend Rachel's house at 6am in Menlo Park (next to Palo Alto), woke her up to let us in, and crashed.

We woke up sometime no too long after noon and went grocery shopping for the next few days we would be here. Mike was cooking most of the day, and I went for a run, with Andrew trailing me on his bike. Today's run was an hour and three minutes and it took us about an hour, but we went through Stanford's campus and checked out some buildings and their sports complex, and i went on their track, just briefly.

When we got back we feasted on eggplant parmesan and watched a movie. I fell asleep at 9, and the rest shortly after.

Tuesday, 7/29

We woke up and decided to go on a hike in the Palo Alto hills for a few miles. The hills were really neat, there were fields of yellow and the views of the valley were prertty good. We also saw a coyote and lots of signs for mountain lions. When we got back, we relaxed some more and I went for a shorter run than the day before. Mike whipped up some homemade pizza for dinner with some fresh vegetables, and we watched another movie and crashed. I also found out there's a marathon in San Francisco in a few days when we'll be there, in addition to probably a half marathon.. and I'm really thinking about running in it...

Stats:

Total miles ridden: 140sh

Total mikes hiked: 4sh

Total miles ran (matt): 1 hr 50 minutes

The Future:

Half Marathon