Bicycle Diaries

August 18^th, 2010

DAY ONE: 521 Encino Drive to Veteran’s Memorial Park

Miles: 42 Time: 4:30:58

This was the same ride – nearly – I did on Monday, so not much to report except that this time

the weather was much clearer – warm and perfectly sunny – and the ride felt easier, even with the added weight.

I set out at 10:15 AM, an hour later than I had planned to, and hit Seaside pretty quickly. Lost a pannier outside a mechanic’s and got help from the owner – a really friendly guy who gave me an alternate route to the one I had, and also fixed my pannier and gave me a couple of bottles of water. He had an Asian assistant named Manny who didn’t speak English, and a cute dog named Jenny.

The ride from there to Monterey was beautiful – right beside the ocean, literally.

Got to Monterey early and felt like ploughing on, so got directions to Los Lobos. Proceeded to waste an hour getting horribly lost in Monterey and gave up on Los Lobos and went back to original plan

to stay in Monteret at Veteran’s Memorial Park. P.S. the hill up to Vet’s Mem is ridiculous. Steep and never ending. I made it up the first half okay, got to a building and thought I was there – it turned out to be a rec. center and bar, not the campsite. The campsite was another ½ mile up (and I mean up) the road. Eventually had to get off and walk – too exhausted by this point in the day.

The campground is small with a nice maintained park (i.e. swings, slides and roundabouts.) Cash only, which I didn’t know, so I have to go back down the hill to the bar and get cash. Oh well – good excuse for a beer! J

Met a girl named Mina in the site next to mine, who is doing the same ride, but carrying on to Mexico. Maybe we can ride together some way. All in all – first day went SPLENDIDLY!