Eight Lane Interstate.....Really????

The text has gone centred again below and I don't know how to fix it - sorry!

Most of our day has been alongside beaches - nice enough, but they don't make for particularly good photos.  Above and below are a couple of the more interesting bits 


We had a whole flat to stay in last night - this sitting / dining area / kitchen and two bedrooms. More shenanigans with payment though. We paid a $200 deposit. I was looking at my banking App in the foyer while waiting for the flat to be ready and noticed they had charged us twice for the flat itself (on top of the $200) - "oh, we made a mistake" she said "it has been refunded". They weren’t even going to mention it - hoping I wouldn't notice 😉. Neither the refund or the deposit have come back to my account as I type this,  almost 24 hours down the line!

I mentioned bumping into Karen and Steve on Monday - I was annoyed with myself for not taking a picture of them. Luckily we met up with them again this morning.

I have been using this Locus Maps navigation App on my phone these last few days, to help with all the intricate turns on and off bike paths. It is so much brighter and clearer than the Garmin Etrex. I can't speak highly enough of the App. It is only available on Android and, of course, it does hammer the phone battery with the screen on all of the time. 

Steve and I were pootling along some nice backroads and cycle paths this morning and commented that it would be good if they took us all the way to San Diego. Moments after that we were directed onto an 8 lane (4 each way) interstate. It had a good shoulder, so that was OK, but when you think of the fuss they make about getting the other side of the barrier if you break down on the motorway in the UK!!

The interstate went on for a few miles - at least it made for fast cycling. Since then it's all been good. Reasonably quiet roads, mostly with a shoulder; or more bike paths. We had a friend drafting on us for a good few miles - a young chap on a carbon road bike. We exchanged a few words each time we pulled up for red lights.

When we stopped for coffee this morning (at a kind of beach kiosk), I put my phone down on the counter while I got my 20 bucks out. It was about 3 or 4 inches from the pad for Google Pay. I passed the note to the lady and she told me the phone had already settled the bill!!

It has become customary to have lunch once we are in the vicinity of our accommodation for the night - we usually arrive well before the official check-in time. The first place I saw was allegedly Starbucks - but that turned out to be a counter in a store with nowhere to sit.  While Steve was in the store toilet I looked at Google maps and noticed another Starbucks just down the road towards our motel so we went there. The sign on the door clearly said it was properly open but the door was locked. Someone sat on the chairs outside said it was drive through only and suggested we walk around the drive through. We tried but they wouldn't serve us "for safety reasons" - I was ready to rip the head off a cute fury animal by this time 😉. The next place was an independent coffee shop but the music was so loud it was like trying to communicate in a night club - predictably, they screwed up the order - I made them re-do it - no way am I drinking coffee with milk in it!

109km with 790m of ascent has brought us to a motel near San Diego Airport. It should be a round trip of 78km to the end of the route and back tomorrow. We will leave our luggage in the motel as it looks like we have to manhandle the bike on and off a ferry (twice).

Our Justgiving page for UNICEF is here (it's now or never):

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/graham-dore



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