It Is Done 🙂

Our room key - so.... we smashed the room up and threw the telly out of the window (except it's not so much fun on the ground floor) 😉. Steve suggested riding the tandem into the swimming pool but I wasn't sure we could dry it out in time for the flight home!

Steve and I ate at a low key but very popular place down on the dock last night. Locally caught seared tuna on salad with fries on the side came to about £45 between us - at last we have found something that is cheaper here than at home..... and almost definitely the nicest chunk of tuna I have ever eaten 🙂. There were all kinds of largish recreational boats coming and going and people trolleying fishing rods and overnight gear about. At breakfast this morning we chatted to a guy who was heading out (sport) fishing for eight days on a boat.

Downtown San Diego from our ferry ride this morning 

USS Midway - now a museum 

Steve and the tandem with the border fence as a backdrop. It's all pretty low key. Although there is a car park and lots of picnic tables, there was a barrier stopping anyone bringing a vehicle in, so the place was deserted.

There is no border 'crossing' at the  place where the route ends - just a bit of a park area near where the border fence (which you can see in the picture) dips into the sea.

They have built this huge fence (far right) to stop the Mexicans using that portaloo 😉.

Today's ride was a very nice out and back with a short ferry ride each way. A good proportion of it was on traffic free cycleway and the rest on quiet roads.

73km with 167m of ascent has brought us back to San Diego Airport again (subtracting 5km for today's ferry rides)! I make it we have ridden 3391km (2119 miles) altogether.

Regards the bike; we have fitted a new back tyre, new pads for the disk brake, new main drive chain and replaced one broken spoke in the back wheel. Oh, and fixed a rear wheel pinch puncture - that's it - I haven't even adjusted the timing chain.

Our Justgiving page for UNICEF is here - come on people - let's do this:


Thank you so much if you have already contributed. 

I can write this now the cycling is all done and dusted - there will be no need for freinds and relatives to worry:

By no means all, but a fair proportion of the Pacific Coast Route follows some very busy roads, some of which, but by no means all, have a good shoulder for cyclists to ride on. To be perfectly frank, it has quite often been scary and there have been times when I wondered if we would make it to the end unscathed. Only the thought that other cyclists ride the route and survive gave me some reassurance. 

Most drivers are, of course, safe, considerate and courteous but there have been many, often needless, close passes.  Some of the 18 wheeler drivers shove over but others don't care if you live or die - they don't shove over (even if the oncoming side of the road is clear) and they don't back-off with the gas. There are also quarry trucks which tow a trailer on a very long drawbar - you get buffeted when the truck goes by and then notice the drawbar out of the corner of your eye and know the next half is on the way - luckily we haven't seen so many of them since the northern section.

Would I do the trip again - not likely. Will I ride in the US again - probably not. If I were to ride here again I would be carefully checking out what the route would be like. Remember - we kind of fell on this route when the Sierra Cascades looked impractical because of the forest fires - the flights we had booked fitted for both routes.

Steve and I have crossed the USA from West to East (and not the narrow bit) and from top to bottom (excluding Alaska,  obviously) - that is enough for me.

Queue me up a nice little tour in rural Spain 😀.



Comments

  1. AnnaSeptember 23, 2022 at 7:27 AM

    Well done, boys, on your achievement and welcome home to Blighty!
    As well as Spain I can recommend the Netherlands: what it lacks in stunning scenery is made up for by courteous drivers (mostly!), interesting towns with historical buildings and a world class network of cycle lanes (and no, I don't work for the Dutch Tourist Board)!

    ReplyDelete
  2. GrahamDSeptember 23, 2022 at 7:38 AM

    The motel we are staying in seems to make it's living from the sport fishing people. Nearly all of the guests are wearing fishing related T shirts printed with fish designs. Steve and I came back from our meal along the dock last night- the fishing gear shop was open and there was a big group of people with fishing gear, presumably waiting to head off.

    ReplyDelete
  3. SmethSeptember 25, 2022 at 9:36 AM

    Belated well done chaps. Bit of an understatement I know!

    ReplyDelete

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