April 15, 2025
Day 60 and 61: San Diego and Departure
| Heart | 1 | Comment | 0 | Link |
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 0 | Link |
I spent 2 nights in the Samesun Hostel on Ocean Beach. I paid for a private room so I could pack my stuff and because I wanted privacy. It was a great place to unwind from the tour and get ready to go back home. The neighborhood has a funky beach/hippy vibe that is very laid back. The hostel fits right in. There is a Target down the street, and an organic-style market across the street. Bernie's bike shop, which did a great job of packing my bike in a small box very quickly, was a block away. There were plenty of places to eat, and it was a short ride to the airport.
On Saturday I woke up early despite trying to sleep late. It is hard to change habits developed over 2 months. I couldn't bet back to sleep, so worked on packing my bike. I decided to send it home via BikeFlights rather than carrying it on the plane. I did that because it would have cost me $75 to carry it on Southwest, and I would have had a 47 lb bike box and a 47 lb duffle bag to haul to and from the airport. The box was 51x27x8, or 86 inches, which is bigger than Southwest's limit of 80. I understand they usually don't measure, but that was a risk. I also would have had to sign a damage waiver, so would have had no protection for the bike. Bikeflights cost $86 to ship by ground without insurance. Insuring for $2500 (a lot less than the replacement cost) was $36. Shipping 2-day air was about $190. I am leaving for the NC coastal ride on April 24 and wanted to ride this bike. So, I ended up shipping it by 2-day air. A little pricey, but I am tired and wanted some time to clean it and get it ready for the Coastal ride.
I ate breakfast in the hostel. It is funny how it was a lot of the same high-carb stuff that we had on the tour: oatmeal, granola bars, clementines, and bananas. They did have frozen waffles and a toaster. I had oatmeal and waffles. It was required to wash your own dishes, so it was also like the tour in that regard. JW, SR, DS, and PB were also in the hotel and I ate breakfast with them. I took the bike to a business center that handles UPS shipping that was next to the hotel. I then spent the morning reading the book for my book club next week. I ate a ham and Swiss panini at a cafe next door and got a bag of carrots, a couple apples and a Justin's white chocolate peanut butter cup at the organic market. I also had two scoops of gelato. I guess I will start eating normally tomorrow.
In the afternoon I packed my two duffle bags. They each weigh about 30 lbs.
At 4:30 SR, DS, JW and I took an Lyft to the old town. We walked around a bit and then got dinner at one of the (very touristy) mexican restaurants there. They had some grandmas making tortillas out front. I had a dinner with mixed meats and got a guacamole to share. I also had a margarita. It was a nice dinner and nice to spend a last evening with the other riders.
After dinner I compiled statistics from the ride into a spreadsheet. I plan to share that in another post. I estimate that I rode 3070 miles, climbed 90k feet, pedaled a little over 1 million strokes, and had about 1.3 million heart beats while riding. I spent about 211 hours actively riding, which comes to 8.8 total days or . That compares with about 7.7 days for the current Race Across America solo record, though of course that does include some sleeping. I find it amazing that there was so little riding out of a total of 59 days. The weighted average of my cadence was 80.5 rpm. It was definitely lower on days with a lot of climbing or headwinds. My weighted average power was 105 W.
I went to bed at 11:20 and woke up 5:38. I read my book until about 6:30 and then took a shower (what a luxury to take a shower in the morning) and stripped my bed and took the sheets and towels downstairs. I decided I wanted a breakfast with protein so went to a diner just down the street and had 3 eggs on toast with hash browns, kicking the eating can down the road again. I went back to my room, stripped the bed and checked out and went on the porch to read for 45 minutes until my Lyft came. It wasn't long until I was asleep and the alarm on my watch was ringing telling me it was 9:00 and the car would be there in 10 minutes. I put my stuff on the curb and waited.
The Lyft driver asked if I had enjoyed San Diego. I told him why I was there and he asked a lot of questions about it. At the airport I checked in and went quickly through security. The only hitch is I forgot that I had put the last can of seltzer water in my backpack and had to throw it away. Inside the terminal I got a Nova Lox sandwich at Einstein. I sat down and worked on the journal waiting for the plane. I had boarding spot B-42 and hoped to get an aisle seat. I did, but it was the in the last aisle. It irritates me when people reserve seats. I said something to the stewardess, but she wasn't helpful. I guess it is a hassle for them to enforce that, which I think is their policy. Anyway, flying time is four hours and 17 minutes to Baltimore. That is less than the average time I spent riding per day. Air travel sure is fast. I can't wait to get home, hug my wife, and sleep in my bed. It will be the first time to see her for 2 months and the first time in my bed for 3 months.
Thanks for reading this journal and about my adventure. Knowing that people were reading made it easier for me to find the time (almost) every day to update it. I plan to add a few more entries as documentation for those who want to use it as information for planning their own similar adventure.
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 3 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 1 |
Thanks for the nature photos! Most cycle tourists seem to not notice nature, let alone photograph it, and then make the effort to post photos with limited time, limited energy and limited internet...
1 week ago