Work is not over. Today was very busy taking my bike by Uber to a bike shop some 30 miles from the hotel. Then taking Uber again to FedEx to ship all my luggage of which most is dirty.

Tomorrow I fly home.  What a great feeling.

I hope you enjoyed the blog.  I am by no means a writer but I hope you got a feeling for what a cross country bike ride for MS is like.

Thanks,
Dave

This being our last day and most in the Metropolitan area we didn’t get off easy.  We had a lot of cobblestone rides that beat us up along with some steep climbs just for good measure.

We had a great party with lots of food. Some once again went it the water. Here are some of the pictures from the party.

We were treated to a grand breakfast at our alumni’s church.  They had everything a bike rider would need or want.
Then down the road we went to our camping spot in Carlsbad.  It was right on the beach so most of us took advantage of swimming in the Pacific Ocean.

This is our last night of camping. I am glad and I think most of the riders feel the same way.  Only problem is we had to roll up our tents while they were still wet.

After the hard ride yesterday we had a much easier day today. Here is the information board for the day.

As you can see a good bit of the day’s ride was along the beach. This also gave us a lot of bike path riding which meant little to no car traffic but it also meant a lot of slow riding due to all the foot traffic.

We were treated to a night in an alumni’s home. Not only was that nice but we had actual showers.  Great treat.

I also met up with my cousin and family for dinner. I ate way too much but it was worth it. I really enjoyed catching up with them.

Today was our longest day at 99 miles. We rode an extra mile to get our first and only century ride of this trip.

Not only was it long but it was on the busy highway 101.  At times it was dangerous due to it being a holiday weekend.

We stopped at a family owned Restaurant before our final steep climb to the church for the night.
We slept in a gym that was a little warm for the night.

We got a much needed rest day at the Christ Lutheran Church

This is our longest day to date. Not only was it long but we had two major climbs separated with 5 to 10 miles of rolling hills. These climbs caused one rider to stop for the day.

The hardest part for me was not the climbs but the 101 freeway. Today this freeway had very heavy traffic which would rival I10 west with some difficult elevation changes that can’t be matched on a Texas Interstate Highway.

We stayed on the 101 until we exited at our town for the night, Coleta.  However, after the exit we still had between 10 to 15 miles.

After a quick shower and dinner via Uber we felt almost human again.

We left our primitive camp site looking for cafe that was 4 miles away. Well we found the cafe but it was not open. The next possible food was 16 miles which was mainly hard climbing for 12 of those 16 miles.  Every corner brought the hope of ending the climb but no it continued on. Finally the downhill came and shortly there after breakfast. Then 16 more of mainly rolling hills and the Hearst Castle.

We had a great tail wind rest of the day.

Our church was in a great location with cafes three blocks away and laundry one block the other way. Why was laundry such a big deal?  Doing to today means we wouldn’t have to do laundry on our rest day tomorrow in Coleta.

Today started off cool and with a major climb right out of camp.  It was steep but not so steep that we had to walk. Maybe it is due to fresh legs.

Last night during the night I woke up so I took the opportunity to do a little stargazing.  The view was limited due the tall trees.  The best stargazing I have ever had on any ride was in Nevada because of the clear dark skies.  It looked like you could see satellites moving in the sky.

We had limited access for restaurants because most of the locals are closed on Tuesday since they are all open on the weekends to capture the tourists trade. We kept looking until we were told about the only one open and it turned out to be a winner with great views.

Our ride continued with descents, climbs and beautiful ocean views.

We didn’t have a cafe close so we had to eat whatever we had been carrying with us. Today the roads had lot of farm land that was planted with Strawberries and harvest was in full swing. We finally found a small cafe about 12miles down the road.  Family owned place with home cooking.

Most of the time we were on California #1 with very heavy traffic. Once we got to Monterey we had a major climb up to the campsite for the night.  A number of the riders had to walk part of the climb. I was one of them.