I must say

I miss the sweet peace of middle America. The cold, clear Colorado; knee deep in Needles. The vast ocean that is Kansas. The Missouri midnight skyline.

From Arizona to L.A.! We rode with our buddy Jeff, and met a new friend. Sohei who we rode with for a few days. We were suck in Needles, Ca for 3 days and then pushed from Essex, Ca across the Mojave Desert. Here are the Photos

Mission Accomplished! (In SF Baby!)

Todd and I officially made it into the city Monday night. We are currently staying at our friend Allyson’s flat. Separate updates about the final week are in the works from both Todd and I along with tons of pictures. We just have been exploring the city and keeping too busy for a blog update. -Karl

Day 51 (El Segundo)

We have taken 2 rest days in El Segundo after a long hard push to the coast. Jeff’s high school friend Billand his roommates kindly opened up their home to us. It has been nice to shower, do laundry, and play video games on a huge LCD tv. Luckily Bill’s roommate Chris had Burnout 3, one of my favorite video games. After playing several rounds,crashing cars, and getting beat, I switched to Grand Theft Auto 4. There is nothing like stealing cars and running over pedestrians after biking3,000 miles across the country. That’s when it hit me. I though to my self ”I am playing Grand Theft Auto in L.A. after riding my bike from Ohio. Holy shit!” It is still sinking in.

Friday Todd, Jeff, Chris and I went down to Manhattan beach and relaxed in the ocean and in the sand. You definitely have a different appreciation for the beach when you biked 3,000 miles to get there. It was nice to just sit there and take it all in. Todd had never been to the Pacific Ocean before. The water was  the perfect temperature for wading in. I spent half the time walking up and down the beach clearing my head and reflecting on the trip so far. What a way to celebrate our arrival to the coast.

That evening, I found out that the L.A. Critical Mass was meeting in West Hollywood. The ride was at 7:30, It was 6 pm already, we were 13 miles away, and I discovered I had a flat. Despite this, I was not going to miss the chance to clog the streets of L.A. with hordes of cyclists. I hauled ass and patched a tube, changed it, and headed off with Todd toward West Hollywood. We tried to follow Google map walking directions and wound up getting stuck on the freeway going h the L.A. airport. We barely made it out and braved the mass of terrible, mean drivers that pollute the L.A. streets and  we arrived at the CM meeting place just in time.

On the corner of Wiltshire and Western we were greeted by hundreds (maybe even a thousand or so) of cyclists. We started rolling while people with stereos rigged up blasted Ain’t Nothin But a G Thangas we took over the city streets,  clogging up the roads for over 3 hours. Helicopters followed us with spot lights and yelled at us not to stop traffic, but there was nothing anyone could do. We rode circles in major intersections blocking traffic in all directions for 3 or 4 light cycles at a time, ran every red light, rode the entire width of major roads against traffic, and took over shopping plazas. After the ride was over, Todd and I had an awesome 17 miles  ride back down to El Segundo.

Today, Todd and I stocked up on tubes and Cliff bars and this rad little bike shop called Zombie Triathletes. While cruising around, we found this rad little Vegan “Burger” joint called Veggie Grill. I got chili and a salad while Todd got a “Chicken” sandwich, fries, and a cookie. The place had a cool vibe and had great fresh strawberry lemonade all at a reasonable price. It is so nice to go out to eat and be able to eat anything on the menu. We are looking forward to more vegan restaurants in SF.

Tomorrow, we take off up the coast to Santa Barbara toward SF via the Pacific Coastal Highway. I have heard this is one of the most beautiful rides in the country. We should be in SF by Saturday, making this the last week of the tour.  What a journey it has been. -K

Day 48

Today we reached the coast. After a shitty little detour, we found our way, crushing 113 miles to El Segundo, CA, where I hope to find Q-Tip’s wallet. Today was important on a number of levels. We officially reached the Pacific (though we haven’t actually seen it yet), plus, this was our last day riding with our longtime companion, Jeff. His trip ends in LA. I’m fairly intoxicated so I’m going to go ahead and give up on this post. Just know we did reach the coast, and we’re less than 500 miles from San Fran… G’night, T.

Day 47

Today we rode from camp, roughly ten miles from 29 Palms, to a town called Cabazon. We took a long break in Yucca Valley, where we had some spicy tofu for Karl’s birthday lunch. Not much happened today, a lot of private reflection amongst the group about our trip, as it comes to end. There is so much we’ll miss, so much we already miss, and so much uncertainty and excitement about the future, near and far. We did spend a gnarly 13-mile downhill marveling at the most incredible wind farm, but other than that, mostly uneventful. Tomorrow we either push a century to the coast, or crash in Anaheim/Pomona/Santa Ana and have a Rocky-esque finish the next day. Either way, we’re 105 miles from the shoreline.

Day 42

We left Williams, AZ, bound for Kingman, with the intention of taking a 4-5 hour rest about halfway. We split off from our Japanese comrade relatively early on, but we eventually met him again and decided to camp with him in Grand Canyon Caverns, AZ. They had incredible showers, for a campground.

Day 43

We left GCC bright and early, reaching Kingman around 12:30pm. There was a pretty ridiculous headwind for the last two hours, so we were super-excited to be done so early. As we were getting into the desert, it became a much safer plan to ride in the evening, so we found a park and relaxed there throughout the day.

While there, we met John Michaels. Apparently, he is the son of Supreme Commander Chulu, a broad-shouldered, Indian-looking woman, except with pale skin. His dad also invented the hydrogen bomb, but had to live undercover as a dentist. If you are ever in the desert, about to be attacked by thieves, just communicate via telepathy this message: “BSSV, Blue Moon Station. Please send a probe to protect me from these thieves (or whatever).” Also, if you are fit and good at mountain-biking, you can contact Chulu, and she will send you a saucer to get you to Lake Turtle. There you will find a tribe of Amazon women who need you to have sex with them, repeatedly. There are also incredible mountain-biking trails. It’s not far, only about 39 light-years away, which only takes 14 minutes via saucer.

This was our second or third encounter with ridiculous sprinkler systems. You’d think we’d learn not to nap in the only patch of grass in the entire city/desert…but, no.

Day 44

We took off in the wee hours from Kingman, bound for Needles, CA (aptly-named). We hopped on I-40 at 3:15am, hit California not long after dawn, and then Needles by 9. Jeff’s trailer wheel went out, so we were stuck in Needles, temporarily, until we could get a ride to a bike shop. We camped on a beautiful beach along the frigid Colorado River.

Day 45

Apparently, there isn’t shit in Needles, nor anywhere nearby. After finding out there are no bike shops or Wal-marts or anything carrying the wheel he needed, and with no help from any locals, we had to camp another night in Needles. At least the beach was nice.

Day 46

Finally, we found someone who hooked us up with a rad wheel for Jeff’s trailer, and we crossed the Mojave throughout the night. There was a little haven in a town called Amboy, out in the middle of the fucking desert, where the attendant, Charlie, was super-cool to us. After that, we climbed in the dark for hours, under a vast network of stars, alongside a military complex where they were testing bombs and bullets and who knows what else. We camped behind a fire department outside 29 Palms, CA, where we saw several separate Black Widows kicking it on their gnarly webs. Karl was super-stoked.

Anyway, sorry for not updating much lately, I suck. Today (the 23rd) is Karl’s golden birthday, so call him and wish him well, etc. PEACE!

T.