Another amazing view along the California coast. We had views like this day after day and it was some of the best scenery we’ve ever witnessed.
That title doesn’t really mean anything, I simply needed a title and that was in my head. Here are some of the highlights of the past few days along with some valuable lessons learned… and one interesting connection (only one degree of Kevin Bacon).
-Days off are awesome (and a side note, we found out Brits think the term awesome is pretty lame and often laugh at us when we use it, at least the one we were around (Jenny, very fun to be around); it’s not stopping me though). We got into Crescent City, CA on Saturday after back to back 60+ mile days and decided to get a motel room so we could watch the Notre Dame game. The next morning, we weren’t ready to leave. We haven’t had many days since quitting our jobs in February to sit around and think, and also watch football. So we got another motel room and sat around on Sunday to watch the 49ers. Finally, my team won. Lesson learned, days off are wonderful. This lesson was cemented in our minds Monday morning when we were able to crush a couple big hills in the first 30 miles of our ride.
-Julie can change a tire. After lunch yesterday in which we sat in a park at a picnic table, we got all packed up and ready to go when she noticed her back tire was flat. After her initial sadness from the flat, she got to work with the fresh memories of our training session with David Gunther. She took the tire off, found the hole and the cause of the hole – a small piece of metal- and then put the new one on. It was a bit slow going but after a little while, we were all put back together again and ready to roll. Lesson learned, good to have friends that know about this stuff and good to listen to them when they are offering their assistance.
-We haven’t seen the sun in three days. It’s been cloudy and pretty chilly too. It’s not bad for riding and we don’t need much water. It makes hot showers at the end of the day all the more special.
-With our day of rest in Crescent City, we are both coming up with new ideas about what to do next. We’re excited to get to work on the new ideas because while the trail and cycling have been great, we don’t necessarily feel a huge sense of purpose to them as far as important things we want to accomplish and experience in our lives. It’s not that they’re not important or challenging, they are that and they’re meaningful, but we have some new things in mind that are more values focused that will be helpful hopefully for the rest of our lives. We’ll share more on this later. Lesson is that it’s good to take time sometimes to simply think about what is important to us and what we want from this little life.
-Lastly, we’re having fun out here. We’ve been traveling with a Canadian couple, Jenn and Dave, newlyweds on their honeymoon. We’ve camped with them for almost a week and were even neighbors at the Penny Saver Inn in Crescent City. We’ve had great conversations with them, it’s fun to see a familiar face out there, and we’ve gotten new ideas from them as well. They’re planning on traveling all the way to Argentina with their bikes; good luck to them. Lesson here is that it’s good to have friends and to have good people around, thanks Jenn and Dave.
-I said lastly already, but I forgot about our one degree of Kevin Bacon. At our picnic lunch yesterday (where Julie got her flat) we met up with four guys that were out riding from CA to Mexico. They were going fast, averaging over 100 miles per day. A wife of one of the guys was carrying all their stuff and meeting them throughout the day for supplies. We got to talking and found out first that they’re C-17 pilots and they all knew each other through the Air Force. I told them about my brother in law in SC that is in the Air Force and works on C-17s. Then they told us some of them live in Hawaii and one mentioned Aloha Airlines. Julie told him we have a cousin named Mike Rooney that flies the Denver to Hawaii route. Milton says casually, “I know Mike, he and I have flown together a few times”. We talked about him and their flying for a bit and then they rode on. I was laughing to myself because our friend Oscar hates how we always seem to know people and can make these kind of connections. Multiple lessons learned here, 1) it’s good to talk to people because there are lots of good people out there and 2) it’s really fun to find these kinds of connections with people. It was a small part of our day but certainly a memorable one.