Day #48 Pine Valley CA - San Diego (Ocean Beach), CA 51.2 Miles

And on the 48th day... we ran out of road!!!

We, the Sloyer Men, have made it to the beach!

Before going to sleep last night we checked the weather forecast on our computer, and found that early morning temperatures in Pine Valley were going to be in the high 40's. It was as if we hadn't been in the Yuma desert the previous day! Since we didn't have warm jackets (or crazy heat to avoid), there was no reason to wake up early. We left the Pine Valley Motel at about 9:30AM excited about completing our journey, and about the supposed downhill into San Diego that we had heard so much about. After going up a big hill to get out of Pine Valley, we flew on I- 8 for about 10 miles.  We were not allowed on the Interstate in that area, but the frontage road would have added 5-10 miles to our ride, and we were prepared to talk to the California Highway Patrol Officers if they stopped us (that didn't happen though). About 7 miles into the ride we stopped for water at the top of a hill. We were impressed by the sign indicating that we had reached 4000 Feet, but what was more spectacular was seeing the Pacific Ocean far off in the distance for the first time!  Soon after we left the Interstate onto the frontage road, the terrain was more hilly (the Interstate takes the path of least resistance, but these older roads go through the mountains). Our hands were in pain from braking so much on the 6 degree declines of the Interstate, so it was nice to get a break. As we got closer to San Diego, we saw signs of civilization. We stopped at a Starbucks with about 20 miles to go, and got some hot chocolate (it was about 60 degrees outside). The next 15 miles were very tough. We were riding on the streets of downtown San Diego, something we do not recommend.  Although they had some bike lanes, they were mostly for show.  The bike lanes were in bad shape (uneven pavement) and would disappear without warning, leaving us in regular rush hour traffic. There were also many entrances and exits onto Freeways, and cars were not sympathetic to us. With about 3 miles left, we hit the Ocean Beach Bike Trail. It was great! The trail is for bikes only, and twists and turns next to the Freeways (and occasional dips under the Freeways) until you arrive at the beach (see video below). My dad thinks that it is ironic that all the signs on the trail pointed to Dogs Beach, since we haven't had the best relationship with dogs throughout the trip.  The sky was cloudy and the temperature was about 65 degrees as we came to the end of the trail.  We had run out of road, with just the Pacific Ocean in front of us!!!  To the right was a beach for dogs and their owners, and to our left was the beach for humans only, Ocean Beach. We decided to go to the left.  As we got closer to the water we became emotional thinking about what we had just accomplished.  We talked about how we are not avid bike people - we had never been on a bike ride longer than 20 miles - but what we had just done was absolutely awesome.  We also spoke about how lucky we were.  In terms of our health, in terms of the weather,  and in terms of the people we met (and didn't meet) along the way... God was clearly watching over us. We did the traditional dipping the bikes into the ocean, and got some random people to take pictures of us (see below). When we got out of the water we savored the moment for a while and then headed to Bernie's Bike Shop. The owner, Roger, packed up our bikes to be shipped back to Connecticut.  Roger used to be a professional bike racer, and treated us like a member of the biking tribe. We then took a bus to the San Diego Airport where we picked up a rental car for our drive to LA.

So what's next? Well, we completed our dream adventure by checking into Shutters on the Beach (very nice upgrade).  On the toughest days, the thought of making it to Shutters was part of what kept us going.  For us, Shutters on the Beach is more than a great place to visit, it is a state of mind, which brings a smile to our face every time we think about it.  Later we made it to Jeff's Gourmet Sausage, walked along the beach, then got very good chicken for dinner! We also worked out a bit in the fitness center/spa. We just got back from the hot tub (its pretty cool out at night in LA), and we plan on having a great night sleep! 

What was a wild, unfathomable fantasy eight weeks ago, has become a reality!! We have overcome headwinds, lightning, beat- up roads, rabid dogs, scorching heat, treacherous mountains and a root canal.  We have defeated the word "can't." We continued biking, even when our bodies begged us to stop. We have emerged victorious and closer than ever! This may have been the last time we have ridden our Surly Long Haul Truckers cross country(they were truly incredible bikes), but we can assure you, this will not be our last adventure! 

We would like to give a sincere thanks to everyone for their support, good wishes, donations to Folds of Honor, and for riding along with us on our blog! I would especially like to thank my mom for letting me borrow my dad for 2 months to embark on this incredible journey.

One last word of advice...Dreaming never hurt anybody (please don't do anything stupid!)  In the words of my wise Grandmother - "never reject yourself", and in the words of CS Lewis - "you are never too old to dream a new dream." No matter what your dream (we understand that not everybody wants to bike across America) you are never too old, too out of shape (my dad lost about 15 pounds) or too inexperienced to make it a reality.  Eight weeks ago we knew next to nothing about bike touring or bike mechanics, but we have certainly learned a lot since then.

Thanks for coming along for the ride, and we hope you will join us on our next adventure! (we are about to google Mt. Kilimanjaro).

May God bless you, our troops and our great country.  Our country and its people are even more beautiful than we imagined!!!

Check out our route at the link below:

Pine Valley, CA- San Diego, CA

Check out these vids from the 2 bike trails we went on in San Diego: 

http://www.youtube.com/user/Elliotsloyer#p/a/u/1/sM4Y1V84m2Q

http://www.youtube.com/user/Elliotsloyer#p/a/u/0/vVeuRVTaSIE

Day #47 Ocotillo, CA to Pine Valley CA 45.9 Miles

Today, the penultimate (my dads favorite word) day of our cycle of a lifetime,  was the toughest biking day of the trip.  The good news was it allowed us to use some of the skills (and muscles) we have acquired over the last 8 weeks, and to appreciate what we have done so far.  Even though we only went 46 miles, we were completely spent by the time we got to Pine Valley. We left the Ocotillo Motel at about 6am.  We realized that the motel was only a minor step up from the Sportsman Motel in Simmsport, LA.  It sounded as if there were rats running through the walls, and there was a sketchy light outside of our room that turned on and off randomly though out the night.  That combined with  the shady people around made us feel uncomfortable.  This morning when we opened the door to our motel room we felt an intense breeze like we had not felt before.  If the wind was blowing in the right direction (west) , it would have been an easy biking day.  It turned out that it was blowing in the wrong (east) direction.   It took us 4 hours to do 12 miles... the incline was steep but manageable, but the 35 mph head winds made it nearly impossible to bike. We walked up most of the 12 mile hill.  Early in the ride we passed a sign (pic below) suggesting that drivers turn off their AC (we were in the desert) to prevent overheating.  It dawned on us that this terrain not only ate up bikes and bikers, but also cars and trucks.  The high point of the day in terms of bonding, and trying new things was when we approached an exit ramp about 8 miles into our ride/walk up.  The sign said all bicycles must exit at ramp.  We didn't know where the ramp would take us and noticed there were no cars headed in that direction - we would have basically been left stranded on our own.  We decided to try to do something that neither of us had ever done, and something we did not really want to do - HITCH HIKE.  When you are stuck in the middle of a mountain with no easy way to get up or down you need to think outside the box.  In hindsight we would love to see a video of ourselves, because it must have looked pretty funny.  We took our bags off our bikes, under a sign that said "no bicycles permitted", so we would be able to load our bikes and bags quickly onto a pick-up truck that would take us to the top of the hill.  We discussed hitch hiking technique - I tried the classic thumb signal that I had seen in many movies.  My dad tried his own two hand hitch hiking technique - one hand pointing at the road - Israeli style, and the other hand doing the friendly wave.  We discussed whether it was better to make eye contact with the driver or not, and whether what we were doing was breaking any laws (not sure).  After 45 minutes of perfecting our technique and having a lot of laughs, not only did no car ever stop, but no car even slowed down.  (My dad said nobody stopped because of my beard - I look like an international terrorist)  Back to plan A.  We put our bags back on our bikes and continued our ascent up the mountain - another 5 miles.  During the time we tried to hitch hike the winds died down a bit, and our legs got some rest, so we were able to persevere to the top under our own power .  As we walked to the top we passed an RV parked on the side of the road.  The man from Colorado said he was having transmission problems on the hills.  When we told him we were riding cross country he said "wow man, that's the dream".  We agreed with him, and we were only about 70 miles from that dream,  but through out the day the terrain didn't allow us to savor that thought -  we felt like we were 1000 miles away.    After we reached the top we were able to ride our bikes to Jacomba which was mostly down hill.   We stopped at a Chevron station and filled our water bottles, and ate lunch. We met some people who gave us a very good picture of the terrain ahead.  When heading out of Jacomba we  noticed that the temperature was about 10 degrees cooler than most recent afternoons - a welcome change.  As we enjoyed the cooler temps we told each other that we could ride forever in this type of climate.  While that might have been true, we ended up hitting another 13 mile climb on Historic Route 80, before a steep descent into Pine Valley, where we checked into the Pine Valley Motel, which was clean and comfortable.  According to our Garmin GPS for the day we gained close to 9000 feet in total elevation and a net of 4200 feet.


When we started our trip we planned on arriving at Shutters on the Beach on August 13th.  Since we are running a few days ahead of schedule (a miracle) we thought of some other things we might do tomorrow - whitewater rafting, quail hunting, shopping, sightseeing etc...   After much discussion, we took a vote, and decided to do a father/son bike ride to the beach in San Diego!!!  


Thanks for coming along for the ride!!!
Ocotillo, CA- Pine Valley, CA

Day #46: Winterhaven, CA- Ocotillo, CA 79.2 Miles

Wake up today was at 4:30, and we were out of the Quechan Casino  Resort by 5:20am - just before sunrise. It was pretty dark out so we put on our flashing tail lights for safety. We were feeling very good (it wasn't very hot yet - only 89 degrees, the shoulder was really nice, and the road was pretty flat), but that ended about 15 miles down the road when we got pulled over for DOI (driving on the Interstate). The cop car came up behind us slowly with it's lights off, and the officer yelled "stop right there," over the megaphone. This pretty much scared our pants off! He explained that we would need to get onto the frontage road at the next exit. He asked us if we had enough water, given that there wouldn't be opportunities to get water for about 30 miles.  We thanked him for his concern and told him we did.  The frontage road was pretty beat up, and the pot holes were giving us a bumpy/ unpleasant ride (see pic of the road below). The road eventually smoothed out, and the temperature rose to make sure we didn't get too comfortable. We took a lot of water breaks, but the heat and poor road conditions took their toll. We were pretty tired when we pulled into Ocotillo. There is one motel in Ocotillo, the Ocotillo Motel and RV Park. The rooms are pretty worn down, but there is AC and running water... so its kind of like the Ritz Carlton.  Ocotillo is located at the foot of a chain of mountains with a 5000 foot elevation and a road that goes up for 17 miles with a 6 degree grade.  While we don't know what that means, it sounds intimidating, but its the only way to get to Ocean Beach in San Diego.  One of the reasons we decided to go cross country east to west (versus west to east) was to avoid needing to go over these mountains in the first few days - we would not have been in good enough shape.  That may still be the case, but we will give it our best shot.  We hope to go to sleep soon.  

Shout out to my good friend Jason W... get better soon! See you next week.

Thanks for coming along for the ride!


Check out our route at the link below:
Winterhaven, CA- Ocotillo, CA

Day #45: Tacna, AZ- Winterhaven, CA 49.1 Miles

California!!!


We woke up at 5am again, and hit the road! We climbed our way through the moutains leading up to Yuma, and felt invigorated when we reached the top (we felt pretty good considering the long/ sharp incline and the intense heat). We enjoyed the long downhill, an stopped in Yuma to refill our water bottles. As we crossed the Colorado River, we were able to see the "Welcome to California" sign. It seemed pretty wimpy compared to the signs we have seen in other  states, but we took a picture anyway. Less than 1/2 a mile down the road, we saw a much better sign (it also mentioned that we were entering Pacific Time) so we took another picture. We were about to get back on our bikes when a Highway State Trooper pulled up next to us. At first we thought he was going to welcome us to California and tell us how much he appreciated us visiting and spending money here.  Instead, he told us that we had to get off the Interstate, despite the light traffic and wide shoulder.   He told us that the side road we would have to take for the next 10 miles would "beat us up".  We asked him what that meant, and he told us it was crumbling and in disrepair.  The road we were forced to take was exactly that - terrible!! The pavement was cracked and bumpy, but we made it. We were pretty happy to get off our bikes.  We decided to spend the night with some tribal members.  No, not those tribal members -  but rather the Quechan Tribe.   We had just reached the Quechan Casino Resort. They win the "best pool of the trip" award, hands down! They have a "lazy river," hot tub, and a regular pool with people taking your drink order (we didn't even have to get out of our floats to get our drinks)! We drank Coronas while floating along the lazy river. We met a nice guy named Vinnie before we got out of the lazy river. He told us about the hills we would be hitting, and places he recommended we stay. He told us he would check out the blog and pass it on to his friends and colleagues. We dried off, stopped by our room, and went to dinner. The food was good, and we caught the beginning of the Yankee game on the big TV in the restaurant. We had a free $10 card for slot machines, so we used it after we finished dinner... we won $10.81which was fun. We are going to wake up very early tomorrow to try and beat the heat - its brutal.    Our goal for tomorrow is to get as far as possible without hitting the big hills.    


Shout out to Joan S. ... Wishing you a happy birthday from your favorite bikers!!!


Thanks for coming along for the ride!


Check out our route at the link below:
Tacna, AZ- Winterhaven, CA