We finished!!

I guess we got a little busy after Lompoc and haven't had a chance to update the Blog. However, as many of you know, we finished!!

It has been an amazing summer for us. Bicycling Europe and then bicycling the Pacific coast of the US. Both were amazing and both had there good points. I don't know which one I would do first if I had to do it over again.

The last part of this trip has been spectacular. San Francisco was beautiful (although cold). We had company on this phase as Susie and Gwen join us as well as Larry for a nice stretch.

Big Sur was absolutly breathtaking! If you ever get a chance to ride this stretch of the earth, don't pass it up. It was probably the most beautiful thing we have seen this summer and at 12 mph we got to see a lot of it. We stayed in the Big Sur Campground in a tent-cabin that was wonderful. It is has wood sides for 3 feet up and the rest is tent material but then a real roof and it came with a fantastic queen size bed.

Santa Barbara was one of our favorite towns to visit. We got a hotel right in town for $99.00 and went out for an evening on the town. We heard three different musical groups with Katrina Carlson being the best. If you google her and look on her website you can see pictures of us!!! We told them we biked all the way from Seattle just to hear them play.

The town of Malibu was a dissapointment. There really isn't much there. However, there are some amazing homes there. Jennifer Aniston lives there and I am pretty sure we stopped in front of her house. There were 50 paporrozoties out there. Sherry would like to think it was Matthew McConnohey,s house.

We loved Santa Monica as well as it was 80 and sunny and beautiful beaches. Venice beach was interesting. A little run down, lot's of people living on the beach. We stopped at the muscle beach and both did a little flexing.

Getting thru LA was a bit of work as the roads didn't have shoulders and we were in some less than desirable neighborhoods. We passed Orange County choppers but didn't visit the guys.

In Long Beach we stayed at Sherry's friend Jodie and Tony's house. It was nice of them to let us stay with them as Tony had just arrived home from being out of town for the week. They have a very nice family and we enyoyed a faboulous dinner.

The next day we made it to Dana Point and ended up staying in a place called the Blue Lantern B&B. Oh my, we are talking nice. They had a free happy hour of cheese and wine which we readily joined in. There was a fireplace in the room and they actually gave us a very good price. We told them we had been sleeping in a tent for 4 months and that we wanted a deal. They bought the story and gave us the same price as the holiday inn express.

We arrived in San Diego on Sept 19th. We stayed at Amy and Rich's house for two evenings and went out to the Calypso for a wonderful dinner and great conversation. Thank you so much guys!! We owe you.

Okay, the adventure hasn't really stopped though. While in San Diego we loaded up Sherry's stuff from storage with the help of two Mexican's standing on the side of the road. (Thanks Jose and Jorge). Then we drove the U-haul to Phoenix where we had an apartment waiting for us. Upon arriving in Phoenix we didn't like the apartment! We had booked it via the internet so hadn't really seen it. We liked the complex though and after some pleading they gave us another apartment. However, the apartment wasn't ready for us so we moved our stuff into a garage. They say it will be ready by the time we get there on Friday.

We flew back to Minneapolis on Sunday (thanks Pat for picking us up at the airport) and spent two days getting our stuff together there.

Today, Sept 26th, we are on our way back to Phoenix in the car. We are actually in Lincoln, Nebraska as I write this. We plan to make it to Denver tonight where Bob's brother Jack lives and stay with him this evening. We have 457 miles down right now and it is noon!!! We left at 5:30 this morning and stopped only briefly!

There you go. Now you know what Bob and Sherry have been up to. We have had the summer we imagined and it was wonderful.

Bob and Sherry (the happy campers)!!

Greetings from Lompoc, Ca

The last for days have been filled with lots of fun and adventure. After Kim dropped us off in Watsonville we set our sites on Big Sur. The ride from Watsonville to Big Sur was very beautiful but a bit chilly. Since we had both been to the Carmel/Monterey area before we decided to skip that tourist stop and rode through to Big Sur. Once we left Carmel the fog lifted and we were greeted with bright blue and warm skies. We enjoyed riding along the cliffs and across the famous "bigsby bridge". We camped at the Big Sur Campground in one of the Tent/cabins. It was really nice! The bottom part is wood and the walls are like a tent but it had a real bed! We lounged around the fire, enjoyed dinner and got the laundry done! The next day we had the Banana Walnut pancakes at the Big Sur Inn. Yum, Yum!!

With our tummies full we headed up the road and we really do mean "up the road". Immediately after we left the campground we had a 4 mile climb! Our reward was stopping at Nepenthe! Nepenthe is a restaurant that sits right on the edge of the cliff and offers a 180 degree view of the Big Sur Coastline! With the clear skies we were able to see forever.

We also stopped at Julia Phifer Big Sur Park and walked on the nature trail that took us out to a beautiful waterfall that flows off of the cliffs and onto the sandy beach below. It was very breath taking!!!

Our goal for the day was to make it to San Simeon. We made it but it was a long day of some very tough riding. Lots of steep long hills followed by down hills that required us to battle the trecherous winds comming at us from all directions. With the mountain on one side and the ocean cliffs on the other it was very trying at times. We tried to enjoy the beautiful views in between the times we were holding on for dear life!

The past two days the terrain has been blessedly less hilly and we have had strong winds at our back. Yesterday's ride was an absolute BLAST! We rode from San Simeon to Pismo Beach. On the way we went through Morro Bay which was so darn beautiful we had a difficult time ridding past. We were fortunate to see pods of Dolphins just 25 yards off the shore. We rode for about 3miles with the dolphins.

Today we are in Lompoc, Ca. The ride from Pismo Beach to Lompoc was a lot of fun. Again we had a very strong tail wind, for long stretches today we were going 22-27 miles/hr and we were hardly even pedaling! Tomorrow we head to Santa Barbara or Carpenteria depending on the ridding conditions and the traffic in Santa Barbara.

Bob & Sherry

A few days spent with friends

Good morning everyone! Well it is early Tuesday morning and we are getting ready to hit the road again.

The last 4 days we have been throughly spoiled! Friday night we stayed with my friends Sue, Larry and Gwynne at Sue's mom's house in Saratoga. Thank You Harriet for the wonderful hospitality AND soft bed.

Saturday Bob & I rode with Larry up up up and over the top of the Santa Cruz Mtns meeting up with Sue and Gwynne who had gone ahead with the car to Pescadero and then rode their bikes back towards us. In Pescadero we enjoyed a much needed lunch break. Larry then turned around to ride back up up up and over the Santa Cruz Mtns back to Saratoga while Bob, the girls and I continued on to Santa Cruz. The weather was perfect and we really enjoyed cycling along the coast. It was especially nice in that we had all the camp gear and all the other junk we usually lug on or behind the bikes loaded in the truck. So we got to spend the day cycling without all the added weight. We felt like we were flying and at the end of the 70 mile day we felt great. Bob & I stayed at the Hostel in Santa Cruz while Gwynne and Sue had to return to their families. It was a wonderful two days ridding with the girls of Team Christine!

Sunday we had a leisurely 25 mile ride from Santa Cruz to Watsonville where my life long friend, Kim and her husband Mark picked us up and took us to their home in Cienega. We had a great time. We ate and drank very well and it was so nice to spend some down time on Monday just lounging around with Kim. Bob got to hang out with Mark. He gave him the $5.00 tour of his farming operations. Although Bob now thinks that all farmers do is drive around with a walkie talkie telling the farm workers what to do He did get a lesson on how to kill Gophers! He even got one of the pesky little guys himself.

So all in all we have had a great vacation within our vacation and we really really apprecated the nice soft beds! Today we are off to Big Sur! We will be ridding along the coast hwy through Monterey and Carmel. The weather is predicted to be warm and sunny!

Only 11 days left and about 550miles to go before we get to San Diego. It has been an incredible journey.

Bob & Sherry

Saratoga, California

We are now just south of San Francisco and staying at Susie's mom's place. They were nice enough to let us stay here last night in their beautiful home. Sleeping in a bed is such a treat!!

California has been wonderful to us. We have been staying in the national parks in the Hiker/biker area's and have been meeting up with other cyclists most nights. We have had a nice fire and cooked all of our meals at the campsite.

A lot of our fellow cyclists ended their trip yesterday in San Fran so we will miss their company, however I am sure there will be new people to meet a long the way.

Our plan today is to get to Santa Cruz today. It is a Saturday night and we are having a hard time finding a place to camp as everything is busy. But I am sure we will find something as we always do.

Sorry for the quick post but just wanted to get something out here for those wondering where we are.