Losing Weight
By admin | June 24, 2012
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Ventura to Santa Monica-ish
65 miles
Another morning when we just could not get going. Until we hit the UPS store. We realized we wouldn’t need to camp anymore, since we had friends to stay with for the rest of the way to San Diego, so we mailed our camping gear home. Fourteen pounds, see you later!
This is my bike with its new, slimmed down profile.
Once again, we rode away about noon, even though we knew we had at least 55 miles ahead of us. We stopped for fruit early on, and at the Missile Park associated with Point Mugu Naval Air Station.
We learned many interesting facts about missiles over the years, but I just have a hard imagining anyone saying, “Honey, let’s take the kids to the missile park today!” But there were several families enjoying an afternoon with their children there.
After that, we got back on the 1, and stopped a lot less. We wound through the Malibu hills, passing Zuma Beach, among others. Traffic grew heavier, and though there was a wide shoulder, it was often full of cars parked on the road to avoid paying to park in the beach lots. We also had a tailwind, and, aided by the terrain, we zipped through.
We said later it felt like a video game. We had to pay attention to cars on both sides of us. There was more traffic today than probably all the other days of this trip put together. As we got even closer to Santa Monica, the cars were slowed, often to a stop, and it felt a little easier to just pass them as they sat in gridlock. It was exciting, but we were not sad at all when we reached the Santa Monica bike path.
Except that’s really a beach boardwalk that winds lazily past the pier and through Venice Beach. It was crowded with beach goers cruising along, or walking in the bikes only lane. It was just another kind of traffic to navigate. I guess I wouldn’t expect anything else from Los Angeles. After 60 miles, all we wanted to do was get off our bikes and eat dinner.
We were momentarily distracted by Zelda, the 13-week old Corgi of our hosts, Jess and Brent. Then Sadie’s high school friend Selena picked us up and whisked us off to dinner. It was a treat not to have to take the bikes! We are so looking forward to two days off in Santa Monica!
I was sure it was way easier to ride now that my gear is fourteen pounds lighter, but my legs are still ready for a rest.
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