Day 1

Here goes nothing! The past couple days I have been asking myself why I ever thought this was a good idea. After meeting everyone and talking about the trip, I'm pretty sure I know why.

Today we did a little shakedown ride to make sure things are good to go, and we also went to the beach for the ritual 'wheel-dipping'. There were about 10 of us riding around San Diego with all of our fully loaded panniers or trailers, and I love it when people ask what we're doing. When we were at the beach, someone stopped us to ask where we are going. Our leader, Rick, simply said "Florida" and kept on walking down to the water.

 

 

After the trip to the beach we went to the Cabrillo National Park/Monument. The views were amazing, but I was still a little anxious/nervous riding with my trailer again that I didn't fully appreciate what the park was about (or maybe it was that I was still tired from climbing that extra hill when we went the wrong way?).

Apparently this is where Juan Rodriduez Cabrillo set foot on the west coast in 1542 as the first European to do so. I wonder what it would have looked like before there was a city there.

The rest of the day we all spent getting ready to take off. Tomorrow is a short day, about 40 miles, and my 9 weeks of living out a tent and an over sized duffel bag begins.