Day 13: San Francisco, 58 mi

We made it safely!!! Took the 4:45 pm Larkspur Ferry instead of riding over Golden Gate Bridge.  Dustin met us at the terminal--loaded our bikes on a bus and made it to his apartment. We have showered and will go out for steak!

Point Arena to Bodega Bay, 63 mi

This is the 3rd time we have biked this route. We did not remember how difficult it is. Many steep inclines--it also was quite warm and a weekend so lots of beach traffic. We made it safely to our motel at about 4:30. We are a good Mexican dinner just at the town's edge. Beautiful ocean views!  We are about 70 miles from San Francisco. We probably will complete the ride tomorrow.

Point Arena, 45 mi

Great weather today. We started with long pants and jackets but ended with shorts and short sleeves. Still a hilly ride. One spot has over 20% grade. We were told today that is the steepest section of road in California.  Every time we have had to walk a portion of that because it also has steep curves. We had brunch in Elk--great cafe "Queenies":

The ocean views are fantastic on this portion of the route.

We are staying at a nice hotel--built in 1865 Wharf Masters Inn. It is a steep climb to the hotel but great view.

Tomorrow's destination is TBD. We have ridden over 500 miles. We expect to reach San Francisco on Monday.

Day 10--Leggett to Fort Bragg, 48 miles

We made it over Leggett hill--not as difficult as last time (5 yrs ago--different bikes & less climbing experience). 

We have now left 101 and will be following highway 1.

We had very poor internet yesterday so the blog was posted in the office of the camp. It was a nice dry cabin and we used the day to dry all our wet clothes and take a rest day since only pedaled 15 miles. But what a rain storm!

Today the weather was great for cycling--cool and dry.  

Tomorrow's destination is Point Arena. We have stayed there twice before and enjoy it. We made reservations since it is a weekend.

Leggett 15.6 mi

Day 8: Eureka to Garberville, 63 mi

Not as many hills today so we were able to travel more miles. We make good choices on the route and had two short excursions off Hwy. 101. The first went through Scotia--a logging mill community.

The next scenic route was through the redwoods--avenue of the Giants. 

For the first time this trip Sharon had to "pee in the bushes". She was careful to watch for oncoming cars--but was caught by a bicyclist we knew!! He was courteous and cycled past.

We are now 23 miles from the base of Leggett Hill. Rain is predicted for tomorrow--we will wait to decide what to do.

Orick to Eureka--45 miles

More hills, of course.  This area always seems windy--especially around Arcata and Eureka. We put on and took off our jackets all day. We took a few routes off highway 101--they were scenic miles but at a price. Very poor road condition and at times we had to push our bikes over sandy gravel sections. We didn't complain at all ??!! We are staying at a hotel my brother has told us is the only safe one in town: Bayshore Best Western. There is a Marie Callendar next door.

Crescent City to Orick, 40 miles

Hill is a 4-letter word!! We pedaled many hills today but arrived safely before 2 pm. We stayed on 101 by mistake and missed a scenic ride. The hotel here is rustic but better than camping. 

We just checked into our hotel and received a text with a great picture:

Crescent city, California: 53 miles

We had a picnic in our motel room last night with take out fish and chips. It was much more relaxing than going to a restaurant. 

Breakfast this morning was actually more then we could eat. That doesn't happen very often on our bike trips. 

The route to Brookings was quite hilly--but what's new about that. 

We met a couple today riding from Scotland. They are going slow but enjoying the first USA ride. 

When we arrived at our hotel two of the men we have been leapfrogging with were just checking in--funny since there are lots of hotels in the town. We are having dinner with them tonight. Tomorrow we start our day with a big climb out of the city--it will be good to be fresh.

Bandon to Gold Beach, 57 miles

Happy Birthday to Ron!  

The pancake was big enough to substitute for a birthday cake. We ate it all--it was our second breakfast at 25 miles.

The route was rolling hills but very scenic from Port Orford to here. The weather remains nearly perfect. We are staying at a nice hotel.  Our dinner last night was excellent so we hope for the same success tonight.

We are playing "leapfrog" with four other riders. One duo is going to Healdsburg and the other to San Diego.  We are all making AARP proud. All four left their wives at home so Sharon is the only female rider.  We have seen some other riders but not as consistently. We are not the fastest or the slowest. 

Expect to be in California tomorrow. 

It is still a highlight of our day to receive Wesley pictures.

Reedsport to Bandon, 51 miles

The weather continues to be good for riding. The route left highway 101 for about 25 miles near Coos Bay. It goes to a small harbor town of Charleston and then over "7 Devils road".  12 miles with lots of climbing--each climb is a "devil"! Nice views at the top.  We had a great bakery stop in Charleston to provide us the calories for the climb--homemade chili and cornbread along with our pastries and coffee.

Cops Bay bridge is 1 1/2 miles.

Great meal at the Edge Waters.

Yachats to Reedsport, 48 mi

We have had a few people ask us if the route down the coast is pretty flat. Most people know that is definitely not the case--we know by experience today that is certainly untrue! We climbed a lot of hills today. We were going to continue to Coosbay but the wind came up and it was not friendly. So we are enjoying a nice motel in Reedsport. We have seen very few cyclists. Yesterday we saw a man who was riding a "stair glider" -- it was a two wheeler and he was pulling a Bob trailer "fully loaded". There was no seat on the vehicle so he was standing the whole distance. As we passed him he said he was headed to San Diego.

We are thinking of our grandson so we were happy when "Nana" texted us a pix:

San Francisco here we come!

We started in Lincoln city--at the casino buffet! 46 miles to Yachats. It was great riding conditions. There is a very good fish restaurant here in town--We will be going in a few hours.

Austin & San Antonio TX

San Antonio river walk

The Alamo

Texas capital

We enjoyed our time with Bob and Laura. 

We have also decided that we have had enough "combat bicycling" for this trip. We have cycled from St. Augustine Florida to Austin Texas which was over 1300 miles. We will leave the remainder of the trip for another time. Happy to report that we are arriving without any injuries. We fly home Monday. Thanks for  being a part of our trip by reading our blogs.

Day 26: Austin, Texas 37 miles

There was a winter warning last night in this area.  Freezing temperatures and high winds. So we left just after 11 AM to allow it to warm up and hopefully for the wind to die down. It was sunny and and may be about 38° when we started. The problem was the wind. It was constant at 20 or more and gusts up to 30.  It was cold wind from the north. Most of the time we were going west so it was at our side but some of the time it was a headwind. We had two flat tires within five minutes.  And then we had a challenge of finding our hotel in the city of Austin. I had mapped the route but we figured out we turned too soon on a road with the same name.

We arrived at about 5:30 PM. 6 1/2 hours for 37 miles demonstrates a frustrating day. But for the next two or three days we will take rest days here in Austin with Bob and Laura who are driving down from Dallas Texas.

We are blessed to arrive safe!

Day 25: Bastrop, TX. 43 miles

We had a nice start to our day by finding a coffee shop--I think I've said before that lattes are hard to find in this area. They also made a great breakfast sandwich for Ron, oatmeal for Sharon and scones for both.

The weather was over 70° when we started so we were shorts and short sleeve from the start. It was a very scenic ride the first 25 miles.

Our route took us through a state park which cost three dollars each to ride through. We debated--not so much for the cost but because often those routes are much more difficult than the main road. If only we had gone with our gut feeling. The 12 miles we rode in the park were very difficult with steep grades. Twice we had to walk our bikes because of the grade (for only a short distance is but that is unusual for us).

But we made it safely and now have about 35 miles to Austin. The predicted weather is a storm warning with temperatures in the 20s and 30s tomorrow morning. We will just wait and see.