Reasons 4203 - 4446

In San Clemente, we first met Ron and Karl. Ron is the brother of Bunny. Karl is Ron’s friend who lives really close to the coast along our route. If you can’t remember who Bunny is, then look back to when we were in Oregon and how she graciously let us stay with her at her timeshare (Reasons 2114 - 2423). We head out onto the open road headed toward Oceanside. Ron and Karl rode their bikes out to meet us so that they could ride with us back. It was a lot of fun. Ron and Karl are both triathletes and both have raced in Iron Man’s. We get to Karl’s house where we met his wife Carol. Later on Ron’s wife Tami came by and we all had an excellent dinner prepared by Karl and Carol. The meal also had some filets of shark. I think it was the first time I ever had shark, and I liked it.

Me, Ron, Tami, Carol, Karl and Nathan.

We told Karl our plans for Las Vegas and he welcomed us to come back after San Diego. It would work out well because Oceanside is about where we would start heading East.

American Thanksgiving with our new friends. Sara is the third one in on the right.

We left for San Diego the next day, which just so happened to be American Thanksgiving. Riding through San Diego was kind of eerie because there was no one on the streets. We would smell turkey randomly along the way. For Thanksgiving we put a general shout out to hosts on Warm Showers to see if they could host us for the night or just dinner. We stopped at a Starbucks to relax when we were almost in San Diego and we got a response from Sara on Warm Showers to have dinner with her and her family. We were really stoked for that. So, we get to the hotel we were going to stay for the night, get all cleaned up, get our gear off our bikes and then take off to Sara’s. Sara works at Point Loma Nazarene University as a Hall Director for a girls dorm. She had also invited some of the students to join her. Some had taken her up on her offer so it was really easy to fit in because it wasn’t just us two strange guys and her family. That night was a lot of fun, with great conversations, and filled with really great food. We head back to our hotel while getting excited for our time to be spent in San Diego.

Our ride the next day was really short. Our hosts Scott and Marlo were home so we were able to get there early as well. Their loft used to be office space in a commercial building, which was later converted into a living space by a previous owner of the building. Scott being an architect really brought out a really hip, trendy living space. The apartment is conveniently located near downtown. As hosts on Warm Showers we were their first guests. I like to think we made a good impression. Scott and Marlo were really helpful and great.

Scott standing at his work desk across from a full wall of bicycles.

Oh, looks like someone's been reading Twenty Thousand Reasons. This shot was not set up.

That afternoon we went out to Horton Plaza, an outside mall for Black Friday, I mean Buy Nothing Day. I mostly looked all around for a pair of Toms shoes, dragging Nathan around with me. We also saw an outdoor ice rink in Horton Plaza, that was filled with awkward looking people trying not to fall on their face. All the skates they had were essentially figure skates, they all had the sharp point on the front. It was fun to walk onto the ice in just our shoes, and in my case sandals. I guess I should have been more worried because of all the inexperienced, unpredictable skaters around me. Someone finally came around and kicked us off. It was nice to be around ice again, but the rink was tiny, ice was terrible, filled with people and the skates were just ridiculous. I couldn’t justify going on and actually go skating. We watched Skyfall and Wreck It Ralph on this night. We snuck into Wreck It Ralph and missed the first 15 minutes but we still had a good time.

In the morning, Scott and Marlo took us to breakfast at one of their favorite restaurants, which was delicious. We rode our bikes to the harbor and took tours of some of the boats and subs they had on display. Took a ferry to Coronado Island and went to Hotel Del Coronado to mostly relax but it was a popular spot and it was a hot day. There were way too many people. After we were able to reconnect with Sara. Nathan and Sara had a nice, candid conversation at the thanksgiving dinner but didn’t quite finish. So, it was nice to be able to finish the conversation. Encouraging words were exchanged and we really felt blessed to be able to have the interaction we had with Sara.

Marlo in the kitchen.

Scott sweeping up after buzzing our heads.

Mine and Nathan's hair combined.

That night Scott made us a most delectable dish. He also shaved our heads for us, we were talking about how we wanted to find some place cheap to get our haircuts. He said he could do it and all we wanted was for it to be buzzed so it worked out really well. Shorter hair is way better for those that are wearing helmets all day. Our entire time with Scott and Marlo was really remarkable. We had such great conversations which were really heartfelt. We talked a bit about our tour and how it’s really empowering and how it has shaped us already. Scott did his own tour not so long ago and from that he felt empowered to change. Before the tour he thought that it would be too hard to do something like it. But going out and actually seeing it through was uplifting for Scott. It made him realize that things are not too far out of reach. We can see that in our tour as well. Sometimes I still can’t wrap my brain around the fact that we biked to San Diego. Scott and Marlo are actually doing another bike tour from San Francisco back to San Diego. I wish them all the best.

Local cyclists that lead us to up Mt. Soledad to the Veterans Memorial.

Part of the view from Mt. Soledad.

It was time to head back to Oceanside. San Diego is a really beautiful city and wished we could stay longer. On our arrival, Carol made a big pan of Lasagna, and between the four us, but mostly between Nathan and I, finished the whole thing. It was really nice to be back with Karl and Carol. They are really welcoming, helpful and willing to be available. Karl and Carol both work on weekends. While we were there during the week they were free.

Trying out EliptiGo bikes at the local bike shop in Oceanside.

Nathan, me, Carol and Karl.

Riding with Ron.

Our second stay in Oceanside was for the most part a rest time for us. We hadn’t completely rested in a long time. Our rest days are usually filled with other activities not involving bikes. It was really awesome to just chill and do nothing for a couple of days. The last night, Ron and Tami came over for another meal, which was quite special. We really love those four and hopefully we will see them again.