putting the Linear together, such fun. We rode them back from the church that let us set them up... St. Michael's to out hotel.

The Rev. Vikie Wesen of Mt. Vernon kindly received my bike from Linear. We brought her a day of sunshine from SD

A hill we will not have to climb

Perfect First Day

All the connections worked and we arrived uneventufully in Seattle until we looked out the airport windows. THE SUN WAS OUT!!!!!! Just for us, a moment of SD weather before the rain.
Drove to Mt. Vernon and picked up my bike from the Rev. Vickie Wesen and she put us on to a great restaurant (pictures and more to follow).
The in to Vancouver..... nice little hotel.
We have to run now to put out bikes together at St. Michael's. Check in later....

Point Well Taken

Today I took one last pedal out to the southern tip of Point Loma before having Larry box up my bike for the airlines. The point is an excellent source of diversity in both geography(many challenging hills) and industry. It has both an anti-submarine base and a submarine base, a national monument, a university, oceanographic research fleet, naval research headquarters, home to a dolphin school training the guard dogs of the Navy, one of the worlds largest sportfishing fleets, and Marine recruting base at the north end and National cemetery at the south with veterans who fought in wars from 1846 to the current Iraq war. Always a great place to get lost in a ride and our final destination from our start in Vancouver B.C. next week.


Old Point Loma Lighthouse


View looking East to San Diego from Cabrillo National Monument



Pedaling through Rosecrans National Cemetery



Paying respects to Brian, the first casuality of the Iraq war and a former grade school classmate of my daughter Jenny.

Last Warm Up Ride

Monday was another lovely day in San Diego. I got up early, puttered around and then took off for my usual ride around Mission Bay and Fiesta island. I am still riding fully loaded and the pedals are coming more easily.

Lots of wind today, and working my way into it was good exercise.

By the way, one of the advantages of cycling a lot is: my cholesterol went from 226 to 192 and my LDL from 148 to 122 in 3 months. Doing the long tide along the coast will make enough physical changes for the good, that I may be able to have my blood pressure medicine changed!

So This Is A Blog?/So This Is A Bike?

A few weeks ago I had no real concept of what a Blog was and thanks to Mike and google I am attempting to join the blogger nation. This presents another form of communication and publishing that is so now. The challenge is I am not so now. So why dive in?

Last fall Mike, a biker(bicycle), told me, also a biker(bicycle) that he was planning a long bike ride and wondered if I was interested. I said," Sure," before I realized that 1. He was talking about weeks not days and 2. His idea of a bike was something called a Linear Recumbent. After acquiring a used model and testing it out I was hooked on the bike if not the length of the planned journey. The bike has been referred to a lawnchair on wheels. The question is can I live in a lawnchair for a month and a half? Or will I be riding the dog (Greyhound) home? Tune in and find out.

Point Loma Coast


Note Underseat Steering

Around the Pond

Yet another lovely ride around the MIssion Bay pond. I am still working on getting used tothe cleated pedals. The are great, once you are comfy with getting in and out of them.
There was nothing particularly exciting about this ride, it is a way famililar trip that lets one see the various sides of San Diego recreation. The west side is populated by beach people the east side by picnic and kite people. It is probably a good thing that Sea World separates them at the South and a golf course, trailer park, wetland at the north. Then of course, Fiesta Island is its own culture.

Apres le deluge

So there is a world still out there after too many weeks of rain. The rain, of course, was always heaviest on the days I had off. The major side affect of the rain, however, was an incredible number of potholes. This meant constant vigilance even as I rode a route I have done 100 times.

I am getting used to the cleated pedals. They certainly increase speed and work a different set of muscles. So I am achy this evening as I write.

As the caption indicates I put a circuit of Fiesta Island on the route today. In addition to the wind and the aroma there is always an interesting assortment of people on the island. Lots of RVs with people camping for the day. The island is also a place where dogs can run unleashed, which I suspect is why it smells so bad in the summer. One day as I rode neat where the RVs are in the picture there was a whale carcass surrounded by dump trucks. They were getting ready to cut it up. It was a big whale, taller on its side than the dump trucks.

Nothing that exciting today.

Some views of Fiesta Island, a six mile circuit that is usually windy and best ridden anytime but summer when it smells like the largest kitty litter pan in the world.

Dave Brown decided to practice using his digital camera as we rode. These are from the circuit of MIssion Bay