This is what Barb thinks of a long grade...FUN!!!

We have a professional birder, Kathy, on staff identifying birds.  the big one on the last blog was a Turkey Vulture, so good thing I didn't lay down on the side of the road as I have been called a Turkey before....my life could have been in immanent peril.......

New day and Lots to tell

You will have to piece the pics with the blog, don’t have time to do that today….

As we left Lompoc it was overcast, but the first hill of the day got rid of any thought of being cold.  Then we got to go up Harris Grade!!!!!! So much excitement By tne time we had gotten to the top we had done 5 miles in an hour and a half.  What a way to start off a 50 mile day.  But it wasn’t really too bad, lots of switchbacks, so the grade was broken up, not like the long continuous haul before Lompoc.  No shoulders, but road was slow so cars worked with us.  Great Vistas too.   

Then came the decent…. First time I’ve been able to go above the posted speed limit (15-20 mph).  As  my sister Peg would say it was a WheeeHeeee ride down with all the switchbacks and stuff. 

When we got to the bottom of the hill, my bike was making noises, so when I looked at it one back rack bolt was missing from just below the seat, and the other was very loose.  A little backtracking….. there are some people that do these rides as minimalists.  They take bare essentials, and use credit card for dining and lodging…. Then there are others like me who take two kitchen sinks and a commode.  Fortunately, I had extra bolts for the rack so I replaced that and tightened up the other.  Of course what would be really nice would be a little LokTite…… oh yea, I had some of that and used it (non-minimalist)….but you have to read on later to see what else I am packing,

Then it was off across the flats to Guadalupe.  Alls I can say is HEADWINDS…….. We were going as slow as 7 mph on the flats ( we should be able to cruise at 12 to 14).  In Guadalupe, we stopped at the Falafel King for lunch.  Real nice lady from Lebonon took our order and Great Food!!!  Of course some of that might be after a steady diet of Cliff bars, anything tastes good.  But we got one falafel and one avocado pita sandwhich which we split,  with an order of fries and NO WIND!

I have a picture of Barb with her wind Dooo.

So we were about 10 miles from our Pismo Beach camp ground, when my bike didn’t feel right.  I started watching my wheel for the dreaded wobble and shore nuff, it was there….broken spoke on rear wheel.  And it was inside of the gear hub.  Middle of nowhere, but had an asphalt driveway we could pull off into.  Of course I had extra spokes, and you have to remove the gear hub….and of course I had the tools to remove the gears.  So spoke replaced now to true the wheel.  I have always had luck using a small screw drive taped to the frame to adjust the true.  You just assume the rest of the wheel is right and pull the wheel back inline with the rest of the wheel.  But I had two wobbles in the wheel….Uh Oh, another broken spoke this one on the other side of the wheel…….this gets better.

So to get the other spoke on, I had to remove the disc brake rotor.  Oops, it is torx, oh I just happen to have that size on my handy dandy alien all in one wrench.  So 1,2,3,4,5,6,…..came off easy, the last two wouldn’t.  about that time one of the owners on the driveway came home asked what we were doing when we told him he just said Bummer and went on his way.  So this time it was now or never, so I applied more torque to the wrench and….it twisted the end of the bit.  Oh Oh,,,, so it is no longer now, it is only never and on more attempt, It Came Off!!!!! Only one to go.  But alas and forlorn, it was  not to be, I finished off the wrench and while I was at it, I ruined the top of the bolt.  So it was back to Mr. bummer ,who it turned out had the name of Brian.  We tried his torx set, no luck bolt messed up too much, then we tried vice-grips, no luck.  PB Blaster, no luck.  The he said he could braise the wrench to the bolt as he had a TIG welder.  At this point I am thinking what the ‘ell, he had  said that the nearest accomodations was our campsite 10 miles ahead.  We packed the rotor and rubber seal with wet rags and off he braised.   It worked!!!!! I think the heat helped a lot.      

So spoke back on rotor back on (I had an extra bolt), and of course LokTite applied.  So now truing a wheel that is off in both directions…..how my going to do this.  My back was cramping from bending over and I wasn’t sure I had the patience to play with the wheel, and Then we met Howard…..

Howard pulls off the side of the road and says something about being from the same tribe.????  Me being hard of hearing and the word tribe being out of context, not to mention being pre-occupied with wheel wobble…. As I  came into mental l focus I translated, he was a biker too!!!!  In fact he had just helped support the Wildflower Classic Century the day before.   He asked if it was a flat and I explained that it was spokes and I potentially had a truing problem.    He then went on to say he lived a mile and a half up the road and he had a wheel truing stand and we could spend the night if we wanted to.  It was 5:30 and we still had a bike to finish repairing.  So I deeply pondered his offer for the better half of a millisecond and said Shore!!!!!!!  So we owe much to both Brian and Howard.  Howard got the wheel trued (actually a tool I don’t have….hafta look into that).  And we had a nice evening with Howard, ordered out pizza and talked biking among other things…

So off the next day, bought more spokes and two torx wrenches in San Louis Obisbo.

Here is a picture of Barb in her own personal dressing room (boy this California has everything….so accommodating).

Did I mention headwinds…..just like the books said, north to south, you are going the wrong way, oh well. We made it to San Simeon state park and well we slept….  Last pic of low clouds/fog...why did we leave seattle????

Next morning had a real breakfast and worked on the blog.  Need to get going have 40 miles to go with some headwinds (did I mention those) and monster hills.  

Adios  

 

 

 

This is what Barb thinks of a long grade...FUN!!!

We have a professional birder, Kathy, on staff identifying birds.  the big one on the last blog was a Turkey Vulture, so good thing I didn't lay down on the side of the road as I have been called a Turkey before....my life could have been in immanent peril.......

New day and Lots to tell

You will have to piece the pics with the blog, don’t have time to do that today….

As we left Lompoc it was overcast, but the first hill of the day got rid of any thought of being cold.  Then we got to go up Harris Grade!!!!!! So much excitement By tne time we had gotten to the top we had done 5 miles in an hour and a half.  What a way to start off a 50 mile day.  But it wasn’t really too bad, lots of switchbacks, so the grade was broken up, not like the long continuous haul before Lompoc.  No shoulders, but road was slow so cars worked with us.  Great Vistas too.   

Then came the decent…. First time I’ve been able to go above the posted speed limit (15-20 mph).  As  my sister Peg would say it was a WheeeHeeee ride down with all the switchbacks and stuff. 

When we got to the bottom of the hill, my bike was making noises, so when I looked at it one back rack bolt was missing from just below the seat, and the other was very loose.  A little backtracking….. there are some people that do these rides as minimalists.  They take bare essentials, and use credit card for dining and lodging…. Then there are others like me who take two kitchen sinks and a commode.  Fortunately, I had extra bolts for the rack so I replaced that and tightened up the other.  Of course what would be really nice would be a little LokTite…… oh yea, I had some of that and used it (non-minimalist)….but you have to read on later to see what else I am packing,

Then it was off across the flats to Guadalupe.  Alls I can say is HEADWINDS…….. We were going as slow as 7 mph on the flats ( we should be able to cruise at 12 to 14).  In Guadalupe, we stopped at the Falafel King for lunch.  Real nice lady from Lebonon took our order and Great Food!!!  Of course some of that might be after a steady diet of Cliff bars, anything tastes good.  But we got one falafel and one avocado pita sandwhich which we split,  with an order of fries and NO WIND!

I have a picture of Barb with her wind Dooo.

So we were about 10 miles from our Pismo Beach camp ground, when my bike didn’t feel right.  I started watching my wheel for the dreaded wobble and shore nuff, it was there….broken spoke on rear wheel.  And it was inside of the gear hub.  Middle of nowhere, but had an asphalt driveway we could pull off into.  Of course I had extra spokes, and you have to remove the gear hub….and of course I had the tools to remove the gears.  So spoke replaced now to true the wheel.  I have always had luck using a small screw drive taped to the frame to adjust the true.  You just assume the rest of the wheel is right and pull the wheel back inline with the rest of the wheel.  But I had two wobbles in the wheel….Uh Oh, another broken spoke this one on the other side of the wheel…….this gets better.

So to get the other spoke on, I had to remove the disc brake rotor.  Oops, it is torx, oh I just happen to have that size on my handy dandy alien all in one wrench.  So 1,2,3,4,5,6,…..came off easy, the last two wouldn’t.  about that time one of the owners on the driveway came home asked what we were doing when we told him he just said Bummer and went on his way.  So this time it was now or never, so I applied more torque to the wrench and….it twisted the end of the bit.  Oh Oh,,,, so it is no longer now, it is only never and on more attempt, It Came Off!!!!! Only one to go.  But alas and forlorn, it was  not to be, I finished off the wrench and while I was at it, I ruined the top of the bolt.  So it was back to Mr. bummer ,who it turned out had the name of Brian.  We tried his torx set, no luck bolt messed up too much, then we tried vice-grips, no luck.  PB Blaster, no luck.  The he said he could braise the wrench to the bolt as he had a TIG welder.  At this point I am thinking what the ‘ell, he had  said that the nearest accomodations was our campsite 10 miles ahead.  We packed the rotor and rubber seal with wet rags and off he braised.   It worked!!!!! I think the heat helped a lot.      

So spoke back on rotor back on (I had an extra bolt), and of course LokTite applied.  So now truing a wheel that is off in both directions…..how my going to do this.  My back was cramping from bending over and I wasn’t sure I had the patience to play with the wheel, and Then we met Howard…..

Howard pulls off the side of the road and says something about being from the same tribe.????  Me being hard of hearing and the word tribe being out of context, not to mention being pre-occupied with wheel wobble…. As I  came into mental l focus I translated, he was a biker too!!!!  In fact he had just helped support the Wildflower Classic Century the day before.   He asked if it was a flat and I explained that it was spokes and I potentially had a truing problem.    He then went on to say he lived a mile and a half up the road and he had a wheel truing stand and we could spend the night if we wanted to.  It was 5:30 and we still had a bike to finish repairing.  So I deeply pondered his offer for the better half of a millisecond and said Shore!!!!!!!  So we owe much to both Brian and Howard.  Howard got the wheel trued (actually a tool I don’t have….hafta look into that).  And we had a nice evening with Howard, ordered out pizza and talked biking among other things…

So off the next day, bought more spokes and two torx wrenches in San Louis Obisbo.

Here is a picture of Barb in her own personal dressing room (boy this California has everything….so accommodating).

Did I mention headwinds…..just like the books said, north to south, you are going the wrong way, oh well. We made it to San Simeon state park and well we slept….  Last pic of low clouds/fog...why did we leave seattle????

Next morning had a real breakfast and worked on the blog.  Need to get going have 40 miles to go with some headwinds (did I mention those) and monster hills.  

Adios  

 

 

 

 Well we stayed the night in Ventura then off to Santa Barbara and beyond.  it is just a kick riding along taking in the sites.  probably don't take enough pics, but what the hey.  not in the same league as Barb, but she gave me  the camera.  for those that don't know Barb, she took 2700 pics in one week in Italy on a bike tour.  on another tour, the Austrian guide informed her not to please take pictures while riding, but to stop.  He finally said "I cannot make her, but  she has been told."  We have a new miniature camera and when you try to take pictures with one hand while riding you invariably change the settings

We got to travel one 101 a couple if time (other wise known as the Ventura freeway.  got a new feeling about what an impulse engine is.   It is when a bunch of semis line up and pass you in a continuous motion.  Each one that passes gives you an impulse (also I might add pulls you to the freeway).  Soon you are traveling at 3-5 mph faster.  As we neared Refugio and we were at a rest break Barb said that she knew she was tired when she started wanting semis to pass.

I mentioned Barbs good friend Jacky before, well she has a sister that lives in Santa Barbara.  We had always heard of Tracy through Jacky and had actually met her briefly once.  Well she rode down to Carpenteria and met up with us at a bagel shop, then rode back giving us the grand tour.  (Not having to follow  maps is always a grand tour)She then met up with us again that night in Refugio State Park, on the ocean.  She just happened to have Thai food with a couple bottles of wine....I know, its a tough life, but some one has to live it.

 

Bird of Paradise in Santa Barbara.  My mom always had these and so did her mom

 Then we left Refugio and headed inland a bit.  We
 got to go up one hell of a grade, but before we did, we got to go through this tunnel and share it with semis.

Barb cranking up the grade













These things kept flying over while we were going up the grade.  Thermometer at 95 degrees.  luckily not vultures, and we didn't  lie down.




not sure about future posts for a while as we will be camping next four nights, and tethering to the phones is very slow at best. 

On another note a big thanks to our son David and his beautiful wife Kelsi, who followed our trip registration and bought us some very nice backpacking air mattresses.  After a long day in the saddle we sleep like babies.  Also a big thank you to Brent who gave us the Microsoft Surface that allows me to get all this blabbering to you!  Adios, good night and will try to post when we can...

 Well we stayed the night in Ventura then off to Santa Barbara and beyond.  it is just a kick riding along taking in the sites.  probably don't take enough pics, but what the hey.  not in the same league as Barb, but she gave me  the camera.  for those that don't know Barb, she took 2700 pics in one week in Italy on a bike tour.  on another tour, the Austrian guide informed her not to please take pictures while riding, but to stop.  He finally said "I cannot make her, but  she has been told."  We have a new miniature camera and when you try to take pictures with one hand while riding you invariably change the settings

We got to travel one 101 a couple if time (other wise known as the Ventura freeway.  got a new feeling about what an impulse engine is.   It is when a bunch of semis line up and pass you in a continuous motion.  Each one that passes gives you an impulse (also I might add pulls you to the freeway).  Soon you are traveling at 3-5 mph faster.  As we neared Refugio and we were at a rest break Barb said that she knew she was tired when she started wanting semis to pass.

I mentioned Barbs good friend Jacky before, well she has a sister that lives in Santa Barbara.  We had always heard of Tracy through Jacky and had actually met her briefly once.  Well she rode down to Carpenteria and met up with us at a bagel shop, then rode back giving us the grand tour.  (Not having to follow  maps is always a grand tour)She then met up with us again that night in Refugio State Park, on the ocean.  She just happened to have Thai food with a couple bottles of wine....I know, its a tough life, but some one has to live it.

 

Bird of Paradise in Santa Barbara.  My mom always had these and so did her mom

 Then we left Refugio and headed inland a bit.  We
 got to go up one hell of a grade, but before we did, we got to go through this tunnel and share it with semis.

Barb cranking up the grade













These things kept flying over while we were going up the grade.  Thermometer at 95 degrees.  luckily not vultures, and we didn't  lie down.




not sure about future posts for a while as we will be camping next four nights, and tethering to the phones is very slow at best. 

On another note a big thanks to our son David and his beautiful wife Kelsi, who followed our trip registration and bought us some very nice backpacking air mattresses.  After a long day in the saddle we sleep like babies.  Also a big thank you to Brent who gave us the Microsoft Surface that allows me to get all this blabbering to you!  Adios, good night and will try to post when we can...

I am going to try something new.  I will do this in Word and copy into the blog.  So, if you are not reading this, it didn’t work.  ok so you can read the blog, but processing pictures to thing is not easy with limited access and time thing maybe get the pics up later

Yesterday was Full!!!  Like 3 to 4 Adventures in one day.  We started out from MaryAnn’s house and headed up through Dana Point.  Saw our second day of dolphins…..  then it was cruisen until Laguna beach…..

Back up, when we first started planning this trip.  We were going to use our road bikes.  Then we decided to camp and gear started to add up…. Then we decided to do mtn bikes, but my front shocks were very soft.  I started to read up on the shocks and they say change oil once a season, which put me into a tail spin as I did not know how many years in a season…..so Chuck got a new bike.  Then a good friend of my neighbor Earl brought over some beautiful back paniers that he and his wife Joy used on their ride through Missouri (or one of those east coast states).  Which greatly helped and I thanked him lots mostly through our mobile communication device, Earl….

Onward to Laguna Beach, I decided to pull in and  wait for Barb and when I hit the bump my right rear panier fell off.  The hook that held the bottom of the panier to the bike broke.  It was at that time I wondered what kind of gear that friend Dave had given me.  I had just  happened to pull into the Village Mart on the corner of hywy 1 and laguna road (or something like that).  I showed the owner the broken hook and he rummaged around found a peg board hanger, gave me some pliers and told me I had enough things to fix my problem……so I did.  After that I was thinking Dave was still a very good guy, and life was good.

So off, we were surprised of the expanse of all the beaches.  Being a southern Cal guy, I had never seen the LA/Orange Co beaches.  We took time to do a little detour (we got lost).  The map we bought from Adventure Cycling seem to have a base map that was at least 20 years old.  They do say to check all the routes, but did I….’ell no!

For the most of the morning it was kind of a Wayne day, Wayne being a close friend that doesn’t like heat.  The morning weather was overcast with a constant spit.  Afternoon was sunny, which Barb and I have been looking forward to since our 32 degree ride on the Jan 1. 

We got unlost by getting back onto highway 1 that took us through the west LA area to Torrence.  Holy Crapola Batman!!!!!!  We wound up in an industrial/port area where we were rubbing bumpers with container trucks.  Whipeeee

Then on to Huntington beach and north to Santa Monica.  Beautiful stretch of beaches, non-ending.  We had gained 15 miles on our little side excursion, and what was supposed to be a long 80 mile day to Malibu, turned into a really long 95 mile (Barbs computer said 100 miles-don’t believe it  J).  The trail serpentined on the beach.  Since it was looking like a long day I offered her to go to the road which was straighter and no traffic.  She said no, she enjoyed the serpentine.

Thinking ahead, we called the RV campground (yes bikes are RV) to see if we should pick up groceries before we got there as we were coming in late, or if there were restaurants….sure no problems.  There must have been communication problem as the restaurants were closed and the store was back some three miles (big hill between).  As we were thinking oatmeal for dinner,  the wonderful lady mentioned that on the bulletin board there was a list of restaurants that delivered….YEEEAH, pizza to out delivered camp site!  I had to tell myself to slow down this thing is already dead…..i was just swallowing, not chewing!

Big thank you to Malibu Beach RV Park.  Not to mention the view from our camp site.  Also BIG SHOUT OUT to the southern Cal drivers, for the busy traffic that we got ourselves into, we did not have any problems and as far as we could tell everyone was courteous…..of course that is the nice thing about getting old, a lot that we don’t pick up on……  morning view from our camp site, tried to take one at night with the moon on the water, but don’t know how.  Wonderful day, and it seemed like 3 days in one.

I am going to try something new.  I will do this in Word and copy into the blog.  So, if you are not reading this, it didn’t work.  ok so you can read the blog, but processing pictures to thing is not easy with limited access and time thing maybe get the pics up later

Yesterday was Full!!!  Like 3 to 4 Adventures in one day.  We started out from MaryAnn’s house and headed up through Dana Point.  Saw our second day of dolphins…..  then it was cruisen until Laguna beach…..

Back up, when we first started planning this trip.  We were going to use our road bikes.  Then we decided to camp and gear started to add up…. Then we decided to do mtn bikes, but my front shocks were very soft.  I started to read up on the shocks and they say change oil once a season, which put me into a tail spin as I did not know how many years in a season…..so Chuck got a new bike.  Then a good friend of my neighbor Earl brought over some beautiful back paniers that he and his wife Joy used on their ride through Missouri (or one of those east coast states).  Which greatly helped and I thanked him lots mostly through our mobile communication device, Earl….

Onward to Laguna Beach, I decided to pull in and  wait for Barb and when I hit the bump my right rear panier fell off.  The hook that held the bottom of the panier to the bike broke.  It was at that time I wondered what kind of gear that friend Dave had given me.  I had just  happened to pull into the Village Mart on the corner of hywy 1 and laguna road (or something like that).  I showed the owner the broken hook and he rummaged around found a peg board hanger, gave me some pliers and told me I had enough things to fix my problem……so I did.  After that I was thinking Dave was still a very good guy, and life was good.

So off, we were surprised of the expanse of all the beaches.  Being a southern Cal guy, I had never seen the LA/Orange Co beaches.  We took time to do a little detour (we got lost).  The map we bought from Adventure Cycling seem to have a base map that was at least 20 years old.  They do say to check all the routes, but did I….’ell no!

For the most of the morning it was kind of a Wayne day, Wayne being a close friend that doesn’t like heat.  The morning weather was overcast with a constant spit.  Afternoon was sunny, which Barb and I have been looking forward to since our 32 degree ride on the Jan 1. 

We got unlost by getting back onto highway 1 that took us through the west LA area to Torrence.  Holy Crapola Batman!!!!!!  We wound up in an industrial/port area where we were rubbing bumpers with container trucks.  Whipeeee

Then on to Huntington beach and north to Santa Monica.  Beautiful stretch of beaches, non-ending.  We had gained 15 miles on our little side excursion, and what was supposed to be a long 80 mile day to Malibu, turned into a really long 95 mile (Barbs computer said 100 miles-don’t believe it  J).  The trail serpentined on the beach.  Since it was looking like a long day I offered her to go to the road which was straighter and no traffic.  She said no, she enjoyed the serpentine.

Thinking ahead, we called the RV campground (yes bikes are RV) to see if we should pick up groceries before we got there as we were coming in late, or if there were restaurants….sure no problems.  There must have been communication problem as the restaurants were closed and the store was back some three miles (big hill between).  As we were thinking oatmeal for dinner,  the wonderful lady mentioned that on the bulletin board there was a list of restaurants that delivered….YEEEAH, pizza to out delivered camp site!  I had to tell myself to slow down this thing is already dead…..i was just swallowing, not chewing!

Big thank you to Malibu Beach RV Park.  Not to mention the view from our camp site.  Also BIG SHOUT OUT to the southern Cal drivers, for the busy traffic that we got ourselves into, we did not have any problems and as far as we could tell everyone was courteous…..of course that is the nice thing about getting old, a lot that we don’t pick up on……  morning view from our camp site, tried to take one at night with the moon on the water, but don’t know how.  Wonderful day, and it seemed like 3 days in one.

 We got started!!!!!!  here we are in front of Pegs house t 7:30 in the morning.  Peg made me go across the street to get her neighbor who was leaving for work to snap the pic.

we were met by Pegs friend Kathy.  she took lots of photos, but I am still fighting Windows 8 (you know one swipe and everything changes....and how do I get that baack!!!) so might not get those up.  So expect things to be disjointed for a while(maybe whole trip)  as I wont have much time to publish and the formatting with pictures  is killing me.







Barb cranking up hill fully loaded
 Have to get pic of
                                               Tank Crossing

Add caption

This was a long 80 mile day about which we found out a few things while we pack all this gear.  Barb has accepted the fact tha at 100lbs less than me, she can't handle the same weight the same.  she did fine, but slowed down on small grades.  We had talked about this and decided that we would just buy a trailer for my bike.......not one to be had in So Cal!!!!! so looks like we will order one to be picked up at the REI in Marina, which is about 10 days out.  so we will just do for now.  barb can do it and it doesn't bother her, just slow....which means I get a lot of rest....

Once we arrived in San Juan Capistrano, we were met by MaryAnn and Bruce and there daughters and there families!!!  So it was a family evening with the relatives we don't get to see often (lucky for them).  Melissa greeted me with a glass of wine, so didn't get full dinner shot, just a few phne pics from Barb, but these are it

The beautiful meal my sister Mary Ann had for our arrival

x

with our nieces kids Austin and Gabriella

Amanda and Gabriella

Well you got the picks, hopefully I get better at this

back at it.  My friend Randy suggested that the photos are different formats from different devices and thus some of the formatting issues as far as tools work one some and not on others. so here we go.  one our day off (Tues 4/23) we went whale watching.  No whales but lots of dolphins so here are some pics:


Not a whale,  but lots of them flying in formation all the way up the coast

we probably saw a thousand of  these guys