Day 1: San Francisco to Santa Cruz

We rode 80 miles today. It was a fantastic ride!! A little wet and foggy to start but it got a lot nicer the 2nd half of the day. I made really good time and finished by 1pm. There was a fantastic tailwind for the 2nd half of the ride that helped me finish 1.5 hours earlier than expected.

Now to relax and hang out with some new friends!


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Day 0: Orientation

Orientation went fairly smoothly. I got to the Cow Palace early and waited in line and made a few friends. The safety video was very funny and moving and featured Jane Lynch, Adam Lambert and many other celebs.

I asked around and found someone else who needed a tentmate and we clicked so we decided to tent together. I joined him for lunch and had a great time.

I'm ready to roll out from San Francisco tomorrow morning! The shuttle bus leaves my hotel at 4am and we ride at 6:30! Wish me luck!

I'm posting a lot more on facebook. Send me a friend request if you want to hear more and see photos!


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Location:Airport Terminal Rd,San Diego,United States

Getting on the plane

So I'm the Southwest plane from San Diego to San Francisco about to take off. I am taking a few days in SF before the ride to relax and visit some friends. It is going to be a challenge to get enough rest while in San Francisco as it's a fantastic and busy city!

I dropped off my bike at the shipping company today. It will be ready for me Sunday morning...


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Location:Airport Terminal Rd,San Diego,United States

Riding in AIDS/LifeCycle next week!

As many of you know, I will be riding 545 miles next week to raise money for HIV/AIDS research and programs. To help support me, visit http://www.normsoft.com/ALC

I plan to keep you all posted through my blog, so keep an eye out and send me encouragement along the way!


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Location:Zoo Dr,San Diego,United States

No TV...

Well, I failed to post about the rest of my road trip... Whoops.

I'm in San Diego now, finally settling in.

After ordering the basic furniture, I decided to skip the TV for now...  I think that technology is getting to a point where it's not really necessary.  The shows that I do watch on TV (House, Simpsons) are available on hulu.com for free or iTunes for a small charge.  I can't find American Idol anywhere legitimate, but it can be had from P2P networks if you're willing to deal with a delay.  Much of the Tour de France can be viewed online as well.  That's about all I care to watch.

I can still watch movies on my PC or Mac, and iTunes makes it really easy to buy/rent a movie and watch it right away.

I have found that I don't miss watching TV at all, and I've drastically cut down on the mind-numbing habit of staring at the tube whenever I have a few minutes lacking in entertainment.  I think this could work just fine for me.

New Orleans

Wow, New Orleans is crazy!  I wish we'd had more time to spend here, but I'm glad we took the two days that we did.

Even a month after Mardi Gras, Bourbon St. was lots of fun.  At 3pm, people were walking down the street holding several beers.  The bars had happy hours with 3 for 1 beers and drinks.  There are strip clubs, bars, restaurants, shops, and even a little gay bar section (that some people call the fruit loop, like in Las Vegas.  It supposedly includes the oldest gay bar in the country, Lafitte's).

Before coming to New Orleans, we stopped at the National Naval Aviation Museum for a few hours, looking at the impressive collection of restored planes, helicopters, and spacecraft.  It was something of a last minute stop for us, and I'm very glad we did!  If you have any interest in aircraft and you're in the Pensacola area, you owe it to yourself to see this museum.  It's free!

We arrived in New Orleans around 4pm and checked into our hotel, the Iberville Suites.  It's quite a new hotel, behind the Ritz Carlton.  The rooms were very reasonable for being so close to the downtown French Quarter in a very nice room.  My room had quite the view, but my father's looked out onto another wall of a hotel.

We walked around Bourbon St. for a few hours, taking in all the sights.  As it gets later, the bars and strip clubs get more and more aggressive trying to get you to come into their establishment.  And the patrons get more and more drunk, just as the police block off the road to all car traffic.  It's quite a scene, and we enjoyed it.  We ate dinner at a little restaurant in the middle of Bourbon St. with a balcony table, which was a great place to people-watch.  The food was decent; my first time trying catfish (at least in a long time).  I quite like it!

I ended up staying up pretty late the first night, and haven't been able to catch up on sleep yet.  I think I'll need a few days to recover!  Yesterday we took a great little bus tour of the city.  We visited a lot of the touristy areas and then went down to the 9th Ward to see the still-devastated houses from Katrina.  Then on to an above-ground graveyard, a public park and golf course (complete with an alligator-filled water hazard), the parade route, a ritzy, residential area, and then back to the hotel.

We enjoyed dinner at a seafood restaurant across the street from our hotel, Deanie's.  Apparently it's fairly popular.  The seafood was mostly deep-fried but was tasty and plentiful.

This morning we are off to Austin, TX for the next part of our journey.  The next few days are going to be pretty travel-intensive until we get to Arizona, where we'll get a few days' rest before crossing the Hoover Dam to Vegas.

Photos on Flickr

I'm posting photos from our trip on Flickr.