Tijuana, Mexico

Yesterday I went the 25.2 miles across the border to Mexico. I stayed
in Tijuana, which was wild. No border control whatsoever getting in,
so cool.

As much as I'd love to keep going, this is where I call it quits. This
trip has been 3 months 20 days, and 5204.4 miles I won't forget.
Thanks to everyone that checked in on me from time to time.

From here it's public transportation for me, making some stops along
the way. So the way back should be a little quicker.

Thanks again, later,
Mike

San Diego, CA

39.5 miles to San Diego. Thanks Matt for hooking me up with a place to
stay. Turns out I'm cat sitting for a friend of a friend of a friend.

Carlsbad, CA

93.6 miles. It's kind of sad, but this will most likely be my last
night camping. My 30 dollar tent worked like a champ.

Today the route I was following went through Pendleton Miltary Base.
Only the asshole at the entrance denied me cause I didn't have a
helmet. I guess he might not really be an asshole, he's just trained
to be an idiot.

Cause of that I did meet a bunch of kids in the same boat. They turned
out to be real cool, and when I ran into them again they gave me food.

San Pedro, CA and 5000+ Miles

58.2 miles to San Pedro Youth Hostel, which puts me at 5046.1 miles.

Manhattan Beach

This one's for Dan and Danny.

Pasadena, CA

27.5 through LA to stay at my friend Tara's in Pasadena. Only she
isn't here. I met her roomate Darren in Berkeley and he let me crash.

Hollywood!

Yep.

Bike Fixed, California Vegan

Got my bike fixed up as good as I could hope for, it should make it.

Found California Vegan, a badass veg place.

Thanks Carrie

So the place I got to stay at last night was actually a UCLA frat
house that the frat got kicked out of. Only a couple people were
students.

But they still had some rules, so I couldn't crash on the couch but I
could sleep in a hammock on the front porch. Ha.

Slept great though, thanks Carrie.

Los Angeles, CA

68.2 miles.

My luck has run out. Flat and I busted a spoke, went through hell to
fix it and then busted another. Decided to just ride it like that and
now my wheel's all out of whack. But I made it to LA and with the help
of warmshowers I have a place to stay.

Tommorow I'm just shooting for Pasadena to stay with friends of a
friend. So I'll have time to deal with my bike, maybe my phone, and
see some tourist stuff.

And I found 5 dollars.

It's a Surrey

Seriously. Who wants to crew one of these badboys. Imagine this on a
real deal trip. People could rest well others pedaled. You could trip
it out with a radio and a cooler.

Who's down?

Ventura, CA

Yesterday rode with those dudes 85.4 miles to Ventura, CA.

Another flat. My phone's been giving me guff, not wanting to charge
all the time. Good news is I found my lock at the bottom of my bag.
Nobody steal my bike.

Lumpoc, CA, Free Lunch, Lost Lock

Passing through Pismo Beach, this guy I rode along with a little ways
bought me lunch, cashew tofu.

I met back up with the guys i thought were Canadians and that I
thought had my lock. They didn't. Free lock at Moro Bay State Park
hiker site. Combination (FOUND IT!).

71.6 miles to Lumpoc, CA. Camping with those dudes.

Daylight

Last nights campground was much nicer when I could see it.

Left my lock there. Hoping the Canadians picked it up and that I run
into them again and I get it back. I got high hopes.

Morro Bay, CA

Just made it back to the coast and well south of the fires. I slept
late and doing 96.8 miles left me riding in the dark on roads with no
lights. It was fun. Since I was going to have to setup camp with a
flashlight either way I stopped at this place for food.

Two guys from Canada that I met a couple days ago were sleeping when I
got to the park.

King City, CA

71.3 miles to King City, CA. The detour turned out to be pretty nice.
Mostly farms.

I pulled a huge thorn out of my tire today which slowly went flat. I
have been lucky so I wasn't too upset.

This camp has no biker site so we'll see if I get stuck with the 25
dollar fee or not.

Monterey, CA

44.6 miles to Monterey. Some beaches some farms. Lots of people biking.

Looks like tomorrow I have to start a 150 mile detour around the wild
fires out here. Which means I miss Big Sur and some of the coolest
part of the entire coast. But what can I do if it's on fire?

Santa Cruz, CA

54.3 miles to Santa Cruz. Another great ride. Tons of surfers. And I
spotted some dolphins.

Staying with friends of Jasmine's, Lisa and Rocky. Much thanks.

Half Moon Bay, CA

25.1 miles to camp at a "hiker/biker" site at Half Moon Bay Beach.

The Other Coast

I'm just getting started heading west and the views are already wild.
You can just make out route 1 on the left, which is basically what I'm
taking all the way to Mexico.

Jasmine

I got pretty comfortable in San Fransisco, and it was tough to get
back on the bike.

Golden Gate

It has been amazing out here. The weather is always perfect, the food
is unbelievable, and Jasmine has been a blast to hang out with.
Planning on staying through the weekend but it's coming to fast.

Happy 4th, maybe we'll go watch the fireworks.

San Fransisco, CA

So I made it to the Pacific Coast. Today me and Jasmine rode 29 miles
out to and around San Fransisco. Went on the Golden Gate Bridge,
dipped a toe in the pacific, and got to see more of the city.

It feels great to have made it here. But I'm still planning on going
down the west coast from here after a little break.

Oakland, CA

90.7 miles to Oakland, CA. Which is basically San Fransisco! I'll ride
out to the coast tomorrow.

Staying here with Jasmine from back in Philly who is now from Oakland.

Davis, CA

59 miles to and around Davis, CA. Extremely bike friendly city.

Staying with a friend here. Thanks Ali, Lina, Cat, and Michelle for
letting me stay. Had a blast meeting you all and watching youtube.

Sacramento, CA

Passed through on my way to Davis.

Bike paths, palm trees, Capitol building, new charger, post office and
Chinese food.

Folsom, NV

Can't talk. Left charger in Reno.

104.8 miles (new record) to Folsom.

Camping were I shouldn't.

Woodfords, CA

63.4 miles to Woodfords, CA. Camped free at Crystal Springs national
park.

I don't think I'm that close to the wild fires in California. But the
whole area has been smoked out. Everyone was talking about it in Reno.
You could even smell it there.

California

Leaving Reno late yesterday, I was planning on staying another night
in Nevada, since thanks to Barry I had someone to stay with in Carson
City. But I couldn't handle being that close to the border.

Lame sign on the back road I took.

Reno, NV

37.5 miles down the freeway to Reno. Got here way early to check the
city out.

Got a room for 35 bucks at The Heart of Town. And some guy just walked
in, I figure he had the wrong room or the wrong motel. But he's key
worked no problem. Ha. Got to love it.

Fernley, NV 4000+ Miles!

I started going off route to pass through Reno. 75.7 miles to Fernley,
NV, putting me at 4058.8 miles pedaled.

Chris decided to stay on track. It was cool riding with someone but
somethings are good about going alone. Anyways, I'm sure we'll meet
again since we are going the same way, at the least in San Fransisco.

The ocean is getting closer but I'm pretty much settled on doing the
pacific coast now for sure.

Camping at an off route town park always makes me feel like a hobo,
which I'm not cause I have a bike.

Salt Flats

Doesn't it look like snow?

Population 12

It's nice here in Middlegate. The people here are down to earth and
it's real laid back, not like those triple digit population cities.

Middlegate, NV

62.9 miles to Middlegate, NV, population 17. They have bar and a tree
full of shoes.

Hoping to camp behind the bar.

Women's

They have weird storms out here and the clouds looked bad last night.
So we crashed in the bathroom at the rodeo.

It was alright, but the room service sucked.

Austin, NV

71.7 miles to Austin, NV.

I rotated my tires cause I wore my back tire down so bad you can start
to see threads.

Camping at the rodeo.

Eureka, NV

77.2 mile haul to Eureka, NV. Met this dude Barry riding from San
Fransisco to Denver. Super cool.

Town had an indoor pool and showers. And we are all camped out in the
town park behind the town Casino. They also had a old operea house we
checked out.

Jackpot!

I won $3.25 playing video poker at the Hotel Nevada. In it's prime it
was the tallest building in the state. Today the Hotel Nevada serves
this town of 5000 folks 99 cent margaritas 24 hours a day.

Personal Tour of Ely, NV

61 miles of nothing but one bar that was closed.

Chris is a scout in Germany and arranged to meet up with some here.
The guy bought us diner and gave us the grand tour. Then he showed us
to a park we could camp at and checked in with the cops for us. Very
cool.

Try Your Luck

...and get some bread.

You gotta love playing video poker at a grocery store.

Sister's Riding

We met two sister's riding west to east last night. One lived in
Brooklyn! Had fun.

Nevada!

82.6 miles of heat to Baker, NV.

Day started off back in Milford at 3 am when a sprinkler started
blasting. I had to abandon tent and spent the rest of the morning on a
picnic table.

Aside from that the day was hot and baron. Except for an abandoned
farm house we took a pit stop at.

Now in the last timezone. Camping free behind the lectrolite
restaraunt and tapping in on some wifi thanks to the Happy Burro.

Blades

This is the guy Joe who's roller blading across the country. All his
stuff is in that cart that he has to push along. This is an absolute
mad man. Very cool.

Milford, UT

Who knew the desert would be so deserted? I heard I could be without phone service for almost a week. So I can only post photos if I find some wifi, or I can make text posts like this with a wired computer.

So, today's 52.3 miles to Milford, UT was a breeze. The stops for the next week are probably going to be the only towns along the way. The no service stretches are like 60-80 miles, I know tomorrow is 84 miles from town to town. But whatever. I say bring it on!

More importantly I met a dude roller blading across the country today. Wild.

Great Scott!

As you can see I fashioned my tshirt into a headband to protect my
ears from the sun. (they're looking like beef jerky) Later on I will
use duct tape to fashion it back into a shirt.

Cedar City, UT

62.5 miles today. One huge climb, one huge drop. Pretty sure it was
the second highest elevation of the trip.

Got some bad info off the maps as well as google, and got stuck at a
KOA with their outragous fees. But spliting with Chris makes it not so
bad. Plus they have 4 dollar all you can eat pancakes so in the
morning I'm going to do my best to get my money's worth.

Smokey

67.4 miles today to the Hitch n' Post campground in Panguitch, UT.

There is a cat here that looks just like my grandma's cat. And get
this, they are both named Smokey!

Also out of curiosity I added up my grand total miles. So far I've
pedaled 3513.2 miles from Coney Island.

Red Canyon Bike Path

This was an absolute pleasure to cruise through. At times it was far
enough away from the road that you couldn't even hear the cars. There
were views of tunnels through mountains. My only complaint was that it
only lasted about 4-5 miles.

Desert Chicken

I'm not sure at what point camping with a chicken became not so unusual.

Esvalante, UT

52.1 of some of the most extreme miles yet. Camping with Chris in
Escalante, UT.

The photo is of a ridicules road we took. I kept laughing at how much
of a joke it was to be there on a bike.

The Hogback

This is a strip of highway along a ridge with steep drops on either
side into canyons. Terrifying.