The first day of our adventure started off before what many people, myself included, would call "morning." Sean was carried with the love and affection of the BWI shuttle from DC at 2:30 AM; Melina and I were driven with the more tangible love of my Dad at 3:30 AM. Like most flights, ours were uneventful and timely. Luckily we all slept for the majority though I think I took the title for most sleep.
We took a taxi to our bikes, which were generously put together by the folks at Pacific Bicycles. They were patient enough to allow our sprawl of clothes and bicycle paraphenalia across their store floor and offered some traveling advice. If you're ever in SF and in need of a tri rental, they are the place to go. They had racks on racks on racks of them.
After a few pit stops (Whole Foods, sports store) we took the picture that will serve as the left-most bookend of our journey: rear wheels dipped into the Pacific Ocean. We look brave, maybe a little foolhardy--exactly how a group of people should look who are about to cross the country. It's a good photo that I will share when we get a computer that has the appropriate receptor for my camera (sorry!).
Before we could cross the country, we had to cross the Golden Gate Bridge (cue Full House theme music). Unfortunately, it was crowded and kind of a mess to traverse via bicycle. It was definitely cool to see Alcatraz in the distance, especially after I had done some writing about that this past semester in regards to the Indian occupation in the early 1970s.
We collected 51 miles for the day, I believe, which mostly took us through the scenic marsh and low hillside land of Marrin County. There were lots of small villages that we meandered through that made the ride enjoyable. We ended our day in Nevado at an American's Best Value Inn. As perhaps you could guess from the name, that plan wasn't intentional. We had let too much of the day slip by before making sleeping plans (and complicated by our long long day of wakefulness) so we made a quick decision to splurge the $65 for a shower and beds.
Oh! A donated meal from Chianti made our stomachs happy. Plates were ~$16 but surprisingly there weren't many other patrons wearing spandex.
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