California Day 1

Sarah and I didn't roll into our final destination last night until after 9:00 PST. It was a long day. First, we had the five hour drive to Detroit. Next up was the almost five hour flight to San Diego. Finally, we got a shuttle to our rental car and made it to Sarah's brother's house in another half an hour. We ended up with close to twelve hours door to door, and I was beat. But not too beat to stay up and have a couple of beers with Sarah's brother and his wife. This morning I got up and had a nice big breakfast with the family. I got my bike together and did a little test spin up and down the street with Sarah's niece. I'm not sure she'll make the jump to the big leagues of Team Terpening or not, but she's giving it a shot.




After my test ride with little Rowan, I headed out for a proper spin to make sure I had reassembled the bike properly. I cruised down to the Pacific Coast Highway from Sean's house and headed south. It is utterly astounding to come out here and ride the road bike. For starters, there's the traffic. Imagine Shore Drive with four lanes for cars, a bike lane on either side of the road, traffic lights and stop signs, and about 1000 times more traffic. Fortunately, there are also literally hundreds of other riders out on the road enjoying the nice weather and wonderful views. The cars almost have no choice but to share the road, and they do. While it's plenty nerve racking to have to move across two lanes of traffic to get in the turn lane, the drivers are so used to cyclists they actually pay attention. Anyway, I had a good ride.

Garmin Connect -
Activity Details for
Encinitas to Del Mar and Back

After the ride and a shower, the whole family (Myself, Sarah, Sean, His wife and two kids) headed down to Juanita's Taco Stand for lunch. After refueling on chicken tacos (for me) and the like, we headed up to Carlsbad for a walk on the beach. It was nice. But to be honest, I like our beach better. We have a lot less people and a lot less salt. It was still nice though.




Tomorrow I'll probably ride a little further south to Torrey Pines. Then I'm planning on tackling Mt. Palomar either Tuesday or Wednesday before we start heading north on Thursday. Hope all is well in the north. Over and out.