and more pixs

more pixs

Day 1 pixs...

Day 1....rough...naturally.

Day 1
A very frustrating 30 miles....and a very redundant 30 miles at most.

A long busy travel day. Drove from Crozet to Ric airport at 4am and didn't get to San Francisco until high noon (pacific time). Got very little sleep on flights to say the least and only managed to snag a bag of trail mix the entire day....oh yeh and half of a Subway sub...which = nothing.

Once I reached the airport I took the BART to Oakland to fetch my bicycle. Thank goodness it was there and well tended too with no issues to report. I assembled it infront of the Amtrak before heading back across the bay and in search of the infamous Golden Gate Bridge.

All i can say is that San Francisco is one awesome town! I was not expecting such variety in architecture, colors, and energy of the place. Nor was I expecting such breathtaking scenery right in the bay area...nor was I expecting to see the real deal Alcatrez island.

I then got lost through the city streets of San Francisco.
I am fried right now...not from sunburn but from exhaustion.
It's always a hard transition into a bicycle touring lifestyle and trying to find ones way around via bicycle through a busy busy city ain't easy.

Anyways, here's hoping for more great weather tomorrow as I move away from this city and more towards the infamous Pacific coast and down Highway 1.

I am fried and going to sleep in Daly City.

This time tomorrow.....

This time tomorrow I'll soon be touching down in San Francisco Int'l Airport.

Can't believe my departure date has approached so fast.

As with every trip there are such a rollercoaster of feelings and questions that roll through my mind.

Am I prepared well enough? is the route I mapped out realistic for the alloted amount of time? will my bicycle get there in one piece? etc etc.

It's like this before every bike trip I find and usually by the second day or say I start to find a rhythm and seem to shed the comforts and routines of "civilized" lifestyle and transform into someone that lives and adapts to the surroundings and landscapes around me.

A chameleon of sorts.

Been reading the book "The Anza Trail" and it's very inspirational as to what those folks back in the late 1770s were able to accomplish without any roads or maps of how to get from southern Arizona to San Francisco.  Add on the constant threat of Apache ambushes and slow progress through the deserts and unpredictable, and often time brackish and unsuitable, drinking water.

Anyways, just woke up after working three nights of night shift, so if this blog post portrays itself as a bunch of rambling and incoherent sentences, then it prob is (esp seeing I don't proofread prior to clicking the "post" button).

I'm ready to start and very, very excited to explore so much new territory.  Who knows what and who I'll meet along this 1,100 mile journey through such varying terrain.

That's the beauty of travel by bicycle I reckon....

Plane leaves tomorrow at 0700 from Richmond.

Time to tie up any remaining loose ends......

Bicycle Shipped...one week until I am.

Dropped my bicycle and gear off at the Amtrak station in Charlottesville.  

Of course it took two hours between explaining to the desk clerk what I was having done, where I needed bicycle box to go, when I needed it to be there by....by the end of it all he discovered that there is no Express Amtrak shipping to any station in San Francisco.

Blargh!

He gave me the phone number to Greyhound and suggested I try having them ship it to San Francisco.  I hauled the cumbersome box out to the car again and called up Greyhound to find it would take 7-10 days to get the bike box out there.

No thanks.

After a second round of discussing options with the desk clerk behind the Amtrak counter we concluded that shipping to Oakland, CA would be the next best thing.

And so it was settled.  

It should only take 4-5 days, perfect, and only cost $60.00 to ship.

Fortunately, San Francisco has something called the BART (Bay Area  Rapid Transit, very similar to metro system).  Judging from the maps it shouldn't be too hard to get from the airport and across the bay to Oakland Amtrak station, pick up bike box, take the BART back to Golden Gate bridge area and start the journey.

Of course, things are always appear easier in writing.

Just 5 days or so until I fly from Richmond to San Francisco.

My legs are getting restless to get this trip going....

Anza Trail...who knew?

Well, was flipping through a book of maps/trail in America and saw that the route I have planned out follows nearly most of what is known as the Juan Bautista de Anza Historical Trail.

I did some online research and found a book on amazon.com about it. Ordered it today and hope to read it a little before and during bike trip.

Rather than type about the significance of the trail I'll just post a link from the park service about it.  

Cool stuff to say the least.

http://www.nps.gov/juba/planyourvisit/index.htm