California Cushion Day and Recap

 Today is a cushion day, where I have nothing to do except pack the bike in a box to fly home tomorrow.

This used to be stressful and complicated before the days of Lyft and Uber. You'd have to get a cab to the airport, hope the cab shows up, and hope the bike box will fit in the cab. After Jim and I actually missed a flight because of cab chaos, Jim would always rent a minivan. on the day before we would fly out. Then we would drive to the bike shop to get boxes, and then drive to the airport with the bikes, which we would unload and I would watch them while Jim would return the rental minivan.

Today I just rode 3 1/2 miles to the bike shop on a beautiful morning, with a quick stop at Home Depot for packing tape.

One I have the bike box, I called Lyft for an XXL minivan, which arrived promptly and returned me, bike, and box to the hostel with no stress or fuss.

I had all afternoon to ride down to the beach at Ocean Beach.

Where I stuffed myself with seafood and tropical cocktails. Round 1 was cerviche and a Prickly Pear Mojito.

Round 2 was some calamari and a painkiller.

Then I rode back to the hotel and had a nice nap on the hammock.

In the late afternoon, I put the bike in the box. So easy.

My Lyft XXL minivan will be here at 8:00 AM tomorrow to take me 4 miles to the airport. My flight leaves at 11:30. The TSA lines are reported to be 30-45 minutes mid day, when the airport is not very busy.

The final numbers on this trip are about 850 miles of riding over 17 days, with 2 days off. About 150 of those miles were on the shoulders of interstates!

Lodging and eating out is very expensive here. I wound up spending about $150/day on the average, and that is with being very economical on the lodging by camping and staying in hostels (or AirBnB rooms in a shared house that function like a hostel). But this is worth it. Southern California is a very unique and memorable place to go on a  bike tour.

The lodging breakdown:
6 nights budget motels
3 nights camping
4 nights AirBnB (all bedrooms in a shared house)
5 nights hostels (4 of 5 private rooms due to bike security and shame about my snoring)