Day 1, 2010

Oakland CA. Saddled up and rode away with all our 09 gear plus new pedals, new brakes, and four of my folks' garden tomatoes. Somewhere near Jack London Square, having biked 20-25 blocks, dude asked whether we were on a long trip. I shrugged and said, 'yeah'. That was the correct answer, I beleive. Noon ferry to Market Street SF, wind on the water, downtown, hills, emergency brakes, eucalypti, panhandle, messenger bags, kites, golden gate park, a woman's monotone voice broadcasting into an empty firetruck, 100 bundles of metal fence ready to be erected for Outside Lands, double-wide strollers, the windmill tulip garden, persons taking pictures of people, slippery sand on smooth cement, sweaty sunscreen, litter, fog battling sun, and the Pacific Ocean. we turned left and headed south, with the wind. hitchhikers, zoo, broken glass, devil's slide at rush hour (oops, somehow the one thing we tried to avoid), muscles waking up, windsocks, downhill, cantaloupe juice, chile rellenos, and an icy-aired sunset. camped on the beach in half moon bay next to a crazy Polish lady and a couple who had biked the whole west (left LA in April) and were on their homestretch south. The Polish lady proselytized (do you beleive in god. i'm gonna live forever.) and spoke in toungues to feral cats, who fed and slept in her tent, and the couple mostly giggled in their tent, so we minded our own business. Back on a hill in San Francisco, something happened that never happened last year - I hit deck. It was such a geographically-specific wipeout. Front tire stuck in a cable-car track, with no room to turn hard either direction, there's only one way for momentum to deal with your body. Fly you off the bike. There was a convenient little area for me to crash, in between taxis, so aside from the scrapes, everything was fine.