100 Days on the Road

I have now been on the road for more than 100 days and a lot has changed since day one.  I started out this trip naive and expecting to push hard everyday.  You will grow very tired of cycling with an attitude like that and your friends will grow very tired of you as well.  A wise women once said,"Stephen, live in the moment."  If you are always worried about the next destination you wont give yourself the chance to be happy.  I proved to myself when I reached San Francisco in nine riding days from Eugene that I can physically do what I thought I set out to do, but with two months left and only 1,500 miles to go I can't more that afford to take my sweet time.

In San Francisco I met up with Joost and Michiel from cycleforwater for a charity ride and tour through the city.

With them now is a guy named Ryan Prizio who they met after we separated in Portland.  Ryan started in Connecticut and cycled cross country to Florence Oregon and is now riding with Joost and Michiel down to Argentina.  Ryan is cycling for Multiple Sclerosis and actually doing the world tour, so when he reaches Argentina he will ferry over to South Africa and cycle up Africa, across Europe, Asia, New Zealand and Australia.  

The tour was amazing, I'm so glad that I had the chance to see the city from a real locals perspective.  Arush taught us the history of the different parts of the city focusing mainly on the Mission and the Castro districts.

It San Fran I also met up with Devon and Jessica to celebrate Jessica's birthday! I met them in Tok, Alaska during week one with the Fargonauts.  I plan on joining them along with Joost and Michiel for the Mexico portion of the journey.

Team Protein! 

I reunited with Micheal, Fumie, and Miles while checkin out the night life in the Bay Area.  It was so awesome cycling with you guys!  I will miss you so much!  Tour De Surf 2012!

I left San Francisco on the 10th of October with Michiel, Joost, and Ryan.  We cycled out with a Livestrong  charity ride called "Chasing Daylight" that is sponsored and organized by KPMG.

Thanks so much to Heidi and Martin my amazing warmshowers hosts who took great care of me in San Francisco!

Eelco Schot (the king) (right) is an old friend of Joosts who is joining us from San Francisco to LA and then flying back home to the Netherlands.  Here we are at the end of the Livestrong ride, it was great to ride unloaded for change.  I'm sure we could have been some of the first finished but those free lunch stops held us back quite a bit. :)

The next day we set out for Santa Cruz and on the way we met Jobst Brandt who is a world acclaimed bike mechanic who studied mechanical engineering at Stanford.  You can find loads of information about him if you search his name.

We made it to Santa Cruz in beautiful time and in beautiful weather.  Joost and Michiel had an interview with student Jocelyn and she was kind enough to let us all stay at her home for the evening.  Thanks for everything Jocelyn, we hope to see you in LA for the ride to San Diego!

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The day we left Santa Cruz we only biked about 15 miles out to a campground that was down the road from Calfee Designs where Michiel and Joost's bamboo bikes were getting worked on.

Calfee Designs provides African workers with low cost supplies and the knowledge to build and sell their own bamboo bikes.  Calfee will then purchase the bike frames and sell them to any buyer.  Here is a photo of Craig Calfee himself testing the strength of a frame that was built in Africa and was about to be shipped off to the buyer here in the U.S.

Michiel with his newly bamboo reinforced back wheel. No more broken spokes, knock on wood!

Normal.

We left Calfee and cycled out to Carmel to a beautiful home on the hillside.  The home belonged to an importer named Peterson.  The house was filled with Oriental and Middle Eastern art.  All of the walls and pillars inside the home were covered in wood designs that had been hand carven in Asia.  We had a wonderful dinner and campfire in the surreal environment. Here we were fortunate enough to meet Ross Evans, one of the founders and creators of Xtracyle.

Ryan Prizio very happy to be eating an amazing meal prepared by our gracious host!

For several days we cycled through cold fog and rain on the Californian coast. Nights were spent in unwelcoming vista points and on abandoned roads.

A fire on the beach is a great luxury after a damp and cold day of cycling.

 In Santa Cruz I fell into a Martin LXM half size guitar which is the perfect size for the road.  So I shipped home one of my rear panniers and built a wooded rack for it on the back of my bike.  

Elephant Seals right off the highway on the beach!

Cold bean sandwich breakfast! Its delicious and a great way to budget your trip!

We cycled out of the fog just long enough to cross Bigsby Bridge it good weather and gorgeous scenery.

Today has been the first with decent weather in quite a few days.  We cycled off the coast avoiding the 101 freeway for an incredible ride through wine country.  

Tonight we will camp out behind the Saarloos and Son's Winery with Devon and Jessica from thescrimshawproject.com!