Epilogue

May 28, 2023

After my tire dip I booked a room at the nearest hotel, the Ocean Villa Inn, which was adjacent to the bike trail and Dog Beach. I stopped for a few cans of margarita mix and cold beer, and then pedaled to the hotel. Room #46 was on the second floor, and had a back porch that overlooked the path I had just come in on. My front tire and feet were still covered in sand. I took a shower and then sat out on the porch.

The next morning I enjoyed a humongous breakfast burrito from the airstream food truck out front. I stopped by the hotel lobby and paid for an additional night. I rode around Ocean Beach and enjoyed a street market. I went to Kilowatt Brewing where I sampled the Guava 250 KWH IPA. That evening I met up with my son's cousins Chloe and Dylan at Wonderland, where I enjoyed a few pints of Eppig 10:45 to Denver. We sat out on the westward facing balcony and had front row seats for the sunset, drum circle, and fire twirling.

My room wasn't available for a third night so I pedaled to the airport and picked up a rental car. I stopped at a Trek store for a bicycle box, and dismantled my rig in the parking lot. As I was driving to Los Angeles I learned that my friend Geoff and his wife Sarah were in 29 Palms near Joshua Tree. Geoff and I had gone to college together at the University of Iowa. I booked a cabin at the 29 Palms Inn and joined them.

The next day we went to the Integratron and then visited artist Andrea Zittel's cinder block structures in Joshua Tree. For dinner that night we went to the Red Dog Saloon. The following morning we had a delightful visit to Joshua Tree National Park.

On my drive back to Los Angeles, I stopped in Rancho Cucamonga to visit Caleb's other cousins, Melina and Jurney, along with their parents Guendalina and Anthony. I then drove to Woodland Hills where I met my friends Paul and Kelly. Paul and I used to do carpentry together in New York, and he was later featured for nine seasons in the reality television show 'Extreme Makeover Home Edition'. The three of us went to the Sol y Luna For dinner. I spent the following day with them, starting at Cafe 27 for breakfast. Paul baked two fantastic loaves of bread and we visited Cheesemongers of Sherman Oaks where I picked up three exquisite slices.

I drove up to Geoff and Sarah's compound in Topanga Canyon, and within minutes their dog Lenny had jumped up on the dining room table and devoured the cheese. My first night was spent in a small RV, which had once served as their son's bedroom. The second night I slept in their yurt. Geoff and I spent the afternoon walking along Topanga beach, and that evening I had dinner with Geoff, Sarah, Paul, and Kelly at Reel Inn, where I enjoyed IPA. I retired my sandals in Geoff & Sarah's garbage bin.

It was a routine rental car return at LAX and I luckily found a luggage cart on the curb. My bike box dimensions barely made the 126" cut. It was five pounds over the fifty pound limit and I had to pay an additional $100 overweight fee in addition to the $70 oversized baggage fee.

In conclusion, road cycling has become rather easy for me and this trip had no extraordinary challenges. I was faced with difficulty in Mexico this past January and I’ll be pushed to the limit later this summer in Kyrgyzstan. That said, I dealt with extreme heat and wind, and I had an opportunity to dial in my equipment list. My broken pump at the outset taught me a valuable lesson. The logistics of flying with, setting up, and then breaking down a bike have been well-rehearsed. I rode three centuries on this tour, and led the Century Plus Crew leaderboard for a week on Strava.

Five years ago I cycled the TransAm, and it changed my life for better or worse. Domestically I've now done four coast-to-coast crossings in addition to the Great Divide, the Western Express, the Erie Canal trail from Albany to Buffalo, NY (twice), the GAP/C&O from Pittsburgh, PA to Washington DC, and the Florida Keys by unicycle. I'm now looking abroad for my cycling destinations and have no more domestic aspirations at the moment.