The Road Goes Ever Ever On

Kenton's Tree Puddle
Picture

Update for the trip. We are in Sausalito headed towards the Golden Gate Bridge and beyond. Along the road we saw a library and decided to a stop so Kenton could get some homework done. I am amazed by him. Taking classes and coming out here. He is a joy to have and always finding beauty around us. He took a picture today and I was wondering what he was doing, he showed me how beautiful the reflection of a tree was in this puddle that just looked like a muddy birdbath to me. It is good to have him.

We aren't going nearly as fast as we expected. There are a few reasons. Our backpacks are heavier than we thought they would be, and most of our training was done with no backpack. Without a pack you can get a really good workout if you board 10 miles in an hour. With a fifty pound backpack you move a bit slower and mile 30 really starts to get you. Another thing is one mile on the map means something totally different than another mile on the map. What I mean is that there are a lot of hills...scary ones...on narrow roads...windy narrow roads. Therefore we are doing a lot more walking than we expected and this slows us down. Blessedly, we seem to hit a five mile stretch each day where it is open and flat and we can really fly down the hill! It is glorious to see the terrain and travel. Breaks are nice, but it feels so good to get moving and traveling. That is the best part. So it is slow going, but it's wonderful.

Approaching the Golden Gate

Injuries! Nothing severe so far. Kenton had a fall the first day. He was going down a hill, got some speed wobbles and was thrown from his board. I wish I caught it on video. He's doing fine, just a rip in his shirt and some dings on his leg. I fell the second day. We were going along and a very large truck ran me off the side of the road. I tried to move but there was a barrier, I crashed into it and, thankfully, fell underneath it and stopped. Kenton said the truck went about five miles an hour and gave him 10 feet of space when it passed him up the road. I think the driver felt bad. As he should.

So we are safe and doing well. Thank you all for your prayers which protect us. We can feel them. We've run into a lot of fun people. Bikers going for rides. We ran into a road worker twice already. Once while he was out working and this morning when we were sitting on the road eating breakfast. Talking to others is the best thing about the trip, right up there with being on the road.

One last story. We were riding along and it was getting dark so we needed a place to stay. We pulled off and tried to look into the woods and found ourselves in people's backyards. There was no place to be found. We asked a few people if we could stay in their front yard, just lay down and sleep (we were getting desperate), and they said no, which was okay with us because we felt really bad asking. Riding further we found a 7-11 and bought a map (our previous map idea didn't work, so yes it is our first real map of the trip) and tried to figure something out. We saw a fire station and I remember Caleb Childs told me that they got lots of help from the firemen along the way. I ran over and asked advice. They were very helpful and printed off a map leading to a campground about a mile or so away. Kenton and I raced against the sunlight to make it. It got too dark to stay on the road and so we just ran into the woods, threw down a tarp and our bags and went to sleep. After a less than comfortable night we awoke to find ourselves laying in a poison ivy patch, which we miraculously were safe from due to the tarp. We woke up, brushed our teeth at the 7-11 and went on the road.

What....an adventure.