SF:SD Carlsbad to San Diego

Yesterday I mentioned there were 36 restaurants near our hotel.  Well they were all full last night.  Our Mexican restaurant had a waiting line when we arrived and when we left.  But the shrimp Quesadilla's were to die for.

As we left Carlsbad this morning the beach was pretty much deserted; I guess the surf wasn’t up enough for the surfers. But there were plenty of people walking, running and cycling on the streets and paths above.

Before long we were once again in the fog.  It’s not supposed to be this way in Southern California.  The weather changed from fog to sun and back many times during the day.  When the sun was out it was hot – preparing us for the return to Texas?.  This was especially true during a 400 foot climb in a sunny canyon.

 

 

 

 

 

I had to stop in Encinitas when I saw this bike shop.  Alison, a.k.a. “Pink Lady”, this is for you.

 

 

 

 

 

In La Jolla we took a detour and stopped at a Starbucks.  Soon we were at the beach (photo below) in area with heavy pedestrian traffic.  Soon we realized this was not safe, so we detoured back to Mission Road.

There was an optional 10 miles, supposedly scenic, but with the fog we decided we’d forego it. Besides, we’d had enough cycling for in the past two weeks.

So we’ve ridden from San Francisco to San Diego.  The first half, to Santa Barbara, was certainly the most scenic part.  It would have been better without all the fog.  I wasn’t impressed with the second half. Not much scenery, female volleyball players notwithstanding.  And the traffic was more than you want on a bike tour.  The route keep taking us off Highway One to go through residential areas – or on bike paths.  But these were just diversions.  A really good bike route doesn’t require diversions.  We now know why many people only did the first half of the ride.

We had a few minor problems. My rear wheel disintegrated but we were a half mile from a bike shop so I had a new wheel in short order. The shop didn’t have wheels so they took one from a bike for sale. Fortunately for me it was a Trek shop because I like Trek’s Bontrager wheels.  And we had five flats, one on each wheel of both bikes and 2 on Brenda’s rear wheel. Two were caused by thorns, one a pebble (I think), one a torn valve stem (probably caused by me when inflating the tire) and one unknown.

The Pacific Coast Highway isn’t a real highway.  It’s made up of segments, primarily of Highway One in California (There’s a also a Pacific Coast Highway in New Zealand, which we’re ridden.)  Total segments of the California PCH are 655.843 miles.  My records show we rode 699 miles in the past two weeks so I guess we’ve ridden most of it.

I primarily write blogs when on bike tours.  The next planned tour is in Ireland in May 2013.