Day Forty Nine

And so the adventure comes to a close. We rode 74 miles from San Bernandino, CA to Venice Beach in Los Angeles, CA.

It was really a spectacular last day. It wasn't too hot or too windy. We had good roads all day through the suburbs of L.A., and we had bike lanes for a goog portion of the day. We rode fast, leaving the motel this morning at about 8am. We got burgers for lunch, but made it quick so we could keep going.

Riding through the city was really cool. Los Angeles seems like a really cool town and I wish I could have seen more of it.

With about 9 miles to go, we stopped for a bathroom break, and to buy paper and champagne. We only found paper. So we stopped again, but this time found only champagne. Finally we found a bathroom about 5 miles from the beach. From there we went at a dead sprint. We started recording, and got a great video.

Highlights of the video include lots of yelling and trying to make red light turn green, Jason's friend Sam (who we're staying with tonight) rolling up alongside of us, and we almost getting hit by a car. At that point nothing could stop us. We rolled onto the beach, ditched the bikes, and ran to the Pacific Ocean. After basking for a minute or two, I took off my shoes and put my camera in safe place. I went for a swim, and enjoyed making it all of the way across the country.

Eventually we went back to the bike and met Sam and her friend. We took tons of pictures and had a blast. We popped champagne and finally got to lift the bikes over our heads in triumph. It was surreal to actually finish the trip. It was an abrupt ending. We basically rode until we ran out of country to ride across.

From the beach we took a ride to a bike shop in hopes of getting boxes. They didn't have any, but the second shop did. After some logistics, we decided to strap the boxes to the roof and ship the bikes early in the morning before our flight.

After a quick ride down Sunset Boulevard, we went back to Sams and showered and snacked. We decided on mexican for dinner, so we headed out to some restaurant. After we ate, we took a long driving tour of the city, which was great. We got to see the Hollywood sign; it wasn't lit up so we couldn't get a picture, but we can still say that we've seen it! We got a bit lost, as Sam only moved here about a month ago, but it was a great time nonetheless.

Tomorrow: Home.