The San Francisco treat...

Don't fear my friends...we aren't dead!
As some of you may have guessed from my posts on Facebook, we ARE in San Fran and YES we hitched here.  We were in Garberville, a weirdo hub of northern Cali and we just needed to get out.  We got just outside of city limits and decided to thumb a bit to see how far we could get.  After 40 minutes of really trying to get a ride we had all but given up until Mike the friendly (see: Creepy) truck driver pulled over and helped us out.

I don't know why, but the map always centers on Wyoming.  Click and drag it to the right to see our progress
View Ride a Damn Bike in a larger map

Turned out ol' Mikey was haulin' a load to L.A. and we could hitch with him to just about anywhere.  Our original goal was just to get to Legett where the 101 turns into the 1, but hell, it took us a good 30 minutes to load ourselves and our shit onto that truck so why not take us where we really wanted to go...SAN FRANCISCO??! We really deliberated for a while before we decided that yes, we did in fact want to drive 200 miles with a weird truck driver to San Fran.  It was pretty cool to be honest. I'd never been in a semi truck before.  They are smaller than they look, at least this one was.  It had the drivers seat and the passenger seat, which were quite cramped, but it also had a sleeper cab with storage and a bed, but no windows so when you were back there it was anyones guess at the scenery you were missing.  We all took turns in the front, battling with Mike's need to talk non-stop, I mean I can't blame him, he must get pretty bored driving 16 hours through the state, but still...let up a bit man. I was up there for a solid 2 hours...all the way through wine country and I'm not so sad we drove through it...it literally smelled like wine the whole way through, it was beautiful though.  From the seat of a car you drive these stretches that feel impossible on a bike, but when you're actually biking it, it feels like any other way is just wrong.  It was with much regret that we didn't actually bike it, but oh well...cuz we're HERE!!

 It was a culture shock to say the least.  At first you hit the outer suburbs and are accosted by the smell of fast food, grease and garbage.  I completely forgot what it was like to be in a large city.  This whole trip it's been tiny town after tiny town, but this was a full on assault to the senses coming down into Oakland....oh wait...I didn't tell you the best part.  Mike wasn't actually going into San Fran because we got of the 101, had we stayed on it we would have ridden right over the Golden Gate into San Fran, but time is money and we got onto a bigger freeway so he could just blow through...meaning we got dropped off LITERALLY on the side of the freeway in Oakland/Berkeley...we're not super sure where, but it was loud, it was dirty and it was freaky as hell.  We put our bikes back together and walked out bikes around a cloverleaf to get off the freeway (I mean the guy gets off the freeway twice to take a piss, but can't let us off at a proper exit?) Then we bike faster than I've ever biked before over a bridge with NO BIKE LANE OR SHOULDER and attempt to find our way to the BART station, which is the bay areas subway.  We had to take an elevator down the platform one at a time because they don't make the elevators very big, get on a train that isn't well equipped for fully loaded touring bikes, only to realize we took the wrong train and have to go back to where we started, transfer, take several more tiny, pee smelling elevators before we are dropped off in downtown San Francisco, at which point we have to bike to the Western Addition neighborhood of San Fran to Kyle, Lani's boyfriends, house.  With a bit of magic and my iPhone we made it.

We lugged our bikes up the steps and through his house to the "backyard", it's in quotes because yard would indicate that there is grass, something this area was lacking...it was a back slab...as in concrete slab, a very angled one at that.  Me and Tamara set up the tent and felt happy at knowing we could settle in for a few days.  Kyle and his roommates had some extra blankets and an extra sleeping pad that made the tent extra cozy and you could hardly tell we were sleeping on the hardest campsite to date.  I was feeling really tired, but definitely excited for what the next few days would bring.  My happiness bubble would soon be popped.  Kyle's roommate has a dog and despite being told that this dog comes off aggressive, but is actually harmless, ol' Kujo had his eye on Marge.  First he bit me on the arm, not breaking the skin, but leaving a gnarly bite shaped bruise on my arm.  I shrugged it off and assured the owner that I was fine and probably just scared the dog, no biggie.  Let me mention here that this dog is half black lab, half pitbull, in other words no fucking joke and despite my cool demeanor, I was pretty scared of this thing and not super keen on it just wandering around me all willy nilly. After some more casual conversation and food eating I excused myself to go into the back "yard" and go to bed, at this point Jango, that's the dog, gets all worked up AGAIN and bites me in the ass, this time breaking the skin and pissing me the fuck off. In less than 20 minutes that dog bit me twice, and the owners response is sheer dumbfoundedness, he just CAN'T BELIEVE his dog would do this.  I mean, it's totally normal for him to posture at people aggressively and growl, but NOT TO ACTUALLY BITE?? Bullshit...I found out later that the dog has bitten numerous people and that the owner must have a huge case of denial.  Despite all that I kept reassuring the owner that I was fine and that I'd be OK and that it'd be best if he just kept the dog away from me if that was possible.  The next morning I wake up, walk inside to use the bathroom and am chased out the front door by this malicious fucker barking and running after me.  I'm done...I want nothing to do with this dog and I need a new place to stay, but the problem is I have nowhere to go.  I don't really know anyone in San Fran and no one had gotten back to me on couch surfers.  I stuck it out a few more nights until Tamara finally heard back from a couch surfer.

We got offered to stay at Matt and Isabel's apartment in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood, which ended up being pretty close.  Off the bat I knew I was going to like them, they are bike people, I found out later Matt is a SICK fixed gear biker, who can do amazing tricks.  They opened up there little office to us, complete with fold out queen sized bed (COMFORTABLE).  Me and Tamara took it upon ourselves to explore the city via bus and on foot and SEE IT WE DID!  We basically just got lost and walked around until we ended up back at Matt and Isabel's place.  Turns out San Fran is pretty small and relatively easy to navigate on the bus...go San Fran.  We saw pier 39 with all the sea lions chillin', rode on a cable car for free because Tamara told the guy her sob story, took the bus up to the Golden Gate bridge and acted a damn fool.  The bus is REALLY fun actually, it's like you pay $2 and the city suddenly in the palm of your hand and since Tamara didn't have a bike it was a handy way to get all over town.

Tamara must have karma like a banshee because Matt offered her a free Specialized Crossroads bike that he found.  Granted it's quite rusty and not in the best shape, but it works and it has a rack already on it...the same rear rack I have on my bike in fact.  WAIT A MINUTE...why doesn't Tamara have a bike you ask?  Well...on one of our exploratory nights while we were still at the dogs house, we parked our bikes on Haight street, near Ashbury and during that time someone came over and clipped Tamara's cable lock and made off with her Kona.  I was sincerely sorry for her and in a bit of a panic over what she would do, but Tamara was shockingly OK with the whole thing.  She was giggling about it within minutes and only really sad when she realized that her hat, the one she had custom made in Nepal, was stolen along with the bike.  She was wishing the people who stole the bike well, hoping that the bike would help them get where they needed to go or give them much needed money...talk about non-attachment.  I really learned a lot from her and was grateful I got to experience such a beautiful moment.  She was downright light hearted when reporting the theft to the police and wished the dispatcher a lovely day when she was done.  The downside was the thought that Tamara would now be hitching or backpacking, while me and Lani went on without her, but Matt cleared all that up by giving her a new bike of her own!!!

Me and Tamara have been bouncing around ever since, we stayed at Kyle's until the dog tormenting me pushed me over the edge and I couldn't take it anymore, then we stayed with Matt and Isabel, but Isabel's mom came into town so we had to leave.  All day today, since about 9am, me and Tamara have been out and about since we didn't really have any place to call home.  We hauled our stuff around and by 4:30, with no place to stay still, we started to panic...or at least I did.  Tamara, in true Tamara fashion, was just as bubbly and confident as ever that things would be fine.  To be honest I just wanted a nap, I was REALLY REALLY tired and have been ever since we got into the city, perhaps the non-stop hustle and bustle is just too much for me now and what really get my motor runnin' is the open road between towns, where all you need to worry about is a well oiled chain and powerbar. Fortunately Tamara put a posting on craigslist.com asking for help regarding her stolen bike situation.  The manager of a hostel downtown got back to her rather quick saying we could stay at his hostel for a few nights to try and sort some things out without having to worry about where we were going to sleep.  So here I am...on the Jack Kerouac bad (they name all the beds so you know which on is yours).  I'm still tired, but feel really happy to have my own bed for the next few night and not have to worry about hauling my stuff to and fro.

So much has happened in San Fran that I didn't even go into, but I'll post pictures with some captions so you can get a snipit of the time we've spent here, it's too much to try and write about it, I could go on and on and on, but this would get long and I need sleep.

This is from the sleeper cab in Mike's truck. Yes there was a picture of a naked woman on the dash and yes he claimed to be dating a 19 year old her refereed to only as "my lady" ::::SHIVERS::::

Oh god...from the sleeper cab

Vogue-ing in the Bart station...culture shock never looked so good.

Hanging out on hippie hill in Golden Gate park...drum circle anyone?

Isabel, our couch surfing host, spins fire!!!

I GOT TO PLAY TOO!!...I didn't burn anything!

I'm not too bad...honestly

Miles and Fumie, cyclists we met in Honeyman park WAAAAY back in Oregon called us up and we had a PARTY!!!

Me acting a fool on the cable car, I kept trying to get the driver to tell me all the gory details about people falling off and dying...he only responded by saying that that is "unpleasant", then we sang purple rain together...I told him I was from MPLS...he's a Prince fan.

Bikes have traffic signals too.  Despite it's monster hills San Fran has a HUGE biking community...an a rather large Fixie crowd too. Matt our couch surfing host, rides fixed with no brakes...and he's REALLY amazing at it.  Did a wheelie for 2 blocks with one hand I shit you not.

Kyle showing us the San Fran "wiggle" it's a bike route you can take that avoids all the major hills...pretty sweet.

Tamara, minutes before we locked our bikes up to explore the Haight where her bike would eventually be stolen. She was still smiling like this despite the theft.

This town is a HARSH

LET'S DO IT!!! and so we did!

So amazing...the hills are so steep that you feel like you could fall off when you're at the top

Lombard street...super curvy

Fisherman's Wharf

Trying to figure out where Lani is...shit.

Walking up to see Lombard...this hill was damn near verticle...it baffles the mind

Spinning practice poi if Isabels, Matt is an artist and took GREAT pictures.  Here's one!

And another

And me playing with fire....

More by Matt

Poi spinning is my new addiction for sure...it's pretty hard...literally I smashed myself in the head...

I think that's as up to date and detailed as I can get for now.  The plan from here is the stay in San Fran a bit longer and then pedal on.  We're feeling a little itchy to move faster though and there has been talks of ditching the bikes and hitching the rest of the way.  We love biking, but it feels like we are being pulled in another direction, we all seem to really want to go to Mexico, but with the recent border issues and it being unsafe to travel in those areas we were thinking we'd take a bus to Mexico City and maybe WWOFF or try and teach English.  I've been fluent in Spanish for all these years and have yet to really use it.  Why not now?  Plus if we hurry the California bit up we are less likely to spend all our money here.  San Fran alone has really drained the funds and I've been quite frugal.  This place isn't cheap, but I do love it.  Maybe when I want to plant my feet somewhere firm again I'll do it on San Fran soil, but until then I'll have to have a love long distance with this fair city.

Just keep pedaling....??

Maggie

Avenue of the Giants...and at least one jackass.

Hello all the fine people of the world,

We are currently having a rest in the city of Garberville, CA,  last night we spent a so-so evening in the Dean Creek RV park just at the end of the Avenue of the Giants.  Avenue of the Giants, or the Avenue as the locals call it, is a 31 mile stretch of road that detours you through some AMAZING giant Redwood trees.  It was pretty magical and something I had been waiting most of the trip to see.

Just at the begging of "The Avenue"

From what we'd  been hearing the Avenue was going to be a nice, calm, relaxing and flat ride through ancient redwoods, but it turned out to be quite the feat.  There were some gnarly hill climbs, most of which were relaxing grades, but seemed to go and go and go FOREVER.  On top of that there wasn't much to be said for the bike lane, which was not so bad because there isn't a ton of traffic, but when you got into the towns that were peppered throughout the road you ran into more hustle and bustle...more on that later.

Again...lacking proper bike lanes

One stretch of nicely defined lanes

The Avenue wasn't lacking in the breathtaking views department, when you weren't cocooned by trees, there were awesome vistas overlooking the river that were straight out of a postcard or from a John Wayne movie, it was kinda crazy.  There were a few eyesores though, like the dilapidated logging site or the remnants of humans (i.e. trash, glass, McDonald's bags), but overall it was quite magical. I shed a tear for the redwoods just like that native guy from the commercials in the 70's.

.

This is the vegetable stand that was a few miles into the avenue, they sold homegrown organic produce in the fields just behind it and we stocked up since it was so cheap and SOOOOO GOOD.  This stand pretty much comprised the whole town of Pepperwood, which was apparently quite robust in it's hayday until 2 floods wiped it out and no one really had the heart to rebuild.  The land that Pepperwood was on apparently was prairie about 50 years ago, used for farming and what not, but the redwood foundation bought it all up and planted a bunch of new redwoods. The vegetable stand lady was kind of losing me at this point in her soapbox rant and as politely as I could I said "Well, hope it all turns out ok" and quickly pedaled off...there was still so much to see.

 Me and Tamara decided to pay $3 to bike through a tree, something I immediately regretted doing, but oh well, when will I be able to that again?  Never, cuz I'm not paying again.  Lani ended up getting in for free since she didn't really care and the guy just let her through...DAMMIT.

 This was basically the coolest part of the ride...this huge dead tree.  I nearly missed it coming down a huge hill, but I slammed on my breaks and we all climbed in for a quick photo sesh.  I'm sure it's a lovely home to several of the Redwood Forests fuzzy animals.  Lani also made this stop her second open air pee of the day.  She had peed in plain sight when we stopped for lunch a few miles before and then again here...this time I took it upon myself to learn her SOME ETIQUETTE...and I took a picture.  I quickly deleted them, but I wasn't about to let that kind of shenanigans go unnoticed.  What's the lesson Lani? Don't pee in Maggie's line of sight when she has a handlebar mounted camera within arms reach.  Well done.

 The forest seemed to go on forever and soon we were losing daylight without any solid sleeping plans for the night...so we quickly trudged on trying to at least complete the avenue and get to a town.  All the campsites along the road were INSANELY expensive, even this late in the season.  It's ludicrous.

 It took all day to bike because we kept stopping to look at stuff or talk to people or be jackasses and in Lani's case to pee...a lot. Tiny bladder.

 The trees were so tall that I couldn't even look all the way up to see the top because my helmet kept jamming in the back of my neck and then I would lose my balance and my bike would swerve all crazy like I was drunk or handicapped.

Check us out...we're ridin' bikes

"I paid $3 for this picture...idiot"

Look close...the moon is out...shit.

Tree huggers.

Only about 200 miles til Frisco...woooohooooo!!

So we get to just about the end of the Avenue and we're heading through the last of the tiny towns, we're tired, the sun is setting, we don't know where we'll sleep, but we keep on going because that's the only option.  We're just at the edge of this tiny town called Miranda when all of the sudden some redneck in a pick up shouts at me "GET OFF THE FUCKING ROAD" Which was difficult since I was already on the tiny patch of asphalt that comprised the bike lane and I didn't know what other options I had.  Not to mention they we're only inches of hitting me.  He flicks me off, I reciprocate and we both just go along our merry way...or do we?  I'm all steamed up, because ever since we got to Cali it's been tons and tons of hostility towards bikers and there seems to be no real reason other than macho chauvinistic "this is my road" bullshit.  Anyways...not 5 minutes later the pick up is coming back, going the other direction and this time I get the DOUBLE FLICK OF...to which I just shook my head and laughed at him, because SERIOUSLY...you're going to turn around just to flick me off again...not only is it childish, but it's redundant...at least come up with something new man.  Mind you...Lani and Tamara are behind me and are receiving none of this treatment...only me??  Just when you think it's over...the chode COMES BACK AGAIN!!!  This time from behind me and speeds past me at about 45 mph, missing me by inches, while HONKING and SPITS ON ME!!?!?!?!?! I mean...get a fucking life.  At that point I was beginning to lose my nerve and started to fear for my safety.  We pulled off at the next town and chilled for a while in the hopes that he would just fuck off already.  I mean...I guess I would be sad too if I lived in a tiny shit ass town and my only form of entertainment was hassling friendly bikers that occupy less than 1/10th of the road.  I'm sure the generation upon generation of inbreeding doesn't allow him to think much beyond "deeeeer, go fast, dis time imma spit on her, Cletus" 

Aside from that minor inconvenience the avenue was awesome and at least it's a good story now, although I'm ready to be in a more major city, since that incident I've told a few of the locals about it and they all have responded with "why didn't you shoot him?".  Umm...yeah...I'll murder someone for being an asshole. It's not so much the fact that they wanted me to seek revenge, it's the assumption that I travel via bike brandishing a 9mm.  Maybe I should have let Billy Mac buy me that gun?  NAAAW...bear mace.  Ready for San Fran, only 200 more miles.

Just Keep Pedaling,

Maggie

EUREKA...I'VE GOT IT!!

HEYOOOOOO,

We are still truckin' and back on the move.  We started to get a BIT lethargic from Trinidad to Eureka, but Humboldt County was just a MELLOW, laid back, don't do much sort of vibe so we had to succumb to some rest days.  We're totally glad we did too.  As you know we stayed with Liz in Arcata for a few days and finally (begrudgingly) we got back on the bikes and headed down the ways a bit more, on the first rainy day in a week mind you, to Eureka, only another like 10 miles down the road.  We ended up staying with the Newcomb's, Drew, Ashleigh and there boys, Sage and Trilliam, who are 4 and 2 respectively.  They live on the edge of town and have a little mirco farm that consists of some gardens, some laying hens and 2 goats name, Yuki and  Ma.  Here's the problem with goats, NOTHING, GOATS ARE AWESOME I WANT SOME!!  SO GOOOOOOD.  I just bleated with them ALL DAY.  

Here's big Bro Sage still in his jammies for his morning meditation walk into the forest.

Yuki is the white goat and Ma is the other one...they are dwarf goats so about the size of a full grown lab.  SUPER SWEET

 Drew and Ashleigh have a totally rad lifestyle that consists of organic cooking, homeopathic healing medicines and a open and free home.  They host TONS of couch surfers all the time and actively included us in their family activities.  We all woke up pretty early (2 and 4 year olds aren't much for sleeping in) and we all headed down the road and walked through the forest to do the morning mediation, which consisted of bot goats, the Dog, Liberty, and the entire family, complete with didgeridoo, walking to an open patch in the forest to sit and meditate and start the day off right.  Ashleigh does a bit of Bikram yoga while, Drew rocks the didge.  The boys tend to run around all crazy like, usually chasing the goats while they attempt to eat.  After that they pick the wild blackberries that grow everywhere, go home and make rice porridge with the berries, a truly amazing breakfast.  Ashleigh is a bit of a wizard in the kitchen and made us the MOST amazing organic, home made meals the whole time we were there.  They were beyond explanation.  All the ingredients were organic, locally grown, great for you and tasted amazing.  They also grow there own food and herbs, which was ever cooler when we all went out to pick the veggies for dinner our first night there.  Ashleigh also is a bit of an herbologist and made us these amazing tea drinks that were so yummy and so good for us, from detoxifying tea, to memory tea to adrenal tea, Ashleigh had it all and went out of her way to list ingredients and tell us the benefits.  I wish I had taken notes, this family was a FONT of knowledge.  I had a yellow heirloom tomato that was so good I nearly teared up...hand to God, it's the truth.

Sage and Yuki during the forest walk

Trilliam, Me and Sage...quite a trio

MAAAAA!!!

 Sage took a liking to Tamara's Ukelele and had some profound lyrics to share with us while he strummed on mini geet.  He was such a beautiful boy, with huge eyes and long lashes...I was immediately smitten with the Newcomb off spring, even when they got a bit cranky around bed time.

 Sage was doin' was crazy rave dancing with glow stick so I thought I'd better capture the moment.  He is going to be quite the talent when he grows up...let me assure you.

 Here we all are on our last day with them.  I will REALLY miss them and fully appreciated the time we shared.  We originally only planned on staying 1 night, but since they were so rad and we wanted to soak it all in we stayed an extra day, and thank god, the love is DEEP.

 The cutest family in California...hands down.  I hope they realize their dream of fixing up and old school bus and traveling around with the boys.  Eventually they hope to have a remote patch of land to grow food, raise animals and bring up Sage and Trilliam.  If they ever start a commune, I'm there.  Miss you guys already.

Now were just stopped for a bit in a town called Fortuna, we'll be heading out in a bit to probably camp in the woods tonight and then tackle Avenue of the Giants tomorrow.  I'm really excited to see those enormous redwoods and get back into the swing of biking.  After the Giants there isn't much until San Fran so we'll probably bust that out as quick as we can.  SAN FRAN!! Super excited for that! My mom said she might actually catch a flight out to come see her baby...maybe not though.  Not getting my hopes too high up, but I love you all the same Madre.  Tamara has managed to get 2 flats in the few days we've been riding so I hope that does it for the bike issues for a while.  The 2nd flat was due to the fact that she didn't really fix the first one...she only patched it...despite warnings that she should just replace the tube.  I'm not saying the warnings were from me...but...............................I told you so.  That's ok though because it gave me time to run to the pharmacy AND go to the phone store to fix my voicemail issue.  This whole time I thought no one was leaving me messages or calling me, but as it turns out my phone was just messed up and I had 24 AWESOME messages to listen to from all of you.  Granted most of them were my dad blathering on and on for 10 minutes about the weather or the Twins beating Detroit or some other craziness (still love you and your long windedness Dad), but there were also some gems in there that made me laugh.

Liz doing some awesome tricks with the light up Poi

Moments before smashing myself in the face with the balls.

That's as up-to-date as it gets.  Love life and all of you!

Just Keep Pedaling.

-Maggie

COCKADOOOOODLE DOOOO!

Hey friends,

We're hanging at this here farm house thing in Arcata with Liz.  It's pretty B.A.  We get to play with dogs and chickens and a duck all day.  We were lazy at all hell today and I only managed to walk the dogs to the end of the street to poop and then back.  I was mostly just watching movies, napping and being overall lethargic.  It just feels right to not do anything when it Humboldt...I fear we may never leave.

These hens get a bit cocky

 One kinda let me pick her up for a bit but it turned a bit panicky before she mellowed out and I was able to snap some shots.  I wanted to shower the fowl with the love I'd been giving my new lover, Penny, the dachshund, but they aren't as warm and cute...and smell real bad.

Cluck Cluck

The duck still won't let me near it...this is as close as I got...I even sat still for like 10 minutes hoping it would forget I was around, but she's real smart.  I kinda freaked out this morning because there were chickens all over the yard, not just in the contained chicken pen...even out front open to the streets, but I later found out the chickens can fly over the short fence and are free to roam.  With that freedom come danger and 1 chicken is now officially missing.  Making the total chicken loss tally up to 3.  Granted only 1 since we got here, but I still feel bad.  And we let Penny out by accident too...well...not me, I was at a meeting, but REGARDLESS.  Penny is safe.  After the animals we got bored soooooo.....

 We shaved my head.  The floppy hawk was getting annoying a bit unkempt.  There were clippers and WHY the hell not?  It'll grow back thick and healthy and luscious real soon.

It feel real cold and weird, but we're in Cali now and my scalp needs a tan for sure. Lani says I look real feminine with it...what do you think? I feel like I look like I just enlisted in the army.

Good night ladies...back the coop.

Just keeping you all abreast....

-Marge