9/19: in San Fran at last

When we hit the Golden Gate Bridge: http://mengs-blog.blogspot.com/2013/09/919-we-made-it.html

[1 year anniversary note:
I don't really remember the details of this day's riding. Towns and cities were packed closer and closer as we closed in on the Bay Area. The landscape went from rural to suburban to urban. I remember around Fairfax, the GPS and route map really disagreed, though we knew to keep going south, so we didn't end up too lost.

The final stretch onto Golden Gate and then to Drake's was miserable. I was incredibly drained. It was cold. We were fighting a headwind all the way up the winding road leading to the bridge. I gritted my teeth, got mad, and finished that climb. In the city, the GPS was hilariously unsympathetic about routing flat routes. There's Market or some other long avenue that would have delivered us straight there as flat as possible, but instead we went up and down the famed hilly San Francisco streets. Apparently, we passed by the Full House house, except I was too busy looking down grinding away to notice it.]

Pics of the ride: http://mengs-blog.blogspot.com/2013/09/919-misc-pics.html

Ok, we hadn't actually made it. We still had to bike 5mi into the city. I had Matt Drake's address, but we were at the mercy of my GPS's routing to get us there. 5mi with maybe 2mi of climbing. Ugh.

Just as we were about to pull up to Drake's place, he swoops by us on his bike, recognizing us at the last minute. He led us the remaining few blocks. Kind of a cool end to our ride. I was shattered when Drake said there was a no-climb solution from the Golden Gate to his place.

We crawled off into the Mission to have some burritos. They were excellent as I knew they'd be, blunted as my tastes have been by being in Boston. Just check out their salsa selection:

I ate more than I should have, I'm pretty sure.

80mi and 5000ft of climbing to end the last day of the tour. Wow. We did it. 1000mi, give or take. 17 days pedaling, 2 days resting. This is the Adventure Cycling Association image for the Pacific Coast tour route:

That was me. I was there. I saw it. I'm glad I did it.

9/19: pics: https://picasaweb.google.com/105909573807230408134/BikeTour919?authkey=Gv1sRgCNaBhqLK78KOwwE