Today’s ride was 60 miles, mostly flat, with a tailwind, but the consensus of the group is that it was the hardest day of the trip. The reason was that there were so many people. The bike paths were right on the beach and people were walking on them, some were skateboarding, some were jogging, there were volleyball tournaments going on around the bicycle paths, bodybuilders showing off their muscles, kids running and playing, so it was extremely nerve-wracking to ride a bicycle through all that. There were stretches were there was signs saying to walk bicycles. Then there would be the opposite extreme, there be sections where it would be homeless camps everywhere and you were riding your bike through what seemed like people’s front rooms. Cliff described it as a culture shock experience. Kathy said it was emotionally draining. It is quite amazing where you see an obvious bunch of extremely wealthy people playing every game imaginable on the beach with mansions all around, and then the homeless filth and poverty. You think of a bicycle trip as being through fields and mountains and forests, not today, it was through the beaches of Southern California!

We stayed at my friend Paul’s house last night, and he let us use his pickup to drive to the starting point this morning for the ride today at Malibu Beach with the bikes in the back and because of LA traffic that took two hours. Then Ray drove the pickup to the finish point for today’s ride at Long Beach, which took another 2 1/2 hours, and then after loading the bikes back into the pickup at the end of the ride, it took an hour to drive back to Paul’s house, where we are staying tonight. In the morning, we will return to Long Beach and bicycle down the coast for another 60-mile ride. I think that the craziness will be less tomorrow, here’s hoping! And then there will only be one more day!!