Today was a short trip, only 55 miles and relatively flat, all on hwy 1 next to the ocean. I had a no-problem day driving the motor home, I even maneuvered around some cars getting into the gas station and out. The fill-up cost $205 😩😭.

We went through the town of Santa Cruz and the beach area was like a circus. There was rides like Ferris wheels and roller coasters as well as volleyball in the sand. One of the photos shows a bunch of people getting kayak lessons sitting in a kayak in the parking lot. There were also hundreds of people surfing, and I also saw some people surf fishing – smart people!

Today started with me second guessing my decision to retire from bicycling, at least from the long distance, cross country rides I have done for the last twelve years. I thought of all kinds of options to try and make it work, shorter trips with less miles per day, buy a bigger e-bike that would do more of the work, schedule rest days every other day, and a host of other options. The problem is that what has made these trips fun was the challenge, the hardness or difficulty of doing them.

What drew me to these cross-country rides in the first place was their difficulty, the challenge, the harder it was, the crazier it was, the more fun it was. But suddenly, that is no longer true of me; I have changed. I don’t know if it is the Parkinson’s, old age, if I have turned into a wimp, or what, but now I seem to be much more attracted to adventures like hunting and fishing, where I can sit down while doing it and I don’t have to walk much. I remember when I said I was done with playing basketball, it hurts too much; I am done with climbing Mt Adams, I can’t get my body to do it anymore; I am done with running marathons, half marathons, ten k’s, and triathlons; sheeesh why did I do those anyway! And now I am done with bicycling. Today while driving I came to a peace about the decision and am embracing the new chapter in my life of easier, not easy, just easier, I don’t want to turn into a lazy old man.

I will probably still go skydiving with Lloyd Smith who is ten years older than I am.

I rode in the motorhome today with Tom and we went to Les Schwab in Valejo to get new front tires. That took most of the morning but we got it done. I was the co-pilot using my Google Maps to get us through the city. Tom is very hard of hearing so I had to yell directions and he missed a couple and we had to back track. That is not easy with a motorhome pulling a trailer. We had one mishap with a corner turned to sharp and the motorhome rear bumper hooked the front bumper of a car and pulled it off. YIKES!! That took a bunch of time with the insurance and phone number exchanges. The guy was very nice about getting his front bumper ripped off.

The rest of the crew peddled across the Golden Gate Bridge and through San Fransico without mishap and then along the coast on highway one until they reached the KOA campground at Santa Cruz. They rode over 70 miles today with a lot of hills. I have some pictures to send with this blog but the wifi is so poor in this campground that I can’t get them to send, tomorrow. I had several long discussions with people who ask what we are doing and they are always amazed at our adventure, especially when they hear that half the group is over 70 years old. OK, now I am going to see if I can get this to send.

Everyone else rode about 73 miles today, but Cliff and Kathy got lost and rode 85, but they made it to camp. We all have an app on our phones called “Ride with GPS”. It is a mapping app that has each day’s route in it that I had plotted before the trip. It gives audible turn-by-turn instructions which are nice because you don’t have to look down as you ride through traffic. That will be good tomorrow as we go across the Golden Gate Bridge and through San Fransico with lots of turns keeping us out of major traffic. Cliff got lost because he turned off his phone and missed a turn. Tonight we are camped in an RV Park that is basically a big parking lot in the middle of busy traffic. Many of the streets in San Francisco have designated bike lanes, and our app indicates on the map with a green line where those are. Tomorrow should be gorgeous as we ride along some very high bluffs next to the ocean. I am going to ride tomorrow because I don’t want to miss going over the Golden Gate. I will probably try riding every other day for awhile and see how I feel. We are watching the NBA championship game tonight on the TV that is in the motorhome, the RV park has cable TV at each of the RV sites, and they had a warm swimming pool as well.

This is the twelfth long-distance bicycle trip that I have done. The first one was in 2012 and I have done one each summer since then. I started because in 2011 I went on a motorcycle trip up to Fairbanks, Alaska and back, and on the trip I saw a number of people bicycling the same route and trip I was on. I camped with several on different occasions on the trip and talked with them about their experiences. I became intrigued with the challenge of riding a bicycle to Alaska. That winter I did a bunch of reading about long distance bicycle touring and bought my first bike, a Navara Safari from REI. I continued the trips each summer because of the health benefits, the challenge of doing them, the enjoyment of getting away, the personal and spiritual renewal that they always were, seeing the country, camping, and the great fellowship with those who went on the trips with me. I think there have been about 30 different people who have gone on at least one of the trips. The longest trip was to the Grand Canyon, then up to Yellowstone, and then home. That trip was a bit over 4,000 miles. The most interesting trip was the second trip up to Alaska with my brother Cliff and his wife, Kathy driving a support vehicle, we saw 92 bears on that ride, along with thousands of buffalo, moose, caribou, rocky mountain sheep, and even a wolf. The most challenging was the trip across the northern United States ending in Portland, Maine. I rode that one with John Smith and it was unsupported meaning that we each carried 70 pounds on our bikes in front and rear panniers. I lost 40 lbs on that trip. The most enjoyable trip was the one we did from San Diego to St Augustine, Florida. John Smith, Richard Klindtworth, and I rode and our wives all came on the trip with us. When we pulled into camp the tent was all set up, dinner was cooked, and Patty was ready to give my tired muscles a massage. These past twelve years have been a wonderful and enjoyable chapter in my life and with enough experiences to fill ten books.

I decided last night and this morning that I am going to pull the plug on my bicycle riding. It is getting more and more difficult to ride and the pain and the not being able to sleep the night after a hard ride have taken most of the joy out of the experience for me. The joy of the past experiences and the part of me that hates quitting anything because it is hard has made this a difficult decision that I have pondered on for several days, but it is time. I will be the designated driver for the rest of this trip. I might try some half-day riding or every other day riding, but usually, when I make a decision like this it is better if I just do it so I don’t keep second-guessing my decision.

The positive thing about this change is that now I can devote more time to grandkids and fishing.

I will keep writing this blog about this trip from the perspective of the others riding, today’s ride will be part B of today’s blog.

Today was very much like yesterday. All the riding was on hwy One along the coast with roads that went up and down, up and down, up and down, and round and round and round and round, and there was a bunch of road construction to boot. There were many steep cliffs and drop-offs all along the route that made you wonder what it would feel like if you didn’t make one of the windy corners. Tonight we are camped on the Russian River at Duncans Mills, straight East of Santa Rosa. Tomorrow we will be camping just a few miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge, and the next day we will cross it; that should be exciting; I will be sure and take lots of pictures.

I was feeling sorry for myself today because my Parkinson’s has not responded positively to the biking as in previous years, but has actually gotten worse especially on days when I ride hard. But then I got my head on straight and thought, how can a person feel sorry for themselves when they have been as blessed by the Lord as much as I have been. If I never ride another foot on my bicycle I have already experienced twelve years of these kinds of trips all over the United States, and I thank the Lord for all of His blessings to me. It is only a fool who is only thankful for the good things, and doesn’t rejoice with the bad things as God’s perfect will for his life.

Day 16, I can’t believe that we are less than two weeks from being done with this trip. Today we rode 55 miles of nothing but up and down, steep uphill and then steep downhill, one after the other. Tonight we are in Manchester, California at the KOA campground. They had the best hot tub of the trip, really hot and powerful jets. I closed my eyes and laid back and was enjoying the full body massage and when I opened them up there were seven young ladies sitting in the hot tub with me! I thought, I better get out of here before one of the other guys in our group sees me and takes my picture. They all smiled at me when I got out.

Today I spent most of my bicycling time riding alone and prayed almost all the time I was riding. I prayed for everybody I could remember in the church, for all of my family over and over, for myself that God would use me more and more for His glory in spite of my age. I also did a lot of thanking and praising the Lord for all of His blessings to me especially for Patty, my family, JBC, Agape, and all the experiences He has given to me over the years. It was a very good day of bicycling in spite of all the gasping for air that I was doing! 😂

Today almost everyone else rode 72 miles with a couple of monster hills through the redwoods and then over to the coast. I rode in the motorhome with Tom today to give my knees and my tired old body a rest. It is now 3:00 pm and everyone but Tom is in camp. Tom rode down the road further where he is getting his bike worked on at a cycle shop. We are on California Coastal Highway 1 tonight and will be on it for much of the rest of the trip. We are at an RV campground in Westport with a good view of the beach. They charge a dollar for two minutes of shower time, there goes my 15-minute hot shower! I may have to buy a fishing rod for surf fishing. I see quite a few people out on the beach fishing. That would move this bicycle trip from “Great” to “Super Great.”

In the evening while laying in bed before I fall asleep I thank the Lord for the day and all the experiences and blessings that I can remember happening that day. While on this trip one of the things that I pray each night is, “thank You Lord for the privilege of being part of this trip and for all the experiences and sights that happened today, thank You, thank You, thank You!”

We rode 70 miles today with some steep hills, all through the redwoods. We are camped tonight in an RV campground in Meyers Flats.

Today is exactly halfway on our bicycle trip. It seems like we have just started but we have ridden 900 miles so far. This trip has been fantastic in every way. We dropped the daily average from 70 to 65 miles in our planning and that has been nice. Our group of six riders gets along great. The weather has been unbelievable, a little bit of mist this morning but so far no rain. The scenery has been beautiful and I think that today riding through the redwoods topped it off.

Tom and I are the only ones with ailments so far. His Achilles tendon on both feet is swollen and hurting, and both of my knees are hurting. We both used ice tonight on our ailments, and I used a vibrator that seemed to help.

Everybody is getting along great, and we are having a great time sharing the trip, and our motorhome is working great as a home for us all on the trip.

We are in Eureka tonight at an RV park with a swimming pool and a hot tub. We drove about five miles to a Sports Bar and ate some great Pizza and watched the Denver Nuggets beat the Miami Heat on a screen that had to be twelve feet wide by eight feet high, and I sat six feet from it; talk about a front row seat!

I don’t know if I have ever formally introduced our biking team, there are six of us. I am the oldest at 74 years old and I have been on the most long-distance bicycle tours, an even dozen, three across the continental United States and two to Fairbanks Alaska. Next is Tom Zilvetberg who is 73 years old and has been on four trips with me and we used his motorhome on three of those trips. My brother Cliff is also 73 years old has been on almost every trip I have been on and a few of his own trips without me. Kathy, Cliff’s wife has been on every trip Cliff has been on, and she is somewhere between 40 and 70 years old and the toughest bicycler on the trip. Ray Beaty is a newbie long-distance bicycle rider but has been doing great. He has been doing most of the driving of the motorhome and has been getting up and bicycling on his own in the morning and after he gets to camp and has been getting as many miles as the rest of us, if not more. He is one of the babies in the group at 63 years of age. And the real baby of the group is Paul Risinger at 56 years of age. Paul is the only one in the group that has a regular bike instead of an e-bike, which also makes him the toughest guy in the group as well, though most of us would agree that Kathy is tougher.

With all of us camping together in pretty tight conditions our group gets along pretty good except when Paul makes fun of my white legs. He is an ex football coach so has been giving us tips on treating our aches and paines, and he likes ice.

Tomorrow we will be riding about 60 miles through the redwoods all day. It should be a beautiful day.