About 2900km (a bit over 1800 Miles) covered in total - not a bad effort, we hope you'll agree. We finished up the ride celebrating with a warm can of Bud at 11am whilst taking photos of ourselves in the middle of a road under a big sign saying Mexico - expect we'll get those up on here soon.

Now its 5 days of not cycling and not camping in San Diego, starting with 4th July fireworks tonight. With any luck by the time we get back to England next week we'll both be able to sit down without wincing in pain.

It's been amazing - thanks to everyone who has emailed or commented on the blog - sorry its not been updated more often and that we lost the first one (which, irritatingly, re-appeared a couple of days ago). See you all in a few days...

written by  willsandbrook on July 4, 2008 from San Diego, United States
from the travel blog: Cycling the Pacific Coast
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So my short stint of lone travelling on the Californian coast is almost over. Nick set me the challenge of meeting at least two new friends while he was gone. I'd love to say this has been a success, and I have met a number of people in the two hostels I've been in but I can't actually remember any of their names, and since that was the test I think we'll all agree that I've failed.

I'm currently in a little town called San Luis Obispo. Its actually really nice, but does have the odd distinction of its two major tourist attractions being an alleyway where the walls are entirely covered in chewed bubble gum (there's a picture of this in the set of new pictures that I've added) and a hotel that is famous for its urinals (really, I'm not kidding - look it up!).

Anyway, all is good. I'm driving to LA tomorrow to pick Nick up and then we're coming back as far as Santa Barbara before setting off again.

Hope everyone is good back home.

written by  willsandbrook on June 24, 2008 from San Luis Obispo, United States
from the travel blog: Cycling the Pacific Coast
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Just a quick one today as it turns out the only internet connections in Monterey are in the public library and time is heavily rationed.

So we're now in Monterey, having come through Half Moon bay and Santa Cruz since leaving San Francisco on Tuesday. Much, much easier cycling south of San Francisco than to the north, which was a welcome relief.

The next stretch of our trip has needed a bit of re-planning as a result of Nick needing to fly home for a few days. I'm going to hire a car and do the Monterey-Santa Barbara stretch in that with the bikes and all our stuff and meet back up with Nick in Santa Barbara for the last leg of the trip.

written by  willsandbrook on June 20, 2008 from Monterey, United States
from the travel blog: Cycling the Pacific Coast
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So we made it to San Francisco!! Two thirds of the trip down, and finally some civilisation, mobile reception and no tents... After Fort Bragg, we spent four days tracking the Californian Coast through Mendocino, Sonoma and Marin Counties, during comfortably the toughest stretch of road we've done, involving far too many hairpin turns and narrow windy, and windy, roads. I feel like I should take some responsibility for this as after a few pints on our day off in Fort Bragg, I declared that I was worried the challenge had gone out of the trip now we had got past halfway. What an idiot.

Amusing incidents include going into a tourist info place to ask for a cycle map of the area, and the nice man telling us that it had been discontinued by the State transport department because they kept getting sued by the families of people getting injured or worse on the route (luckily we've finished that stretch now)! We also had a strange night in a State Park just outside SF with a 60 year old hippy who spent the whole night drinking pints of red wine over ice. We made our excuses when he started to tell us that he was going to 'invade' the UK in his campervan.

We've had a good couple of days in San Francisco - have met up with Helen and James (so Will has been subjected to the combined annoyance of three Darbyshires) and also Will's cousin Sam. Our first night here ended up with each of me, Will and James being chatted up by separate people with an average age of 30, and at least two of them being female. We'll leave it to you to guess the permutations...

Unfortunately, due to a family bereavement, I will be going back to the UK for a few days which will mean that we are likely to have to shorten a part of the trip between San Fran and LA. We're still planning to finish the route on the current timetable, but there may need to be a hire car involved at some point to keep on time.

There's also a few new photos up as well...

Keep us posted with news from back home.

written by  willsandbrook on June 16, 2008 from San Francisco, United States
from the travel blog: Cycling the Pacific Coast
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So this is the first entry in our second attempt at having a blog. The last one was designated as Spam by google, and in spite of our numerous emails to them proclaiming ourselves to be real, breathing people, they persist in refusing to put it back up again, hence this new venture with the nice people from blogabond.

It had been a while anyway since we last put anything up on the blog so here's what you've missed. We've made it all the way through Oregon and are now in Northern California in a town called Fort Bragg. So far we've done about 1200 Miles so are making some pretty good progress. Only about another 800 Miles to go.

Our puncture count is up to about 7, and all of the recent ones have been Nick's. I've moved on to breaking spokes in my back wheel, which is a little inconvenient and not something either one of us is qualified to fix. That's happened twice so far.

What else might you find interesting? The top speed we've hit is 67km/h or a but over 40mph - that was me a couple of days ago. I'd love to say that my ability to hit greater speeds than Nick is down to my greater appetite for danger - in reality its down simply to my greater appetite full stop and the laws of gravity. Those things probably also explain the fact that I hold the trip personal best for the slowest speed reached going up a hill.

Anyway, enough for now. I don't think we can post the map on here like on the old blog but you can link to it here...

Cheers

Will

written by  willsandbrook on June 10, 2008 from Fort Bragg, United States
from the travel blog: Cycling the Pacific Coast
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