PEDALING to the BORDER

Monday, Oct.29th
Cardiff- Imperial Beach 51 miles
The last hurrah started with a fine send off from Barney, Foo and Albie. Along the coast highway in rush hour traffic, up the long Torrey Pines Hill (those hills don't faze us anymore!) and into La Jolla for a final glimpse, smell and barks of the harbor seals, along the beach in Pacific and Mission Beaches, bike lanes along the airport and into downtown. We caught a water taxi with a minute to spare and were in Coronado in 5 minutes. More lovely bike paths then the many miles of Silver Strand bike path where the fog rolled in. As we reached Imperial Beach the sun reemerged. Foo hooked up with us twice for bystander/sag cheer leading then with the border fence in view, we made the final turn onto Monument Rd, a rural horse farm road. Made it to the beach and the nonexistent monument and with border patrol jeeps, forbidding & high double fences, warnings signs, the bull ring by the sea and the Tijuana Lighthouse in the background, we declared victory! The border patrol obviously did not get the memo since there were no margaritas to be seen anywhere!
1700 + miles, 70,000 feet of vertical climb, weariness and a whole lot of new friends- we did it!!!