Wandering Wheels - 14 January 1991

As I write this I am lying under the stars twinkling their past to earth. We've moved far enough south now that we're all sleeping out under the stars like I did last night. Last night was great. Dennis, Ed, Scott and I laid outside in our sleeping bags on the cement and tuned to some of the local radio stations. It was a very beautiful experience and a wonderful time (albeit a bit chilly).

Then in the morning we had to bike about ten miles to breakfast. But our group decided that we'd go to the Santa Barbara mission before breakfast. Unfortunately we weren't able to get in, but the outside was ornate enough. Then we rode along the beach and saw a lot of the contrast here in California - the mountains and the ocean, the ritzy city of Santa Barbara and the homeless sitting around the park benches. But we finally made it to a wonderful breakfast of french toast. Alison was trying to get Dennis and I back for throwing her into the water yesterday while she was trying to get a tan (but she looked liked she needed to be cooled off...).

Then we took off for the rest of our trip. We got to get on Ventura Highway (ooo, what a thrill). We rode right after breakfast 20 miles straight, no stopping and son, was my butt sore! But we finally made it to San Buenaventura, where we stopped to take a break and look for an outlet store. On the way, as yesterday, there were tons of surfers cruising the beaches and hitting the waves. We ate at the world's worst Subway for lunch (but got .35 ice cream down the street) and then headed down the road again.

But we took a small detour into Ventura Marina and toured the ships and admired all the boats docked there. By the way, Tim cracked his collarbone and won't be riding for a while, so we all had pieces of tape with Tim's name on it (we couldn't find any black arm bands). Then after the marina we biked toward our destination for a while. We passed a naval testing grounds and saw a training plane come in for a landing and take off again. Then we got to see an F-14 Tomcat take off. Talk about power, speed and rumble. Shawn drove by in the van and told us we were 13 miles away from our campsite, so we took off. Shawn is one of the people that makes this trip great. He's the resident mechanic, which isn't so incredible except he lost his arm in a farming accident five years ago. Then there's Gary, who is riding this trip...and he's blind. It really makes you appreciate what you have and what they can do.

Remember when I said we took off? I meant that literally. Randy decided he was tired of piddling around so he went off. And I got left in the dust. Dennis and Ed could keep up, but I just couldn't make my bike move that fast. Not to say I didn't try. We finally all got back together and we played a little catch with a football our group bought at lunch time. Then I got a warm shower, called Brenda and Robin and now, yet again, I'm under the stars. So far I've seen four shooting stars, which has been great.

In case I haven't said this before, this is the best experience of my life, one I'll never forget. Well, tomorrow we go to Los Angeles, so I'd better get my rest (even though we don't have to ride). But first I'm going to watch the stars some more and listen to the Indigo Girls new album. Night, all. Æ

Tunes: sleater-kinney - hollywood ending