Wandering Wheels - 16 January 1991

As I write this, the United States is at war with Iraq. Where was I when it started? Biking toward Long Beach from where we camped.

Have you ever slept in a wind tunnel? I sure felt like I have. Last night was so incredibly windy that my clothes even started to blow away! Luckily I woke up in time to get them before they beat me to Long Beach! The wind definitely made the beginning of our ride rather an experience. It's not often that you have to pedal as hard as you can to get downhill. Plus, the road made it seem like we were back in Mount Vernon - the roads were so bumpy I had my second flat of the trip. But at least we got to stop in Malibu (actually, most of the first half of the trip was through there). Not far away they were taping something, though I'm not quite sure what.

We were the first to make it to Santa Monica and to Venice Beach for lunch. So we ate, I fixed my innertube and then we went for one of the most fascinating walks of the trip, down the boardwalk of Venice Beach. It was like stepping into someone's psychedelic flashback. So much action, so many interesting people. You got to see a little of what gives California its reputation as a strange state. People selling everything, reading tarot cards and telling fortunes, playing all kinds of music. One person from every walk of life was there, for the high class businessman to the reggae man selling super bongs, to the man in the Santa hat selling energy packs. We even saw some paintings/graffiti by R. Cronk. A coincidence? Who knows? We spent quite a bit of time soaking up the experience, then moved on.

Most of today's trip was right along the coast on bike paths, so we were right on the sand. It was a biker's paradise, sun, no cars, surf and great curves (both kinds). We rod on to Marina Del Rey, the largest man-made marina in the world. We got to see some UCLA sailors practicing out there. We rode on to Rodendo Beach and stopped along International Boardwalk and saw a 15 lb lobster (at $13.00 a pound, that's $175.00). It was here that we discovered that the US had attacked Iraq. We all gathered into a kite shop and listened to the radio.

By this time the sun had already begun to set. So it was suddenly a race against the sun to get to Long Beach. And it sure wasn't easy. Weaving in and out of traffic, getting held up by traffic lights, passing other groups, and still the darkness continued to fall. By the time we reached Long Beach, we'd added to our group two or three others and we all followed Randy (whose bike had a light) through the Long Beach twilight. It was a blast!

We finally reached our destination, the Long Beach YMCA. Talk about your nice facilities. We got warm showers, were able to swim and play a little basketball and the owner even washed our WW shirts for us. Scott, Dennis and I ate at Taco Bell, the spent some time in the Long Beach Plaza. Brad Fox, who used to be in the Repetory Co., lives out here and came to see Randy and I got to talk to him for a while. He seems to be enjoying himself. Then I played a little basketball (very little) and then I filled out half of my postcards. I've been tuning for most of the night to 106.7 KROQ, an alternative station out there. It's definitely one of the best I've ever heard. In fact, I think I'll fall asleep to it tonight. And speaking of sleep, it's time for it, being almost midnight. 415 miles down, more to go. Ɔ

Tunes: king's x - freedom