Days 58 & 59 – San Jose

Monday October 3 & Tuesday October 4. Aaron and I rode to return the e-bike in the Haight-Ashbury area via “The Wiggle”, had a coffee, and Aaron went on to Ocean Beach by the Metro and I rode to REI to get some camping supplies. Specifically, a lightweight folding camp chair that almost everyone had but me. So, I bought one (adds only 1 lb) and a few other necessities that I’ve been seeking. After the REI excursion, I rode through SF to Ocean Beach to meet Aaron for lunch. The beach is pretty impressive; really deep sand that’s very hard to walk on. After a lunch of buffalo mac & cheese at a vegan restaurant, I rode back to the apartment and Aaron took the Metro. Without any panniers on, and fairly light traffic, I beat the streetcar by about 4 minutes. Also, while SF does have some significant hills, the ride through Haight-Ashbury, the Panhandle and Golden Gate park was pretty flat.

At the apartment, I loaded up my panniers once again and Aaron and I walked to the CalTrain station. $5 for the senior fare to San Jose and I could take the bike. Saved me 47 miles of riding. I did still have a 7 mile jaunt to Hannah Hanlon’s house, so it wasn’t all train and between the cross-SF and that ride I had 24 miles in for the day.

Hannah is the daughter of my friend and once-coworker, Eric Hanlon and his wife Wanda. Some of you will recall the fall I had on my 2005 cross-country trip in Owatonna, MN. I was on my way to Eric’s and Wanda’s and Eric came to my rescue and the family provided me a nice recovery respite of four days (and a trip to the Mayo Clinic ER to get checked out). Hannah, 8 at the time, is now 25 and a wine-maker at the Monte Bello Vineyards. She was kind enough to house me for two more needed days of recovery from the Portland-Astoria-SF leg. She made pasta and meatballs and we drank two bottles of Ridge wine. Luckily, I’m retired and didn’t have to get up, but Hannah later reported she had a rough morning. Sorry Hannah. We did have a great catching up session though.

Tuesday, after doing some preliminary planning for the ride to LA, I did a long and fruitless ride to try and find a walk-in appt for the new Covid booster. It wasn’t totally a bust as I did get some other supplies for the ride on Wednesday to ??. As of this writing, I still don’t know where, but will likely be Watsonville via the Hecker Pass Highway.