Arrival: San Francisco

Monday, July 9, 2007 - Day 18

Distance Traveled - 22 miles

Short riding day today. I took my time heading out of camp since I knew it wouldn't take me long to get to San Francisco. Ate some oatmeal for breakfast that I picked up at Trader Joe's in Santa Cruz. Oatmeal is great, but I really think they should change the name to oatsnack. I mixed in three packets of that stuff, ate it all. I felt full at the time, felt really good. I swear, and this always happens, within an hour I'm starving. Where does it all go? A meal should fill you up for a while, but this stuff makes me even hungrier after a little while. Maybe I just need to eat 6 packets.

As the day and the ride went on, I didn't eat too much. I'm not sure why. I guess I was waiting to get to the city to get a real meal. That was a mistake. By the time I got to Daly City, just south of San Fran, I was pretty weak. There are tons of hills there, big ones, long ones. I had to walk up them. I honestly couldn't find the strength to pedal up.

Before Daly City there is a town called Pacifica. I don't know what it was about this place, but I found the few people that I encountered really rude. Granted, I think I was in a bad mood, due to hunger, but it didn't make sense to me what these people did. I was riding down a bike path that ran next to the highway. It became the sidewalk at one point, just before a bus stop. There was some kind of school group waiting for a bus there. Right as I approached them, so did a bus. The kids, of course, ran to the edge of the sidewalk, excited about the bus. That's fine, I understand that. I had to stop suddenly to keep from hitting a few of them. One of the adults attending to the kids, of course, yelled at them, told them to get out of the way. The kids did so. For some reason, however, two of the adults, big ladies, failed to see that they were in the way too. They were blocking 80% of the sidewalk. There was no way for me to get around. They apologized for the kids but just stood there. I said 'excuse me' somewhat rudely as I kind of pushed my way through them. They just seemed so dumb to me. Right after that I pulled up to an intersection. The light was red, so I waited on the corner on the sidewalk. Just before the light changed, 3 older men pulled up on bikes, coming from the right. One guy stopped right in front of me, completely blocking my path. He seemed completely oblivious to the fact that I was there. The light changed in my favor, and he just sat there, right in my way. I started pulling up a bit, but he did not seem to get it. Again I had to say something, and again I was a bit rude about it. 'Get the fuck out of the way,' is what I wanted to say. I know I'm not invisible. I have a bright yellow and orange bike and a multi-colored polka dotted helmet! It just didn't make sense to me. I figured there must be some defect to the town and the people.

After Pacifica came Daly City, just south of San Francisco. By the time I got here, I was so exhuasted. I needed food and rest. It was nothing but uphill coming up into the city. I had to walk almost all of it. I just couldn't find the strength to pedal up these hills, not at all. Once I got into the city I stopped at some fast food Greek place. It was alright, nothing special, but at least it was food. Then I set out to catch the BART. I really didn't feel like riding into the city. I had to walk up the hill to the BART station. Today was just not a day for riding, but yet I had set out anyway. I couldn't stand to take another day off, especially to stay at Half Moon Bay. Not that great of a campsite. So I took the BART into the Mission district, where my high school friend Jenna is staying. Waited for her to get off work and got on the internet at some cafe closer to downtown. Jenna and I got some sushi. I got some dinner special that sounded good, but it came with some sashimi-type stuff that was disgusting. I guess it was wasabi on there, but it was one of the worst tastes I've ever had. I know I've had wasabi before, and I think it's gross. I don't know what kind of seafood these things were (there were four of them). I ate one, putting the whole thing in my mouth at once. I almost gagged, but I didn't want to spit it out, so I decided to just suck it up and eat the shit. An eternity passed as I chewed the rubbery fish. In the meantime it was burning my mouth and spreading to my nose and throat. By the time I swallowed the whole thing my whole mouth, nose, and throat were burning, and my eyes were watering. Not fun. I tried a small bit of another one later, and it tasted exactly the same. That's some sick shit.

It was nice to see Jenna, although we did talk way too much about high school, which is a horrible topic of discussion. Of course that was our main topic of shared experience, so what can you do. High school was such a shallow time, in many ways, though. I had all these friends there, but the reality was that our common interests were mostly just the classes we had together. Outside of school I didn't hang out with most of these people. I haven't kept in contact with them since school, save a few. Not to say I don't like these people or don't enjoy seeing them, but it just makes you realize now how strained those relationships were then. Without having AP history or calculus together, you don't have all that much to talk about. Jenna and I actually discussed this matter briefly.

After eating dinner we went back to where Jenna was crashing on friends' couch. There I met up with college friend Gifford. Since it wasn't Jenna's place, she couldn't offer me a place to sleep, but luckily Giff came to the rescue. We drove around the city for about a half hour looking for a hotel, even though we basically had directions, although not good ones. Stayed at a Super 8 Motel. It was much nicer than the piece of shit I stayed at in Lompoc. It's great to see Giff. I was afraid that since I wasn't able to make it to San Jose that I might miss him on his drive down to L.A., but he pulled through, driving all day to make it to San Fran. You're a superhero, Giff.

Tomorrow I want to stick around the city, hang out around Golden Gate Park and relax for a bit. I need a day off after today, even though I just had a day off two days ago. Plus, I might as well spend some time in the city while I'm here. I like San Fran. I've never really biked around here, though. There are tons of bikers, bike lanes, and great big yellow signs that inform cars that bikes have use of the full traffic lane. You'll figure it out one day, L.A.

Music selections for today:

Talking Heads - Best of Talking Heads
Thom Yorke - The Eraser
Simon and Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water


that's where i slept, and not too well


dreary-looking day


the music will help my spirits, though. i must ride on


i'll be in san fran today. that is exciting




almost there


i like that

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