Disaster Blaster

Saturday, June 23, 2007 - Day 2

Distance Traveled - 0 miles

So today did not go as planned at all. The original idea was to bike from Oceanside to the Mexican border then back to Oceanside, where P.D. would pick me up and bring me back to stay another night in Escondido. Last night when I was looking at the route, I realized that the coast through San Diego isn't very straight. There are lots of bays and peninsulas. I figured out it would be around a 100 mile ride. I knew I wasn't going to be up for that. So I figured P.D. could give me a ride down to the border and I could just start from there. Well, nothing really worked out today.

First of all, before leaving on this trip I was bequethed a gift of edibles of the psychotropic variety. Yesterday I was looking forward to trying a bit of the goodies after my long ride. I don't usually delve into that kind of stuff, but I thought I would have some use for them on this adventure. So last night when I got to P.D.'s around 10pm, we both tried a little chocolate bar. Very small, but I figured it would have an effect on me. After about an hour and a half, I wasn't feeling anything. Stupidly, I decided to eat another one, one a little bigger. I knew when I was eating it that it was going to be much more potent. Probably a half hour later it hit me, and hard. I was rendered useless. That was why I had to stop writing last night. I couldn't concentrate on anything. It was an interesting experience. It wasn't bad, but I knew that I was still going to be feeling it in the morning. I knew it would affect my ability to leave at a reasonable hour. I was right.

I woke up this morning at 11:45. I was still very stoned. It wasn't until after 1:30 that we got around to leaving. It was so hard to get ready, to get my shit together. After thinking I had everything ready, P.D. and I set out. We didn't get far. P.D. had a flat tire. Bummer. So he called his sister to see if she could drive us to the border. She could, so P.D. proceeded to swap the tire with the spare. I meanwhile took my bike out of his trunk, only to discover that I also had a flat tire. Shit. So I patched up the hole. I was feeling really tired and still high, and wondering if I could make this ride today. I decided that I would feel better after the car ride. I should have heeded the warning signs and followed my gut at that point.

So his sister came, put the bike in her car, and headed to the border. She's not the best driver, wasn't paying attention, and we missed the last exit before the border. That means that you have to go into Mexico. Going into Mexico when you don't intend to is not fun. You can't turn around right away, and Tijuana is fucking crazy. At that point I realized that I was not up for making the journey back up to Oceanside on my bike. 45 miles seemed so daunting. That, and I realized on the way down there that I had left my lock at P.D.'s apartment. That would not have made things fun, not being able to lock up when I stop. So we thought it would be a fairly simple turn around. Unfortunately they had a bunch of streets roped off. That, and some of the signs were very misleading. So at least 30 minutes later, we found our way to the line to get out of Mexico. That was another hour or so wait to get to the border. Ridiculous. So we drove back up to Escondido and went to the Olive Garden for a fantastic pasta dinner.

I've decided that I am not going to try to bike from the border tomorrow. I'm going to head north. I was in Mexico today, and I was touching my bike. That's good enough for me. I don't feel like trying that out again. While I don't want to be worried about schedules and shit like that, I need to get this thing going. I need to do it right. So tomorrow is a fresh start and will mark the beginning of my northern journey. The destination is Costa Mesa to stay with Betsy. That should be nice.

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