Saturday, October 29, 2011

"Cycling through my old stomping grounds ... greater Santa Monica area"

Four more rides and the CanMexPac epic ride will be completed.  Dennie’s brother got us ridiculous low room rates at the LAX Crowne Plaza, so we will be riding from Ventura to LAX on this leg of the ride.  As I said in my last post, I spent my junior high and high school years in Santa Monica, so this ride is going to be cruising through my old stomping grounds.  Early in the morning we headed out of Ventura, proceeding through Oxnard and down towards Point Mugu.  Just before we got to Point Dume, and were passing by the Port Hueneme Naval Station, I glanced over at the aircraft display and thought I saw a familiar figure taking pictures. So I slowed down and yelled, “JAMIE!”  The figure paused from taking pictures and looked my way and broke into a big smile.  He said, “Stay right where you are and I will come over there.”  Andrew was the teacher on sabbatical that was from Reading, England.  Jim and I rode with Jamie on the leg from Daly City to Santa Cruz not quite a week earlier. And days later, here we were riding with him again.  He had caught up with one of his riding friends also, Jackie, and they were riding south together, or kind of together.  Jamie would ride ahead and then wait for Jackie, and then ride miles ahead and stop and wait for her again, and that is how they rode “together”. Jackie was from San Diego and had just lost her job, so she headed up to Seattle to bike the coast and then look for another job when she got back home.  She was hauling a big bike trailer behind her bike so I could only imagine how she did on the hills.  So now Jamie rode with us and when we stopped for pics, or bio breaks or water, he would wait for Jackie to show up.  As we rode south from Port Hueneme and around Point Mugu, I was looking for the northernmost beach that I would go to regularly when I was living in Santa Monica, a beach by the name of Zuma Beach.  When I went to Zuma, I went there because it was totally deserted, almost primitive; no buildings or residences around at all.  On our ride, I was having a difficult time finding that primitive beach as I knew it.  Finally, at a stop light we paused and I looked at the map.  Much to my disappointment, we were right in the middle of Zuma beach and the reason I could not find it was because now there were beach houses lining about 75% of what used to be Zuma beach and the remaining 25% was parking lots, hot dog stands and rental shops.  Oh well, that’s progress, and another “shoulda, woulda, coulda” opportunity; I should have invested in empty, remote beach front property. 
After Zuma, we proceeded down through more familiar territory; Malibu, Topanga, Sunset Boulevard and finally Santa Monica.  Those places were pretty developed when I was going to high school, so not much had changed, except everything was smaller than I remembered.  Isn’t that the way it always is when you go back?  One thing that had changed was the cement bike path they added on the beach so we did not have to contend with Pacific Coast Highway traffic once we got into Santa Monica.  It did make me nervous to take curves on slick cement covered with a film of sand, but we both managed to keep the wheels down and the helmets up.  The ride through the Santa Monica beach area was interesting, but uneventful. 
After Santa Monica, we rode through the Venice beach area; also uneventful but always much more interesting.  Venice is a collection of some very, very interesting people; my pictures won’t do it justice though.  After Venice and riding around Marina del Rey, we left the coast and headed over to LAX and the Crowne Plaza. 
The Crowne Plaza was both the nicest place we had stayed during our trip and was most inexpensive place we stayed at during our trip.  Nice combination, huh?  Of course I am not counting staying at friends places in the nicest and most inexpensive combination category.  Staying at friends and family was absolutely the best of times. 
After a nice night at the Crowne, we headed south once again.  As I grew up in southern California, this was all familiar with me.  The route took us inland through Torrance and Lomita and I suggested an alternative.  I told Jim it would be a bit longer but much more interesting if we circled around the Palos Verdes peninsula instead; and there would be a few more rollers if we went the Palos Verdes route.  Jim agreed to take my detour and I think he enjoyed it; I know I enjoyed it.  After the detour, we had to get back to the route and some of the connecting roads took us through what must be the arm pit area of the southern California coast area; the dirty little city of Wilmington that lies between San Pedro and Long Beach.  After Wilmington, we made it in to Long Beach and promptly lost the bike trail in the waterfront area.  After backtracking a few times, we said the heck with the bike trail and we rode the roads again. 
After Long Beach, we rode through the Orange County beaches; Seal Beach, Surfside, Sunset Beach, Bolsa Chica and Huntington Beach.  Huntington Beach was where Dennie dropped her mom off which meant now Dennie would be alone in the SAG wagon.  It also meant Dennie and I would no longer have to share our room on the road with her mother, which also has some benefits (now I will see who is really reading this blog).  After Huntington Beach, we rode the Pacific Coast Highway through Newport Beach and then we had to detour inland to the Laguna Hills area because we were spending the next couple of nights at my favorite cousin’s place.  I don’t think I actually have any cousin’s reading this blog, including my favorite cousin, so I probably won’t offend any family members.  I told Jim I only remember a few rollers and one serious half mile climb to get to my cousins place.  As we were heading up our first hill, Jim glanced up and glanced at some houses that were the highest houses he could see up on the ridges miles ahead and he was glad we were not going to have to climb up to those houses; little did he know.  Also I had only remembered a few rollers, because every time I had done this ride before, I was heading to Dennie’s mom’s house in Huntington Beach and it was a very easy ride.  I guess that was because it was downhill when you go to Huntington Beach. 
The direction we were now cycling had a lot more climbing than I remembered, and Jim was starting to have his doubts about my integrity when it came to me describing rides.  The last climb up to my cousins (to the houses highest on the ridge he had seen earlier) turned out to shatter my remaining ride description integrity when what I said was about a half mile ended up being about a mile and a quarter.  At least when we pulled up to my cousins place, Jim found he was in luxury for a few days and he had a best buddy for the next couple of days, Lola.

1 comment:

  1. I read it. You had better hope your other cousins do not read this. :-)

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