rants, raves, & randoms

My father-in-law is a little on the crazy side.  He turned sixty a few weeks ago and he decided that he wanted to do something big for this occasion.  That big thing ended up being he and his brother attempting to ride bicycles from Monterey to Mexico.  That is a distance of about 500 miles.  They left on a Monday morning and had plans of pulling into Imperial Beach on Saturday.  That means they’d have to average about 80/day.

My father-in-law is not one that has been an avid cyclist for much of his life.  He isn’t a man who has been really active or athletic all his life.  In fact, my wife says she thinks that she had seen him wear shorts only once before.  He concocted this plan not even a year before he planned to leave, and decided to get himself in shape.

The trip ended up being a little shorter than they had originally planned.  The ended up starting in Big Sur and ended their trip in the UTC area of San Diego.  From a high building or a hill you might be able to see Mexico from UTC, so I figure that’s close enough.  I have to admit that I am really impressed that he pulled this off.

Anyway, on the day that was actually his birthday we decided to drive up and surprise him.  I thought it would be really surprising to him if I was to ride up to him from behind and just kind of casually ask what he was doing way out here…so, we packed up the family and the bike (and the surfboard) and drove up to meet him.  His schedule had him riding from Santa Maria to Carpinteria that day.  They ended up getting kind of lost and disoriented because of the Air Force base that takes up most of the coast up there, so they ended up riding from Lompoc instead of Santa Maria.  So, once we figured out where they were and what their trajectory was, I started riding in the opposite direction a few miles in front of them.  Once I saw them (which was within five minutes of starting, luckily), I turned around and tried to catch them.  He was very surprised, and still talks about how seeing me was a real “shot in the arm.”

I rode with them from about five miles north of Gaviota down to Carpinteria; about 50 miles.  I guess that the first 15 miles from Lompoc were all uphill, which really wore them out.  I caught up with them a few miles after that uphill, so they were already pretty worn out, but they still finished those 50 miles!

We basically followed Highway 1 and 101 until we got into Goleta where we then had to take surface streets.  Santa Barbara has to be one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been.  The mountains rise up almost right out of the water, and the city is squeezed between them and the ocean.  There are sections where you can see this tan-pink sandstone uplifted out of the hillsides and it is really stunning.  Like a lot of Southern California, Santa Barbara features a lot of classic Spanish-style architecture; the red tile roofs against the green mountains with the sandstone outcroppings is truly breathtaking at times.

Here is a map of the route we took: A = Lompoc, B = where I joined them, C = Carpinteria.

Here we are shortly after arriving at the hotel in Carpinteria, my father-in-law is in the middle, his brother on the right:

There is a world-famous surf spot just outside of Carpinteria called Rincon.  I have seen photos of the place, and I’ve heard about it, and I’ve always wanted to go there.  When it’s on, it is this insanely long right that peels around the point.  Looking at this picture, you can see how that would work:

Well, since I was planning this trip and everything, I just had to surf Rincon.  Of course, though, when I got there the place was totally flat, totally.  It might as well have been Lake Michigan.  In fact, I tried several other places in Santa Barbara County, but everything was ankle-high at best!  So now I will have to go back someday, as I still haven’t had a chance to even paddle out at Rincon (or anywhere else in Santa Barbara County).