First things first...we woke up to a cloudless and beautiful day. It stayed cloudless the entire day... (i.e. The name of my blog). If you ask me, It is a pretty incredible way to start the trip. We got off to a rather slow start as we had to go back top the bike shop for some last minute fine tunings and then had top find pure way to the golden gate bridge which was or official mileage see start point (we wanted to get a picture of but the bridge but it was totally clouded over!)not only did our directions take us on what felt like every street in San Francisco-we had to deal with traffic lights, which we learned were harder to do with panniers add we would get a good momentum and then have to stop and them start back up with 50 extra lbs. now, give us as day and we well have this down, no problemo. But it took so much time and we didn't get off the ferry until 430 by the time we got or bikes unstuck in the doors. (The ferry have us a great view if the city, as well add Alcatraz, which i know my father would have not been alter top keep his eyes off or stop taking about in excitement). We left the ferry to done skeltering and some never ending hills which look like a small little incline on the elevation map compared to the Sierras that we well be crossing in the next couple off days. We had some beautiful tail wind at one point and we were hardly pedaling up a hill while averaging 26 mph (it want a step one).
We have merry some wonderful people and most people ate very friendly just as passerbys. We stopped at a Chevrolet dealer to see if we could fill up on water and an employee came out and told us to call him when we made it back and have us water. We met a kid who was on his way from the easy choose and was almost done with his journey. He was riding to build Wells for third world countries. While we were chatting with him at a stop sign, a guy pulled up and was so excited about what we were doing that her jumped out of hiss car to get a picture of the 3 of us because he is going to do this trip in a year, with his cousin. (he is 65 and his cousin is near 68ish. He was so excited that he took out a map and started talking endlessly about route options. We got some great pointer from the other kid who was taking the route that we were about to cover. We met a lady in subway (we were starving.. It was 830.. 5 dollar footlong) that asked us what we were doing and why. She had her two young twin d daughters with her...they must have been 4. When we told her we were raising money for brain cancer research (which evefyone has beEn very supportive and impressed) she opened her wallet and gave us all of the cash she had and said that her husband just died of cancer a year ago. As she spoke you could see a deep sadness come over her, but she picked herself back up as she introduced her two precious little girls. My heart went out to them..there is a great chance that they will not remember their father and i feel bad they wont be able to have those memories. I feel grateful that i had 17 years with mine. It was most definitely cut short and traumatic art the end, but some people never have that experiencd. Case in point.
It is for stories like this that make me want pedal harder. It reminds me why we are doing this trip.
I managed to get bike grease all over my legs do to stopping in all of the traffic... We ended up biking around 45 miles today which is not bad for a very late start. Tomorrow will be tough as we are aiming for 92.. The last 15 will be cover the first part of the Sierras. Time for bed!!!
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