July 30 Day 22-Carpinteria to Manhattan Beach 97 miles, 2611 ft climb
by Terry Toland on 07/30/11
Todays ride is dedicated to Vancouver Rotary. Thanks for all your support. I bet Timothy is very proud of his club members.
We can almost see the border! There is an end to this madness coming soon!
Travelled through Ventura, Malibu, Santa Monica, Beaches galore. Lodging difficult with X-Games and beach volleyball tournements. Lots of human life.
The entire team is pretty tired at this point. Diane and the girls got to visit with Diane's brother Bob Leatherbarrow. Bob is a professional musician and has a home in Bel Air. Bob is a percusionist specializing on the jazz kit and vibraphone. Lots of live performances as well as mega studio work. If you have ever seen The Simpsons, it is Bob playing percussion on the soundtracks. Check out Brother Bob at: www.BobLeatherbarrow.com He has a great solo jazz CD, Bumpin in the Basement.
Kevin and Terry plowed on through some well inhabited landscapes. Channel 4 news only had one reporter today and the X-Games and Beach Volleyball Championships are much more important that a few crazy people on bikes, so the postponed our meeting. Perhaps at the border.
Speaking of the border, looks like two more days of riding. From here to San Clemente, then to San Diego and the border!
As great an adventure as this has been, we are all ready to bring things to a close. Body's need rest, repair and sleep. Brains need to be off high alert for a while. This ride requires total concentration at all times. In all seriousness, constant concentration is required to stay alive. Continuous interpretation of visual and auditory inputs for hours at a time. Sounds a bit corny, but for those who have taken on a journey of this length or longer, you know what we're talking about. At night the brain reviews the many miles travelled in our dreams, often highlighting one or more of the days close calls.
Its been a bad couple of days for tires. Terry got a flat at the 38 mile mark and Kevin at 56. His rear tire was in pretty bad shape, so we stopped in Santa Monica at the Performance Bike Shop and got him two new tires.
The Tire & Flat pool stands at Kevin-4 tires, 7 flats vs Terry-2 tires, 5 flats
