San Francisco Treat

It was hard to sleep. I woke up at 1 AM and was so excited that I was ready to get up and ride right then. Unfortunately we had to wait to daylight. We had decided to get an early start so that we could be sure to catch the 10 AM ferry. It's a good thing we did because I miscalculated the distance: I had 23 instead of the actual 26 miles.

The breakfast at the America's Best Value Inn in Fairfield was rather underwhelming. It consisted of the security guard bringing out shrink-wrapped breakfast buns, bananas, and oatmeal packages. There was not even a place to sit. So we took the stuff to our room and ate it there. Fortunately we did not need much as we were not going far.

The ride south from Fairfield was a lovely spin through quiet residential neighborhoods and, once we got a little further, vineyards. It was Sunday morning so there was no traffic. A perfect way to end our trip.

Eventually the road paralleled I-80 and we had a little climb. At the top we got our first glimpse of the northern Bay Area, and the water. That was a cool moment.

That's (at least connected to) the Pacific Ocean!

We dropped into Vallejo, which seems like a quaint little place, and arrived at the ferry terminal in plenty of time. There was a pretty good crowd there, all wearing orange Giants jerseys. They were all going to AT&T Park to watch the Giants play the last game of the season.

The ferry ride was enjoyable, if a little cold. Tom had his GPS on so we could mark the speed as the ferry accelerated: 37 mph! It's very impressively powered by two giant jets, like a giant jet-ski.

At the ferry terminal

Lots of thrust

Before long we were docked in downtown San Francisco. We unloaded our bikes and rode the ceremonial last 5 miles to East Beach at Crissy Field, where we had arranged to meet Lisa. It was fun joining the throngs of tourists on their rental bikes along the Embarcadero. There is one steep little hill where the bike path climbs over Fort Mason. Most of the tourists walk their bikes up. There was no way I was doing that after having ridden across the entire continent. It was not fast, but I did not walk.

Along the Embarcadero. The bike path is easy to follow (unless you're color blind)

Then, at last, the finish line! We rode along the beach just in time for Lisa to catch a great glory shot. What a great feeling, to think that we had ridden all the way across the United States. It did not seem real then, and it still doesn't.

Victory!

We posed for the ceremonial wheel-dipping, and enjoyed a little champagne toast that Lisa had thoughtfully provided.

A long way from Charleston

Cheers!

After that it was off to the Fedex ship center to pack our bikes and send them off. Little did we know that although it was only 1.7 miles away, it involved 300+ feet of climbing. I guess we did not think about the fact that this is San Francisco, after all.

How does it go into this box?

And so ends our trip. I will have a wrap-up post in the next day or so in which I will have lots of reflections. Right now I'm very happy, very grateful especially to Tom and Lisa, and very thankful that everything went so well.

For those keeping track, today's ride was 31 miles, in two segments. And here are some preliminary totals for the trip: 3366 miles, 132,306 feet of total climbing (and, assuming the Atlantic and Pacific are the same elevation, descending).

We did it! Wow.