thanks for voting, we totally ignored you!

so, we didn't go with the popular vote (train to austin, TX, then ride north).

vicki and i just bought tickets to hawaii (oahu) and will be flying there on the 23rd and working on an organic farm through the wwoofing network.

we have to be out the US by April 23rd (we think...), so we'll spend about two months in hawaii then jet back to LA and then either bus north to vancouver then ride to ontario; or, bus south to who-knows-where...vicki and i have to discuss what will follow hawaii next ;)

robots.

M&V: Day 101

well, we missed the free breakfast and instead wandered to the nearby java jungle for some caffeine and bagels.

we spent the day exploring marinas, first heading north and then riding to shelter island.

while returning from the north (mission bay) run, vicki took the nishiki off a sweet jump!



also, we saw a bridge monster:





near shelter island, we met a man named hamilton in another example of small-worldism. hamilton shows his curly-coated retriever marty in ontario and he actually designed the green maple leaf logo for liberty energy out of hamilton (ontario, canada).

we left our contact info. with various marina managers and chatted with various folks along our path, getting more and varied opinions about how to get on a boat.

we decided to return to the OBI and hit our 2000 mi mark while doing so!





sailing down point loma ave. to the ocean, here was our 2k mi view:



so, there you have it, we cycled down the west coast of the united states. as you can see if you're viewing this on antimattr.com, we're currently experiencing life planning difficulties and appealing to the general public for recommendations. please vote.

we've seen beautiful things and met wonderful people and learned much along the way. we've had arguments and we've been exasperated with one another in ways that we wouldn't previously have thought possible, but spending every waking moment with your partner and riding bikes through cold and wet climates has consequences. nonetheless, here we are, in love and happy and ready to keep adventuring, if a little confounded by the range of options available to us as.

for the time being, it looks like we may hang out at this hostel and stay in exchange for 3 hours of maintenance a day instead of $17 and just explore san diego before committing to any other plan.

also, post #101 seems a fitting place to stop daily blogging, since it's the number of the highway that we've followed. we're going to try just blogging when something particularly interesting happens, which will probably be more enjoyable for you as a reader as well ;)

if you want to keep current, your best bet will be to follow us just through our photographs, which i'll continue to post to the picasa web album, 2010 touring pics (if we stop touring, i'll make a new album and direct you to it from the blog). a surefire way to keep on top of us would be to subscribe to the RSS feed for the album.

thanks to everyone for reading and thanks to all the folks that were so generous to us along our southward meanderings. peace and grooviness to everyone everywhere.

ttys,

-M&V

M&V: Day 100

.

did some blogging in the morning, then some research about crewing/sailing.

as soon as we set out we met charlie and jenna on the street and charlie offered up their place for crashing while we got sorted.

we then went to the pier and met up with laurel for coffees and french fries. after that, laurel was off and vicki and i wandered around and were going over to check out the banana bungalow hostel when, in the laneway, we met nick.

nick is a surf instructor (extraordinaire) and student of linguistics and he toured down the coat with his surf board at his side in about a third the time it took vicki and i. he was in the process of meeting his neighbours and we hung out in the alley and they put beers in our hands. nick also offered to let us crash at his place(!).

we then headed south to ocean beach, stopping at a marina where we learned that we wanted the ones further south to discuss crewing.

next we came upon the ocean beach international hostel, where we chatted with a sailor named rick on the street. while i was chatting with him, vicki went into the hostel to inquire about rates and, when she went to the restroom, she found a man passed out on the floor and put him into the recovery position and brought him around with some light slaps to the face then confirmed that he was just drunk and not in some more dire state of ill health.

rick recommended a quieter hostel a little inland and so we cycled there, only to find that they had no beds. so, we cycled back to the OBI and checked in. it's $17/person and again we have our own room! it's the couples room, which accommodates four couples in two large bunks (actually four linked bunks).

laurel rolled over to the hostel to do dinner and drinks with us for her last night in town before heading down the baja with some warm showers contacts. we went out for pizza and californian beers. i got a nifty pic of the pier by night:



laurel came back to the hostel to do some internetting and then we said farewells (waking vicki up for that, haha). good luck and good times laurel, you rock, and we expect to see you in canada one day!

M&V: Day 99

.

after receiving two unasked-for breakfast recommendations for pipes cafe, i knew it was a must. we wandered over and i ordered way too much food, since i didn't realize that the egg dish i got came with potatoes and an english muffin. everything was delicious and, if you're in the area, definitely stop here.



while we were packing up we chatted with a couple on bikes, wayne and sally. they offered us a place to stay in mission beach.

heading south, we rode up the steeper state park road through torrey pines. it was quite a climb, with much huffing and puffing (but no walking/pushing).

at the top, we checked out the lodge, where we learned about the local plants, beasties, and geology.

flora in the courtyard:











the lodge:



nifty framed section without plaster, showing the adobe bricks:





our friend bob:





we rode out along a road that was paved in 1915! apparently the road was so steep here (the main route between LA and san diego) that the model t's had to climb it in reverse because the fuel was gravity-fed!



shortly after that information placard, we passed the farmers insurance open at the torrey pines golf course.



next we had some navigational difficulties and ended up riding not along the coast but through the university and then along a bike path that paralleled the I-5. along said bike path we met a couple of gents when we stopped to eat some PB sandwiches.

one of them was off-the-back-jack (google knows you), who vicki primarily chatted with. jack had come around in his truck to clear the bike path of mud, but we told him that there was someone else back there that beat him to it.

i mostly chatted with name-escapes-me; he was living in the nearby RV park and riding a nifty folding bike that had a combination of external cassette and internal gearing on the back, to make a 21 speed with no front derailleur. apparently the bike fits in a suitcase that can go on an airplane and the suitcase doubles as a trailer. even cooler, he'd toured with it!

nearing mission beach, we stopped at mcdonalds, since david gave us the heads up that they have free wifi, and did some research there about local hostels. checking the phone, we found a message from wayne and so we decided to take them up on their offer and got directions to their place.

when we arrived at their beautiful vacation rental home we sat and chatted in the living room for a while then headed out for dinner and, walking home, another pay-by-weight frozen yogurt adventure.

we really enjoyed hanging out with W&S; they're awesome folks and inveterate world travellers with many great stories to share.

we tried to go dutch on dinner/dessert but they insisted on a pay-it-forward type of affair, where we'd have to take in and host a couple of cycling tourists when we were their age. this was an easy promise to make, since we both can't wait to return the generosity that we've received and plan to be warm showers hosts when we're able to.

they had to leave early in the morning and insisted that we could sleep in and need not rush out, so we did farewells in the evening and i blogged while vicki fell immediately asleep.

thank you so much wayne and sally!

M&V: Day 98

nishi was jealous of brodie's new brakes, so we adjusted hers and, at the same time, discovered that the front tire was flat. patched that up and our ocean-side RV'ing neighbours, ryan and melissa graciously offered us their site, since they had to depart early. melissa also gave us a citrus feast of lemons and satsumas from their own trees: they were absolutely delicious. thanks guys, we hope you had fun at the sundance!

the new site:







watching all the surfers i decided that i wanted to swim...instead of swimming i dunked in the cold water and ran back in.



vicki, according to the photographic record, found coral:



we did showers and hit up the library for the afternoon.

in the evening we had a fire with wood that R&M left for us and ate a ridiculously stomach-upsetting meal of bread, corn chips, and alfredo sauce.

i had a mild freak out over my lost cycling gloves.

our motorcyling neighbour kevin visited us and told us an amusing story about a house he is set to build for a family friend that keeps getting bigger in proportion and which he thinks may never actually materialize...it's planned to have a 15 car garage and there is a wing just for the client's good friend.