“I was struggling with a climb in the mountains and was giving it all I had, when some sweat-drenched guy dressed as Elvis with a wig chatting with his mate passed me like I wasn’t even there” – Howard

Today is perhaps the most memorable day of the cross country ride except for Boston. We have a big breakfast, assemble in the parking lot and head to Manhattan Beach in a 2 by two procession. This is after an outstanding speech by Tracy with all riders -hands resting on each other affirm that we will help each other in our quest for Boston. It si quite moving and fun.

It is a 2.6 mile ride to the beach but I neglected to turn on my Garmin so that was not captured but rest assured I did ride those miles. When we hit manhattan Beach we all do the most important thing first of all and head for the rest rooms. After that there is the ceremonial wheel dipping and group photos. I want to give a shout out to Bruce and his lovely wife Terry and their awesome Golden Retriever Lucy who met us at the beach. Bruce is an avid cyclist and has this trip as a personal goal. I met him at the Marriott and also while wandering around LA he was kind enough to give us some directions. Knowing that he has an entrance in the ride, I invited him to help send us off. It is very special to me that folks like Bruce go out of their way to help send us off and he is an all round gentleman and nice guy. I sincerely hope that he is able to make this trip one day. Thanks Bruce, Terry and Lucy!

Jan and Ron said a few prayers that we would have a safe trip with favorable winds and temperature. Someone was listening. The beach was gorgeous and we had cool temperatures and cloud cover most of the day. It was the best first day weather wise that i experienced. Please keep more of the same coming.

Another aspect was that much of the bad construction spots have been fixed so the ride was easier on the bike with not as much dodging of pot holes. It is kind of a two part ride. The first half is endless stop lights through endless strip malls punctuated by some nice scenery and greenery. The second half we get some climbing, mountains views, bike paths , orange groves and rows of palm trees. It is always a pleasant ride into Riverside.

Took it fairly easy today and we flew along pretty good a lot but I neglected to turn off the Garmin at some stops which lowered the average speed quite a bit. Most of the real riding was probably at least 16 -17 mph.

Today was also Howard’s birthday and we song to him at the beach and I sang a solo that I learned from Roberta and Jeff in 2012. Howard is from the UK and had just popped out of the Loo when we began to sing. He is also the man of the quote which was one of our dinner topics. I had dinner with Kevin and Jim from San Diego, Paul from NJ, Mack from across the pond, Lois from Colorado via Wisconsin and Howard from the UK. I have not laughed this hard in a long time.

Lois (without Howard’s knowledge) is trying to come up with some E;lives masks that we can wear for his benefit. Any ideas? Great conversation at dinner and a really fun group of people.

Sorry but I took no pictures. I intend to fix that tomorrow and beyond  and a few folks promise to send me some.

Thanks for reading

~Chuck