We Kicked (You Know What) Today!

Ricky Rodriguez

Today marks the first day of our 3,092 mile journey.  Our tires left the waters of Ocean Beach in San Diego, Ca., at 7:45 this morning — Jack, Jim and I on bicycle, and Athen in the RV.

We kicked ass today! We did about 33 miles in the morning – going through Lakewood (don’t quote me on the name of the city) was rough!  Then we stopped in Alpine for a two-hour break and passed out for a bit.

Today and tomorrow are definitely the hardest two days of the trip – it’s ALL uphill!  We’re about 800 feet short of the summit (which will be our highest point of the trip), and we’re at about 3,000 feet right now.

After our break, I switched with Athen, so I’m driving the R.V. right now. I’m about two hours ahead of the guys in Pine Valley, where we’re staying tonight. They’ve got roughly another 30 miles or so to meet up with me.  That’s how we’re going to do it, I think.  First half of the day, crank out some miles, take a break, switch drivers, then keep on trekking.

Today and tomorrow, we’re only going to be able to cover about 60 miles a day, because of the incline.  But we should probably be able to do around 80 miles a day afterwards. I still need to take a closer look at the map, but we should probably hit El Centro by tomorrow night.

Oh, so I had the first flat of the trip... and it took 20 minutes to change the tire.  Another hiccup we encountered was the construction. We had to stop every quarter mile or so, and that kind of delayed us.  The weather has been beautiful though, it’s been 70 degrees, with a nice breeze. 

When we were in Alpine, we ran into some high school kids from Steele Canyon High School in Spring Valley that are putting on a fundraiser for breast cancer at their school.  It was cool to run into some kids that have the same goals as us.  They’re having a breast cancer fair and a walk to raise funds on May 21 from 9-11.  Good luck you guys!

And don’t worry, Coco (our trusty doberman) is doing well! She’s loving it.  Slowly but surely she’s getting used to traveling in the R.V. She knows when we stop it’s time for her to go out, etc.

I’m thoroughly exhausted, my brain can’t even function right now.

I’m looking forward to the guys getting here so we can celebrate conquering the hardest part of the trip. Instead of canned beans, mac n’ cheese, and PB&J for dinner tonight, we definitely deserve a BBQ!