I’m now in the US and have had a pretty good last few days. After not really sleeping on the 11 hour flight from Auckland, jet-lag is probably going to hit me at some point in the very near future… So if this blog is a bit late going up, it’s probably because I’ve fallen asleep.
I took a look around San Francisco yesterday and am suitably pleased with the effort I put into being a tourist… I saw the big red bridge and all that, which was very exciting.
It was actually really good to see and it’s been a great place to start off America. I owe a huge thank you to Alison, Matthew and all the boys who looked after me so well while I was there.
Today itself was a pretty good ride. It turns out that the west coast actually catches a lot of cloud so I didn’t see the sun until about 4 o’clock, but even so, it felt good to be back on the bike. Despite how I thought I was feeling in Auckland, I think my body needed more than a single day’s rest (which I haven’t had since Perth) and I noticed a big difference going up the first two climbs. I even overtook a few people who I don’t think were overly pleased when they saw the weight I was carrying.
My new-found pace didn’t last much longer than a few hours but it was good to push myself for a bit as I’ve struggled to do that recently.
The rest of the ride was still good though. The drivers for the most part were very patient but I feel like they actually give me too much room. Having grown up in London and ridden through India, I don’t really mind cars coming close to me (provided they don’t hit me), so it’s a bit frustrating when they all wait behind until there’s no oncoming traffic for the next four miles. It feels like I’m holding them up… Although what with the obscenely low speed limits, I guess I’m not really.
I was given a discount on my room tonight which was nice. Not entirely sure why, but perhaps they were just charmed by my accent… A beer would have gone down quite nicely with dinner tonight, but unfortunately there’s no chance of that. I can’t understand the reasoning behind making the drinking age 21… I mean it’s not like you see loads of 18 year olds in London abusing alcohol is it!?
Distance: 107.5 miles / 172.9 km
Riding Time: 7:50:30
Av. Speed: 13.7 mph / 22.0 kph
Tom Davies RTW 
Best of luck on your next leg, I recall the first time I flew into the States many years ago, I had little appreciation of the size of the land mass, it took us as long to fly the Atlantic as it did to get across to Portland, why my brother selected almost the furthest away part to set up home. Having said that its great a great place with superb scenery, but you are probably wise to steer clear of the beers, it’s rocket fuel compared to the fluids sampled back home.
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sure the coast road sounds more exciting and scenic than the inland route via Sacramento, sure your Dad made a good choice with the navigation! if you go up through the Redwood forests, they’re truly stunning
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