Day 2: San Francisco to Danville

45 miles + ferry. We woke at 6:30am and back to the bikes. Thank goodness nothing was lost from Jay's bike box and I was able to fix the bikes in an hour. The bike shipping gods have been good to us.

We are ready to leave by 7:45. Amy and Rune drink their green juice and laugh at our attire. They see us off and wish us a great trip. We'll see them again at then end of the road.

We rush to the ferry from SF to Oakland. What strikes me is the immense momentum of our weighted bikes going down the SF hills. I get a blister just from squeezing the brakes. It's cold and foggy, but everyone says it'll be hot and sunny on the other side of the hill because of the microclimates. 

We get to the ferry on time and Jay buys our tickets. We notice the people coming to the city look more cool and comfortable than people in NYC. We see it in their faces, clothes, and walking speed. Only 4 of us take the ferry to Oakland, and we're all bikers. Danny, an engineer, tells us of his own bike adventures and work at a start-up company now under Google. He makes windmills that fly on kites, harnessing the wind's energy. Another great SF story. We're impressed by his openness -- he gives us his contact info in case we need anything. Fellow bikers are comrades.

We bike through Oakland to Berkeley, stopping at a used bookshop to buy Tom Wolfe's The Electric Koolaid Acid Test, and we pass dad's favorite record stores. We bike through UC Berkeley campus and see Asian families taking photos with their middle and high school children. This is what they do during vacation, as opposed to the parties, sleepovers, and television dramas that ruled my formative years. A little social commentary. 

Biking North we pass Chez Panisse. They were doing construction but invited us in to take a peak while they watched our bikes. Jay went straight through the kitchen to the head chef.

I then had the best bread and cheese across the street at Cheeseboard, which has been there for 40+ years. There was a line at 11am waiting for the pizza place to open at 11:30.

Next we headed over the hill on Wildcat Canyon Rd. Jay's lesson today -- the front ring has a smaller gear. My lesson -- riding with your partner can be a lot of fun.

Over the hill we pass through Tilden Park. Jay took the mountain like a pro.

Into Danville there are bike paths connecting the suburbs. We pick up flowers for Auntie Chris. Dinner with Chris and Mike, who turns out is a delightful, extrovert Republican, then pass out early. Jay had a long day.

Day 1: New York City to San Francisco

We landed in SF at 9pm, 2.5 hrs later than expected. Amy, our most humble and generous friend, picked us up from the airport. The bikes arrived earlier to her apartment via FedEx and bikeflights.com (great company!) for $50 each. But they weren't all in one piece. Jay's box had opened from the bottom en route. I was terribly anxious and appreciated Jay's coolness.

Amy had made us dinner -- taco salad with grape tomatoes from her community garden and tomatillo salsa made by Rune, her husband. We went to their wedding in SF earlier this year. It was the most beautiful wedding planned in only 3 weeks in a friend's backyard. In fact, it was the quickness and budget that really made it outstanding. Everyone there really wanted to be a part of their marriage, and each person contributed their creativity, skill, and helping hand to make it happen. Amy and Rune have a special talent of cultivating community.

Though Amy's from Connecticut and Rune from Norway, they are the classic SF couple. Amy is a chemist and busts her butt in the development of a hepatitis drug. On the side she takes classes in permaculture, which has to do with living and working in conjunction with nature's cycles. Her and Rune are also yogis -- her sister teaches yoga on her balcony down the street. Rune recently left a start-up tech company to pursue his own entrepreneurial spirit. They are both very successful, but their philosophy is "if we lose it all, we'll just start over." Amy says it with a smile and we thank god for helping us do what we want to do. Worst case we can live in yurts on a plot of land. Their future dream is to open a bed and breakfast, which they get good practice at living in a beautiful apartment overlooking the bay in one of our country's A-grade cities. They are hosting 4 friends just this week.

After dinner we go to the bikes. At home I'm the bike mechanic and Jay is the head chef. But Jay's breaks were loose (bad news in hilly SF) and my pedals wouldn't turn. Best to go to sleep and try again tomorrow.

Day 0: New York City

"I think the bicycle has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world." --Susan B Anthony

Fun trivia from my dad as I was getting ready for my California bike trip. The bicycle gives me a sense of empowerment, and it was cool to find out Susan B Anthony felt the same. Having to purchase a new set of wheels last month (I got screwed -- ran over a screw and it went all the way through the rim) my bike shop guys asked what I looked for in a pair of wheels. After sleeping on it, I returned and let them know I wanted to pass guys on bikes more expensive than my own, and I wanted to look good doing it. But seriously, biking is what gives me the strength to work hard at everything else I do. It feels good to go fast and get somewhere, all on my own. I am not myself without my bike. The bike shop guys wholeheartedly agreed and offered the profound advice that "yeah, if you don't look good doing it, then why do it at all?" So, I got a pair of elite Mavic wheels, the French ones they use on the Tour.

I'm planning a Tour de California, this time not alone, but with my (legal) domestic partner Jay. I'm very nervous because Jay recently got into biking, potentially as an "accommodation" mechanism (as Janet puts it) to make me happy. He's been requesting that the trip be planned exactly and that we need a plan B. I'm not sure he's ready for the unexpected not so fun aspects of bike touring (like riding next to logging trucks during a tropical storm, or the heat, hard work, and exhaustion), but I decide to plan as much as possible, including the routes, hotels, and restaurants. I contacted bike stores in each city and made a file folder for each of us including the daily plan, route, and cue sheet. I feel like I just planned BRAG, and I'll add bike trip planner to my list of potential careers after getting my PhD, along with dancer, bar tender, and personal shopper. I also programmed both of our GPSs and bought an iPhone mount and map mount for the handle bars. There is no plan B, except for hitchhiking.

Jay asks "what do you want to get out of the trip?" I'd like to think there was a deeper reason for the choice of California, but it's that mom has friends in No Cali and I typed in their addresses and they are about 60 miles apart. They are adults I grew up with, and it would be great to connect with them as an adult myself. I'm not sure the type of work they do, their histories, or their political orientations, but I sure hold some funny memories of dogs, boating, vacationing, celebrating, cousins, etc. I'm grateful for those childhood experiences and for their love. They've  impacted my life, and I think it's important to trace back your roots and hold on to them strong.

But now that we're researching it, I realize California is the land of explorers, adventurers, entrepreneurs, environmentalists, and counterculture. They are the ones who sought how things could be otherwise, took risks, and some did it in harmony with the natural world. And they all have stories of transformative roadtrips -- those who traveled West, Jack London, John Muir, Jack Kerouac. Roadtrips are in my blood. Dad has stories of driving cross country delivering cars, and his brother got a van with shag carpet after graduating the Air Force, as opposed to the traditional sports car. In fact, he drove the van from Atlanta to my parents' wedding in Reno in 1981. We travel the road to leave behind societal constraints and engage with our surroundings, with the hope of finding something more genuine.

So this trip, I'm curious about what may be the counterculture of my generation -- living harmoniously with the environment, committing to a life long partner, embracing multiculturalism, and regaining authentic connection. My peers and I have seen the detriment of our environment, regarding it as object rather than unity and supporter of living things. We struggle to find an example of life-long happy marriage. We see the constant drawing of boarders in a world fully connected. And we see people stuck in phones and wars fought with robots, where living has become something virtual. Across generations, there is the constant struggle for freedom, unity, and greater consciousness. What better way to seek this than on a bicycle.

We are in for a journey, can't wait for the ride!