We Biked Across LA and Lived to Tell About it.

Here is my first post about why I'm riding and why donating to Water Life Hope will make Godot arrive promptly.

Steve in the old neighborhood

March 13: 25 miles


We started a bit late on Wednesday, I'll allow.  Steve and I went down to Venice and hunted down a couple of places I used to live.  They were there, but the Marathon Meatless Mess Hall has vanished along with it's famous signs painted by my buddy Arnie, once the only fruitarian in the Texas penal system.   The whole place is more prosperous, or more precisely now demands prosperity.  The Arnies of the world have been banished.

The bikes were all prepared the night before.   Cameras went on courtesy of friends Paula (donated a front light) and Charles (made a custom mount for the rear light).    We stocked food, and got more spare tubes
Near the start of the ride

.  So Carol and I headed to the Santa Monica Pier with some confidence.  It didn't last.   Streets did not appear on the ground as promised on the maps.  Bike lanes disappeared without notice.  For a great while we rode down Santa Monica Boulevard, under riding conditions that were just nuts.   I'm now convinced a specific portion of Cesar Chavez Boulevard is a source of evil in the world.  Near the end Carol started using her digital Adventure Cycling Association maps and it helped.  But the idea that LA is a car town is devastatingly accurate.  
Took this picture for our vegan pal, Michael

Despite the difficulties, it was a great tour of the city.  We went from the beach towns of Venice and Santa Monica, through Beverly Hills, Hollywood, Silverlake, Echo Park, Chinatown and East LA.  We stopped at Besties, a vegan store.   There was the Beverly Hills sign (unfortunately, on the left side of the street), there was street art, murals and a wild mix of people.

We'd only gone 25 miles but the nondescript motel in Alhambra was a world away from where we'd started.  Carol stayed in to recover while Steve and I hit a Chipotle, then tried to chase down a ride with the Ovarian Psychos.   It was not to be.  We found the Conxa, a community center, but they were having a class that night.  The ride was postponed to the full moon.   Oh well.  I bought a t-shirt and took off.

March 14: 40 miles

We went farther than originally planned on Thursday, in order to reach an affordable place to stay.  We're still not in free camping territory and our Warm Showers host got the flu.  So we headed for an Econolodge in Ontario.  Traffic stress was far lower, and we covered the 40 miles in roughly the same time as 20 the previous day.
Today was much more Route 66

By the time we got about 10 miles in we were clearly in another world.  Pasadena was cool because it's Pasadena (JPL and all that).  The standout of the ride was Monrovia.  The high school was huge and beautiful and the intersections patrolled by watchful school crossing guards.  School children walked along streets lined with lovely little bungalows.  It looked like a movie.  The route took us through the Claremont Colleges and nearby St Ambrose church.  

About the last 8 miles was on the Pacific Electric Inland Empire Trail, peaceful and easy.   We pulled in, and walked to Rocky's Pizza for pizza pie on Pi Day.   Tomorrow we start the climb towards the Cajon Pass.  Then Lent in the desert.



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