California Trip Diary
WIP — I will finish this when I finish this.
A while ago my friend PPershing (who was at a Google internship at San Francisco prior to these events) offered me to join him on a 2-week bike trip across California, spanning about 1000km. Of course, being the initiative idiot who loves challenges and adventures, I was easily persuaded to do so. And so I (i.e. a city girl with poor health and no prior training) have set out for the big scary USA, planning to spend one week with my boyfriend Tomi (who was, and at the time of writing still is, at Google San Francisco as well), and then two weeks swearing about being such an initiative idiot along with biking uphill.
The trip turned out very, very differently. Nevertheless, it was interesting (maybe even more than it would be if everything went according to the plan), and therefore I am presenting my diary.
Part 1: the Holiday
TODO
Part 2: the Bike Tour and All the Rest
Day 0 (2013/09/01) — Sunday
I am starting to realize what exactly I’ve set out to do. I am going to spend two weeks biking mostly uphill with all this food, water and other baggage, in my health condition, with zero training, and with PPershing. I find my anxiety understandable, and my immense joy rather surprising.
Day 1 (2013/09/02) — Monday
And so we’re on our way. My back hurts after the first 500m, but I’ll manage. We have successfully arrived at the train station, where we could notice not only how confused and desoriented by it the Americans themselves are, but also how hard it is to push the bikes up the ramp. And I’m supposed to climb hills for two weeks with this. Hooray!
Our train ride to Sacramento was OK (except for the fact that the bike was deciding where I’d go rather than the other way around). The bus ride to Redding was OK as well (except for the fact that I was very glad I forgot to take off my bike helmet, as I managed to get hit quite hard by the big bad metal door on the bus’s luggage compartment).
After a hard battle with a huge shrimp something in the local fast-food we started our journey, and soon enough we encountered the first hill. As I expected, I almost died of exhaustion and lack of air, but it was actually a lot sooner than I had expected. The other hills were better — mainly because I knew what to expect. And after less than 20km I (of course) managed to meet a thorn, which flattened my tire and subsequently also the function of our progress in time. But I must not lose hope, for tomorrow a scary mountain awaits us, and therefore hope shall be needed!
Day 2 (2013/09/03) — Tuesday
And yesterday I thought that little hill was scary.
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