San Diego and the Border

WE MADE IT!!….read on for the details

It was a beautiful sunny morning at Clemente State Park where we woke up for our second to last day of riding. The group was energized and thrilled to start the last leg. We took off in a huge group along a bike path to Oceanside. Father Mike, our host for two nights in San Diego, greeted us on his recumbent bike. He handed us maps and we followed him for 30 miles to San Diego. Thank you Father Mike for your generosity and hospitality!

The next day we set out to the border and back. We decided not to cross the border due to long lines waiting to get back in to the US. Excitement again filled the air… the day had finally come. Suddenly it was hard to believe that this was it. We have come so far and it has flown by. We wrote on our legs ‘Canada to Mexico’ and ‘1,900 miles’ to celebrate our physical feat, and continuously throughout the day we exclaimed, “We just rode from Canada!” Surprisingly, a popular question now that we were done with the trip was, ‘are you all going to bike back now?” Despite doubling the length of the trip, we have learned that biking south to north is a bad idea because of headwinds (like we needed an excuse not to ride back…).

Over a delicious breakfast, talk of a race to the border heated up. As people pumped tires,others were letting air out trying to slow down their competition and gain any advantage they could. After many laughs we decided to start together and the group set up a mock start line, roaring out of the church parking lot en masse. Ironically with all the talk of racing and as one of the chief tire sabotage protagpnists Dave made it only a half a mile before one of his spokes broke. The team stopped together and waited until an alternative solution was found…. One hour later the group was back on the road, and this time Dave and Kelly were riding a rented tandem together to the border!

Reaching the border was exciting after 6 weeks being on the road. It was also intense… immediately questions of migration, economics and politics flooded conversations because of the two massive steel walls that rose above us to signify the strict US border control. A border that is loaded with conflict, peace, politics, death and promises. We turned around to return back to San Diego to be greeted by Emilie’s mom who provided us dinner and dessert. Thank you Ms. Whittemore! All in all it was a day of ups and down. We ended the day with a dress up dance party and a long late night walk to a beachside restaurant to celebrate a bit.

The next day we had a group day in San Diego debriefing, looking at pictures from the trip and getting ready for our trip to Tijuana. More to come on the visit to Tijuana, several days with a great community organization called Los Ninos…

Written with love from the 2008 riders!