Day 1 -- San Francisco, CA to Vallejo, CA

Miles: 73.34
Total Miles: 73.34
Time: 5:34
Average Speed: 13.2 mph
Max Speed: 39.9 mph
Flats Today: 0
Total Flats: 0
Elevation Gain: 4313 ft
Weather: Foggy in the morning, sunny the rest of the day

This was the first official day of riding, so this was the START of our trek across America. We woke up at 5 a.m., ate breakfast, loaded up our luggage, then the entire group headed out together. Less than 3 miles in, we ran into a hill larger than any we had trained on, and one guy already had 2 flats. I bet his work pool was decided quickly! Oh wait, maybe his fellow employees like him. Anyway, at the bottom of the hill we were all together, but at the top of the hill we were all spread apart... a mile long hill at 10% grade seems to be good at doing that. Believe it or not, I was the very first one to the top.

Then, almost immediately after we reached the top, the fog kicked in. It wasn't raining, but it felt like it was because of the moisture collecting on the trees then dripping onto us. We weren't phased by the "rain" because the scenery was absolutely amazing... words or pictures just can't show the beauty that we saw today. Our first stop was at the Pacific Ocean to do our ceremonial tire dipping... It was freezing. We got to go in that super cold water twice because Ken wasn't very good at taking pictures. We gave him a lot of crap for that, but he kept on spoiling us. He met us at both the ocean and the Golden Gate Bridge to take pictures, and most importantly he brought us strawberries and cherries. Thank You Ken. Speaking of the Golden Gate Bridge, it was foggier than the last 2 days, so once again we didn't get many pictures, except some geeky engineer looking ones.

After that, the rest of the day was just more awesome scenery and great biking. We got on highway 37 for the last 20 miles, and it was very interesting. There is endless debris on the shoulder, so it was like a video game when you try to dodge things flying at you. When you come to an on ramp, you have to look back at cars coming on the highway, and sometimes slow down or even stop for them, then quickly get across the ramp to the shoulder. When you come to an off ramp it's even harder because the cars are moving faster and there are more of them. Don't worry Joan, I'm keeping your baby safe. The worst part about the highways are the little wires from the blown truck tires that get caught in your tire then give you a flat. While we were on that stretch of highway, Wade started to hear a soft clicking sound on every rotation of his tire. At first he thought it had something to do with his gears, but after shifting them realized that wasn't it. So, he looked down and saw a shiny object rotating around with his tire. He said, "Hey dad I think I need to stop because I think I have something stuck in my tire." We stopped and he pulled out one of those tiny little wires that I was talking about... He is one lucky dude. From then on it was just more awesome scenery all the way to our hotel in Vallejo, California. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, Wade got to collect the ceremonial water from the pacific ocean since he is the youngest on the trip... I think I get to collect the water from the Atlantic Ocean for being the prettiest on the trip. Also, here is one of the two videos we didn't add from yesterday with the steepest hills in San Francisco. We'll try to add the other one tomorrow if we have faster connection.