1700 mile bike ride from WA to Mexico-(Day 31-36)

Oct 1

We made it a month, as we departed Colorado on the first of Sept.

We woke up to find the coons had paid us a visit, even though I had booby trapped our containers. Those little fuckers unlatched the bits, lifted them enough to squeeze their little dirty coon mitts in there and grab something without knocking off my booby traps! They got our tortillas and I think that was it.

We packed up and drove the twisty mountain pass back inland to Redwood. We got to the Ford dealership, dropped the truck and walked down to a little cafe for lunch. We ate good food, I had a coffee and wrote postcards. Dad headed back to the dealership because he wanted to be around if they needed him. We dropped the truck at 11, and it's now 2:30. No answers, and we’re still waiting. They let the boys come in, and we are all just hanging out waiting for any kind of diagnosis. I am trying to figure out where we are staying for the night and my mileage, based on where we land. I am feeling super run-down and tired. Texted Josh for some inspiration. I can do this. I have some visits from friends coming up hoping that helps.

We ended up being at the dealership until about 5pm. We left with the truck and were told that parts should be in my Monday. We decided it would be best to go back toward the coast so at least we had things to do rather than being stuck in the shit hole town of Ukiah. I looked up the directions to the Manchester KOA. We agreed that the KOA would be the best option because they offer some amenities that campsites do not. We started driving over the mountains back to the coast and dad about had a freakin’ meltdown. He was stressed and the road was super curvy and with a lot of up and down the mountains. We finally made it to the KOA around 7pm after a very intense hour and a half in the car. We set up, drank a beer and went to sleep.

Oct 2- Oct 3- Stuck at the KOA

There wasn’t a ton to do at this KOA location. We relaxed, hit the hot tub as much as possible, took a couple of walks to the beach (which wasn’t as close or as pretty as I thought it would be, just kelp covered sand), we milled around the campsite and dad took lots of naps in the sun. I read and did some macrame. It was good for my body to have some rest, the timing was actually pretty good, being that I just started my period, hence the run-down and the wanting to quit feelings from the previous day. I don’t like rest, never have, but being forced to take some was good for me, my body and my knee.

On Sunday, dad and I decided to leave and go “into town.” It was like 3 houses and an Ace Hardware, combined with a grocery store. I was happy because I was really starting to feel restless. We decided to go to a cafe called Rollerville cafe, which had a roller girl on their sign. It also said “last cafe before Hawaii.” It was meant to be. We shared a Captain’s Platter which was a giant plate of shitty, fried, delicious foods and a salad. I ate all of the salad and let dad have the heaping pile of fries, which he was stoked on.

After lunch, I asked if we could drive down the road a bit to the lighthouse. He asked how far it was and since it was only a few miles agreed. We got to the lighthouse gate and there was a fee to enter. We decided that we had seen enough lighthouses and opted to park the car and walk to the edge of some sea cliffs. There were huge kelp forests in the distance, some crazy rock formations that I had never seen before, and sea lions! We renamed them “sea slugs” because that’s what they looked like from our viewpoint, just giant rock slugs. We drove back down the road a bit more to another view point of more cliffs, rocks, kelp and water.

We hit the Ace Hardware/grocery store and picked up some provisions and headed back to camp, took the dogs on a walk down the road, hit the hot tub, had dinner and hit the hay. We busted out the big tent, since dad’s smaller easy-up tent took a shit (he beat the hell out of it). This tent has a screen room that I put the bins in to avoid coons and critters.

October 4th- Manchester KOA to Ukiah to Mendocino RV park

We got up and did the usual. I decided I needed to get back to a regular yoga practice. I was making excuses that it was cold in the mornings thus making it difficult to get out of bed and get on my mat. I told myself to quit being such a whiner and to do it anyway. The last few days I did. It was more just sitting on my mat with my coffee and doing occasional stretches as the sun came up. But at least it was something. The cold makes me lazy, and sad. Which is why I moved away from it.

I went to retrieve the tubs and sure as shit those bastards opened the tent and ripped the damn handle off the bins to reach their grubby hands in! They stole our tortillas AGAIN! I laughed and told dad “You had ONE job Rickles, ONE JOB!” We hit the hot tub and dad decided that we should stay another night. At this point, I am just rolling with the punches. I want him to be comfortable and happy. Plus, what the hell else were we going to do? I got back to the site and was plotting a little workout using a gallon water jug. I noticed that the pancake mix I had just purchased was missing off the table. Confused, but hearing some critter noises, I walked around the tree to find that a GIANT squirrel had stolen it and was trying to chew off the top. I shooed him away and retrieved our pancake mix putting it back into a bin and not on the table.

Dad returned shortly after and said that he had changed his mind and thinks we should head back toward Ukiah. It wasn’t a terrible idea, being that the dealership wanted the truck around 10am on Tuesday, in case they could squeeze us in. We started packing, and I did a load of laundry. We got scolded for still being in our site after checkout time. We got everything in and ready and hit the road around 1pm. We drove the same twisty road back over the mountains, this time dad took his time and was in a much better mood, it was much more of an enjoyable ride. We got to Ukiah and I had dad drop me at a Starbucks to research the best place for us to stay. Having the dogs has definitely made this process more difficult. How are places going to charge pet fees and not kid fees?!

Neither of us wanted to be stuck at a shitty motel in that shitty town. I found us a cabin about 30 miles north in Willits. We agreed that would be our best option out of what I found. We drove out, checked in, and unloaded the entire truck. Dad drank a beer and I took a walk with Doodle. I came back, cooked some dinner and we went to bed. Well, dad went to bed. Being that we are in a cabin his bed is about 5 feet from mine and he snores so badly I couldn’t sleep. I took my pillow and blanket and crawled into the truck in the middle of the night for some shitty sleep. It was cold and with lights in my face, but at least it was quiet.

Oct 5th - Stuck in Ukiah- One of the worst days riding

Woke up early and irritated due to hormones and lack of sleep. Started coffee, ate a quick breakfast, unloaded the rest of the truck, loaded my bike up and headed into Ukiah. The plan was for me to drop the truck and just ride back to the cabin. I chatted with the nice girl at Ford who had been taking care of us, begging her to get us out of here as soon as possible so I could continue down the coast. She said she would do her best but we were probably still looking at Thursday or Friday. Fuck.

I hopped on my bike and started pedaling down the main street. I got run off the road by an ass hat who couldn’t figure out how to use his damn blinker. I couldn’t unclip in time and fell onto the curb. Falling wasn’t as bad as I had made it out to be. But I was still mad at the motorist, yelling obscenities and giving them the finger. The roads in town were shit, as were the drivers, and I was just getting more and more irritated. I was going to try and avoid 101 for as long as I could before merging onto it. It was now a freeway with lots of traffic, and shitty trash filled shoulders. I was on it for about 11 miles and decided if I was going to keep pedaling I was probably going to die. There were two different construction zones coming up with cement dividers on either side and no shoulder.

I looked up a bike route using Google Maps, and it added a few miles and some hella elevation. But I didn’t care. I just wanted off the freeway. At first it was great, I took the next exit and rode through a few small towns, and even passed Frey vineyards, which is funny because they are one of my favorite wines. I wished I could have stopped and gotten a bottle. The road turned and I figured I might lose service once I got into the mountains, so I took screen shots of the turn by turn directions. I rode another 5 or so miles and decided to pull over for a lunch break at 16 miles, I clicked on the little icon on my route and it said due to the incline, I may have to dismount my bike. I thought “the hell I will.” I finished fueling up and made it a point to tell myself if I can help it, I will not walk my bike. The hill slowly started to incline, I was only able to maintain about 4mph, just fast enough not to create any kind of breeze and allow little flies that were attracted to my face sweat, or my hot breath to fly directly in front of my face, with the slow speed and incline it was difficult to take a hand off to shoo them away. Irritations returned. I was wondering at what point of this massive hill I was supposed to get off and walk, I thought surely it had to flatten out sooner or later.

As I huffed and puffed up the hill with the stupid little flies hovering in my face, I noticed a cop car driving in the middle of the road toward me. He opened his window and tried to talk to me. If you have ever been clipped into your pedals you understand that momentum is vital to your upright position, I couldn’t stop or slow down so I just rode by as he told me there was a truck and trailer that went over the edge that they were trying to retrieve and I may not be able to pass. I said “Oh, ok thank you” and just kept going. I was not on some leisurely ride, I had to get over the mountain pass in order to get home. At this point I was about 20 miles in. There was no way I was turning around and riding out back to the freeway. Fuck that!

I climbed slowly and meticulously. The cop must have turned around because he passed me shortly after our interaction, he and a Jeep decided to have their conversation in the middle of the road making it impassable for me. Irritated once again, I had to unclip and wait. The cop was an ass. I asked him if he thought I could walk past, he just scoffed and said "I doubt it, I don’t want you disturbing their work.” I told him I didn’t have a choice and I needed to get over the mountain. He rolled his eyes at me. The Jeep dude parked and was taking pictures of the SEMI TRUCK with its back end twisted and rolled off the side of the hill in the middle of the turn. I was thinking that it was going to be a pickup truck and a trailer, not a SEMI TRUCK! The thing should have never even been on this road! There was even a sign at the start that said so!

I stood there for a moment and one of the workers came close enough that I could ask him if I could pass. He was super nice and said “Oh sure! I will help you with your bike” He grabbed the rear, I lifted the front and we carried it under the crane that was getting attracted to the trailer. Once on the other side of that I squeezed between the cab of the truck and the hill to make it to the other side. I was relieved that the workers were nicer than the cop and that I didn’t have to explain my situation or wait it out. I was back on the saddle and continued, you guessed it, UPHILL. This fucker was loooong!

At one point I had to get off and catch my breath and told myself as long as we can pedal we will. Up and up we went. Until, finally, a little downhill break. But that soon took a hard left and turned into gravel. I rode for what seemed like forever on a very shitty gravel road, I was very happy I chose a gravel bike for this trip and not a road bike. I would have been hella screwed. I saw a coyote and some old broken down farms. I didn’t have service so I checked the screen shots, I had to be on the right road, the only other road I could have taken said “private drive, no trespassing” I pedaled on and hit the first of maybe 4 stream crossings. Today they were just big puddle crossings that required me to get off and walk over them.

The gravel was relentless, with the rain grates I felt like either I was going to rattle apart or my bike was. With the ups and downs, in and out of the stream bed I had to get off and walk a handful of times. I couldn’t keep the speed I needed to keep my back tire from skidding out. At one point I started to get a bit nervous because I hadn’t seen a car in a couple of hours and I was seeing trash piles, like perhaps people lived out here. I rode past what looked like a driveway and saw a dog, I prayed it wouldn’t chase me, I wouldn’t be able to get away. I was again more than irritated and started to get a little scared. If something were to happen, no one would find me. I would rather pedal that hill again than this shit. I checked the map again. It said I was on the right road. I finally saw where I was supposed to turn off and welcomed the shitty pavement over the shitty gravel. I started to hear traffic which was comforting and shortly after saw my first car in hours. I had another uphill push and then got some decent down hill, except they weren’t even fun to bomb down because the asphalt was so crappy -- with potholes, cracks and poorly done patch jobs.

I finally made it out to flat land, back into the farms, small towns and vineyards at one point it looked so similar I thought “no fucking way did I just do a giant circle.” I got service back and was able to check the map. I did not. I was on the right road and only had about 6 miles to go. I stopped one more time for a snack before pedaling through the town of Willits and back out to our campground. Told dad I would rather hitchhike back to Ukiah than ride that shit again. We hit the hot tub, I made dinner and I had another sleepless night of listening to dad snore.

Oct 6th - Wednesday- Nowhere to go.

We are stuck here. I hate it. I feel tired and crappy. I want to be riding. Having nothing to do is good but it also drives me batshit crazy. Woke up, grabbed my computer and book and went outside, made coffee and read and wrote for awhile. Dad finally made an appearance and was chatting to another friend on the phone. I love that he actually talks on the phone to his friends. They call him or he calls them. It's adorable. When people call me, I panic! I made us really good sausage, egg, avocado and rice cake quinoa bowls for breakfast. We hit the hot tub, showered and came back to the site. I was bored and restless and tired but wanted to do something. I decided to take a little nap since I hadn’t slept well the past two nights. Got a short one in, before restlessness kicked back in. I filled the water jug, grabbed my yoga mat and went up the hill to do a little workout. It was wonderful, I miss weights and moving my body off the bike. Cycling is exercise for sure, and spending 4 plus hours pedaling is a workout. But nothing compares to weight training. Looking forward to getting back to that.

Dad reorganized some of his gear and cleaned up a bit. He played a bit of guitar and I read. It was starting to cool off so I suggested another tub session. I found the kiddie pool to be quite cold so I could do a bit of contrast therapy. Rinsed off and came back, we are running low on supplies so dinner was a spinach salad with tuna and quinoa. It was actually pretty good. Made some hot tea and hoping to beat dad to bed so I can actually sleep.

Bradley reached out and asked if he could join us again for a few days. Who is going to say no to good company? He said he would like to see me again before I went back to Hawaii. We talked about a few different options and found this to be the best. He arrives tomorrow evening.