Once I rode my bike from Vancouver to Los Angeles. The first leg of the trip smelled cold, wet and salty. Like fish and chips. Like morning fog. The same way northern Spain smells and sometimes New York City. The next leg of the trip smelled like dry sun. Brown burnt grass. Mexican food. Deserts. […]
Tag: California
Maine
Near Ogunquit Maine I saw a car with a bumper sticker that said: we don’t care how you do it in California. Well I don’t care that you don’t care I’m telling you anyway: when it comes to bike camping California does it better. In Maine, for the first time in all the years of […]
My friend Zoe
I was going to write a post about the bike trip that I took a few weeks ago. But I realized it was going to be mostly about Zoe. It’s one of my favorite stories to tell–how I met Zoe. I sat down at a picnic table at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park in California. […]
Everything you wanted to know about my bike trip
My smart, lovely friend Molly gave me some feedback on my blog (which I love–everybody give me feedback please!). She said, so your posts are great and all, but you don’t really tell me what you do everyday. Good point. Molly sent me some questions that she wants answered, and I figured some of the […]
So today is your first day…
At sunset beach, a campsite about ten miles south of Santa Cruz, I met Eddie and Eric. We went through the typical cyclist introductory questions: Where are you from? Where did you start? Where are you going? Eddie and Eric were college students from the Bay Area. They were biking to L.A. The night I […]
“I always wanted to live in California because I loved skateboarding.”
(Quote: Demetri Martin) There is an intersection in Venice, California where, once in every light rotation, all of the stop lights turn red and all of the walk signs turn white. For a moment, cyclists, skateboarders, and surfboard-toting pedestrians flood the intersection. Tourists run to the middle of the street for a picture. Cars are […]
Seen and heard near Los Angeles, California
Heard: (from inside a car trying to parallel park) “Reverse until you’re halfway into the space then cut it.” “Man I gotta get outta this car. You guys are making me seasick or some shit.” Seen: a guy talking on his phone while riding his bike and crashing into the curb.
“You’ll go down this big hill and you’ll be in SoCal.”
A fellow cyclist, who was traveling north, advised us that we were coming upon SoCal: “you” go down this big hill and you’ll be in SoCal.” As we rode south his words made sense. After riding the inland roads for over a day, we went downhill for 2.5 miles and came upon the coast again […]
Tread lightly, for others before you trod lightly here
Maybe I’m being a little excessive with the word magic–the San Juan’s are magic, the Redwoods are magic. I almost wrote a post about how SF is magic, but I thought, no, that’s too much magic. Pretty soon you guys are gonna stop taking me seriously. But the look of those first big sur hills […]
