Danny’s Ride

We woke up around 6:30 a.m. Pacific Time after five and half hours of solid sleep. As hard as I tried, I couldn’t find the snooze button on my internal alarm clock. I think Danny and Ken felt the same way and we eventually realized we were fighting a losing battle so we surrendered by throwing open the blinds which had shielded us from the already blazing sun. The dark room immediately came alive and we peered out to find brightly painted green grass below and mountains in the distance. What a spectacular view. Not a bad way to start the day!

While Danny showered, Ken and I went downstairs to the hotel lobby and enjoyed a terrific complementary breakfast. Hampton Inn sure knows how to treat its guests. I only had four mini Yoplait yogurts this time (must be the nerves about the upcoming trip holding me back from the fifth!) Eventually, Danny made his way down to breakfast and I went back up the second floor for my turn to shower.

Once the three of us finished breakfast and ventured back up the room to begin heading out, we decided it would be best to pick up as many of the things that we still needed for the bike trip in Yuma rather than waiting until San Diego. This way, when we arrive in San Diego, we can kick back, drink lots of water and relax. So we packed up our things, headed downstairs and began to load up the motor home.

While we were loading our bags, we had a wonderful conversation with Jeanine Rhea (General Manager), Nadine Gurule (Assistant General Manager) and Robert Garciduenas (Chief Engineer) of the Hampton Inn in Yuma. They were genuinely interested in the trip and went to great lengths to donate lodging for the night (in a suite no less!). We talked for about ten minutes, shared several laughs. Thank you to everyone at Hampton Inn in Yuma for making our stay such a terrific experience!

At the Home Depot we made copies of the keys for the motor home. We had only one set of keys and if we lost those, well then we would really need those bikes! After Home Depot, we steered the motor home to Mr. B’s Bicycle Shop. We met Billy (a former Marine just like Danny) who spent over two and a half hours working on our bikes. He was a one-stop fix for our bike trip. Billy helped us buy new helmets, install our helmet cameras, helmet mirrors and flashing lights on our bike. He went way above and beyond our expectations and we could not have been more grateful.

Before taking off, we snapped a picture with Billy. Right after the photo, Billy took off his Mr. B’s Bicycle Store hat, turned to Danny and said, “Who wants it?” Danny’s face lit up like a Christmas tree as he put the hat on with a big smile.

After we thanked Billy again, we loaded into the motor home, drove across the parking lot to a Jack-In-The Box and sat down for lunch. I quickly inhaled my lunch and ran into Target next door to grab batteries for our helmet cameras. When I returned, we were off to San Diego!

During our four-hour drive to San Diego, we went through some of the most beautiful mountains. While climbing the mountains, we drove past some of the largest rocks I have ever seen. Although, one thought did cross my mind – how do we get bicycles over these things?

A funny thing happened as we entered California. We were stopped at a check-point in where several cars ahead of us were waved to go but the female officer put her hand in the air as we approached. “I need to search your vehicle for fruit and vegetables. Please put your vehicle in park,” she said. Danny did as she asked. She walked around to the side of the motor home and I opened the door for her. She came in, looked around and spotted a bag of apples we had purchased from Wal-Mart a couple states back.

She questioned us on where we got them and examined the bag containing them. “These are Michigan apples. They are not allowed.”

“Really? What apples are allowed?” I asked.

“Only apples from Washington,” she replied. While holding our full bag of apples in her hand, she went on to ask us if we had a list of other fruits and vegetables, none of which we had. After she finished searching through our kitchen, she took our bag of apples and left.

We made it to San Diego around 5:15 p.m. Along the way, we tried to call ahead to find hotels that would be willing to donate a room for our trip but were unsuccessful. So we contacted the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in San Diego and after a few calls they were able to get a room for two nights at Vagabond Inn in a good part of the city for a great price. Can’t beat that!

The only thing was it was on the opposite side of San Diego – during rush hour. So, we pulled into a Starbucks and relaxed for a while. Around 7:15, we climbed back into the motor home and drove 25 minutes to Vagabond Inn. As we were checking in, we found a nice surprise from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. They had left three wrist bands attached to an LLS card with a great quote from Winston Churchill, “We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.” Wow. I’m not sure its ever been said any better.

We are relaxing in the hotel and looking forward to tomorrow. We are going to leave a day early and will take off from San Diego tomorrow afternoon and plan to ride 40-50 miles. We are doing this to cut down some of the long miles in the first couple days. Tomorrow our adventure on bicycle begins.