Los Awesome?

Day 37: Malibu to Costa Mesa

Today's Distance: 84 miles

Total Distance: 1,873 miles

Being back in Southern California means I was actually able to camp last night, but still have a cellphone signal.  My buddy Crespo has been telling me for a while now to let him know when i'm in his area because he wanted to ride with me.  It ended up working out with his schedule, so last night we went over all the details for today.  All I knew was that Crespo has a low-rider beach cruiser, so in my head I was thinking this whole time that he would just ride a stretch near the beach with me.  It's difficult to time out where you're going to be at a certain time, so I was stressing a little bit about where and when he could meet me to ride with me for like 10 miles or so.  I was genuinely surprised when he said he was going to ride the whole day with me, to the point that I didn't fully believe him until he actually showed up this morning.  His girlfriend Jeannette dropped him off this morning at a Starbucks about 5 miles south of my campsite.  And sure enough he had a road bike and was fully prepared to do this and I was all for it!

We hung out at that Starbucks for a little bit while I ate something and tried to give Crespo as much advice as I could.  Although he had a nice, new road bike he did admit that the longest he had ridden it was 20 miles, more of less.  I knew for sure that we would at least need to make it to Huntington Beach and that's about a 72 mile ride.  For a first real bike ride, 72 miles is a lot in my opinion!  We were football teammates back in high school and he survived all of the same stuff as I did, so I knew he had the willpower and drive to do this...but we had Jeannette on speed dial just in case haha!

The good news is that the ride is pretty flat, at least compared to what i've already been through and the weather couldn't be more perfect.  The most "LA" thing we experienced were the two different film crews we rode by in Malibu and then another one in Santa Monica.  We rode on the boardwalk through Santa Monica and Venice Beach.  The only real obstacles were pedestrians and slipping on the sand on the path.  Crespo was doing solid other then the sporadic comments about how his butt was already hurting.  The pace was a lot slower than I've been used to, but it also gave me a chance to work on my tan and take in all sights and sounds of these beach cities.  After Venice, we stopped in for lunch at Islands and Crespo decided to double up on his padded bike shorts by putting another pair over the pair he was already wearing haha.  I didn't think it would help but he was struggling pretty hard at this point.  Not so much with the cardio, but definitely with the dreaded saddle soreness.

We rode around Marina Del Ray and through Manhattan, Hermosa, and Redondo Beach where there was a big Veterans Parade waiting for us.  After that we headed a little more inland through Torrance, grabbed a couple red bulls, and then crossing through a PCH intersection Crespo cramped up.  I was waiting at the other side and although I felt bad for him, I couldn't keep from cracking up.  I've been there.  Unfortunately, it didn't get any easier from there as we rode through the rest of the South Bay and Long Beach during rush hour.  I knew it was going to be sketchy, but it ended up being SUPER sketchy!  I was legitimately worried that one of us was going to be hit by a crazy driver.  There was no bike lane or shoulders and even though it was stop & go traffic, everyone was pushing to get in front of one another.  The sights at this point changed to inner-city, where one guy was getting arrested and at another point there was an actual fight.

Once we hit Orange County, I just smiled the rest of the way.  I cannot believe i'm here!  I spent 7+ years in OC so it's just like being home.  Riding through Seal Beach the sun was setting and Crespo was reaching his limit.  At Huntington we jumped on the boardwalk and rode the rest of the way in the dark.  We met up with my friend Jenn and Kyle at the Hilton for some celebratory drinks and a bite to eat.  I'm so glad I go to be able to do this day with my bud and so stoked that he actually finished!  Other than the sketch streets and the amount of miles, today was actually pretty easy for me and I still had some miles left in me.  Crespo hitched a ride only to be replaced by another one of my best friends, DJ aka Dahle'.  DJ cruised up with his beach cruiser and boombox and we took a ride we've done many times before to Costa Mesa.  When the day was finally finished, we cracked a couple more beers and played some Nintendo.  Another great day!