Howdy y’all! I’m Jonathan, the third of six spokesters. Day two is in the books! We biked 50.26 miles from San Francisco, CA to Vallejo, CA and we’ve made it to our first warm showers host. For those who didn’t read previous years’ blogs or aren't familiar with the (many) logistics of bike touring, warm showers is a community of touring cyclists and their supporters who provide reciprocal hospitality, space to rest, and (shocker) opportunities for warm showers to each other. Tonight, we’re in Vallejo CA with Bruce and Gabrielle and we’re incredibly grateful for their hospitality and advice on how to tackle our jaunt up to Sacramento tomorrow.
Before we set out eastward, I’ll offer three reflections on our first two days of biking.
First, biking is awesome! Growing up, I did lots of hiking and running but spent sparing hours on the saddle. While my quads might karmically kick me for saying this now, I’m loving knocking out the miles, seeing the first towns of our journey, powering up punishing hills, and feeling the whoosh of the downhills that reward us on the other side of the many elevation changes we’ve encountered thus far. Everyone on the team has different backgrounds with and styles of biking, so we’re still figuring out how to mesh best, especially on the more hectic and trafficked roads. As for me, I’m loving the little moments of figuring out small ways to bike safer, better, and more energy-efficiently. I’m getting better at good gear-shifting and communicating with teammates, though there’s still lots of room for improvement in both areas. My mirror-equipped glasses have been super helpful for focusing on what’s in front of and behind me simultaneously (thanks dad!). At least for these first few nights, I’m falling asleep excited to hit the roads the next morning.
Second, even though we’ve covered less than three percent of our total mileage, I’m already incredibly impressed by America’s beauty. As we neared the end of today’s journey and the third of three long bridges we crossed, the town of Pinole treated us to ~8 miles of beautiful, smooth, by-the-sea bike trail. Any discomfort or fatigue from the day was quelled instantly by a glance towards the dropping sun over the beautiful choppy water. On our final climb up to bridge #3, we turned back and watched as a train struck a pose (as well as a train can) as it emerged from a cluster of trees, rounded the bend of the coast, and chugged off into the sun. It was the kind of thing Amtrak would put on their website or in a promotional brochure. Since then, I’ve been thinking about how blessed we are to live in America and to have this incredible opportunity to see so many unique parts of it over the next ten weeks.
Third and most important to me, I’m excited that I’ve already made lots of progress on one of my biggest spokes goals — meeting people across the country (or so far across the Bay Area). Among the awesome people we’ve talked to and stayed with, one moment today stands out to me. We were eating lunch with a wonderful view of the Oakland and San Francisco skylines and decided we needed a picture. Tired of the many photos we’ve taken so far with a missing spokester, we waited for someone to ask for a snap. After a few minutes, we met Celeste and Mark, a couple from Wisconsin visiting their daughter in the East Bay. After a picturesque photo, we all chatted for a while about education, biking, the impending role of our generation, and everything in between. Partially inspired by Victoria from last year's team, I’m keeping a journal of information and life advice from everyone we meet this summer. I’m pumped that it’s already filling up so fast.
With all that said, I’ll leave y’all with a pretty picture of the Vallejo sunset and catch some Zs.
