Tuesday, Davenport



What a great day. We left Rudy's house with the bikes in back and headed south along with my wife Mary who had been recruited to drive Rudy's truck back home. She dropped Rudy and I off at the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge and after a photo op, we joined the bike commuters on the way to San Francisco. We met or were passed by at least 30 people on bikes in the short time it took us to cross the bridge. A beautiful morning, clear and in the 40s. We could easily see the Farallons Islands about 22 miles off the coast.



Entering San Francisco in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, we saw our first interesting sign: "Coyote Crossing." We never saw any and skirted the very posh Sea Clift area and headed down 27th Avenue toward Golden Gate Park. Our route took us down The Great Highway along the coast to Highway 35 and Skyline Boulevard in Daly City before hooking up on Highway 1. We stopped in Pacifica for a bite to and a fellow patron commented on my good looks and obvious intelligence. Great coffee at the place, I have no idea what was in it as we avoided it.



South on Highway One up some good climbs; heart rates up, speeds down, but a tail wind. A good climb took us past Devils Slide which is being bypassed with a new tunnel through the mountain. Devils Slide as the name implies is an area that annually closes Highway One with rock slides. Great views of the ocean.



Lunch in Half Moon Bay in an English Pub. Our waitress, "Cola" short for Nicole was pleasant and we had a nice chat with some fellow diners. They were locals and said we had a couple of big hills on the way to Davenport. Descriptions of hills by vehicle drivers are always suspect but he was fairly accurate. Our good fortune continued in the form of a very strong tail wind and we rolled into Davenport around 3:46 after traveling an estimated 75 miles.



Along the way we chatted with two young men on carbon fiber bikes and no gear. They were part of a group that was doing a project for school. We later met and rode with another member of the group who was very interested in our ride. We saw a few other riders who also appeared to be touring. The north bound riders did not look happy, our tail wind was their brick wall.



We stopped at Pigeon Point Light house for a photo op and will post a couple of photos if I can remember how to do it.



We are staying in the Davenport Road House Inn. Not much choice, population is around 400. There is a large cement plant in town. We had a nice photo of local church built entirely of concrete made with local cement, but never had a chance to check out the church (it was up the hill). We had a nice dinner, checked in with the home front, made some reservations for the next two nights. it will be an early night as we are tired.