| Date: November 1, 1999 | | Location Canada to Mexico - #44 - San Clemente to San Diego | | Where: San Diego, California | Monday - Jim writes
We're here! We made it to San Diego! We will make a short symbolic ride to the USA/Mexico border to make it official, but in essence we have arrived!
We have mentally been keeping a list of the best and the worst of places, meals, experiences and so forth. Our hotel in San Clemente falls into the category of one of the worst. We stayed at a motel called El Rancho, which we decided should be renamed El Rauncho. At the restaurant where we were planning to have breakfast, the cook didn't show up, so we had to eat Jack-in-the-box breakfast fare. Catching the bike route out of town turned out to be "trickier" than Richard Nixon. Then we saw road signs warning of unstable cliffs next to the nuclear power plant-- that pretty much made our morning.
After a bleak ride through Camp Pendleton the scenery began to improve. By the time we got to La Jolla we were completely blown away. In fact La Jolla Cove looks like Walt Disney designed it, it is incredible. We got off our bikes and stared.
Next we wound our way through La Jolla's residential area on the scenic drive then on a bike path through Mission Beach (not as impressive as Manhattan Beach of a couple days ago.)
We finished the day riding the path along San Diego Bay as it winds near the harbor with sail boats in the foreground and the skyline of the city in the background - absolutely gorgeous.
We have a motel room just one block from the harbor and right behind the AMTRAK station. AMTRAK we be the vehicle that takes us back to Salem in a few days after we have seen some of the sights here.
Tonight, Dave & Gary, cyclists we met on the southern Oregon coast several weeks ago will be taking us out to dinner to celebrate our arrival.
|  | | highway turned bike path |  | | La Jolla |  | | San Diego Days Distance: 67.5 miles
Days Climb: 1830 feet
Days Average Speed: 11.0 mph
Days Max Speed: 30.0 mph
Total Distance: 1963.1 miles |  | | Torrey Pines |  | | San Diego |
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