Last day from hell

Sebastopol to Noe Valley, San Francisco: 70 miles

Sorry we haven't written about our last day until now. We got distracted. San Francisco is a fun place.

On Tuesday, we discovered that there is a god, and he didn't want us to get to San Francisco. I woke up around 9:30 in the morning in Sebastopol, and wandered downstairs to find Sam curled up on the couch, awake (rare for that time in the morning). He had been up all morning with brutal food poisoning. He couldn't even hold down a glass of water. So we hung out for a while, he started feeling marginally better and eventually managed to hold down a bagel. So around 2:30 we hit the road, Sam with all of probably 25 calories in his body and a terrible stomach ache. Poor kid could hardly even see straight. 

We averaged about 9 mph (compared to our normal 15) and limped our way south. It took a really long time. There was a decent amount of climbing through the hills around where Sonoma County meets Marin County, and somehow, despite the switchbacks, I swear to God with wind was always blowing against us when we were climbing. It was a good wind too, probably 25 mph. Bottom line, we were pretty much getting our asses kicked. I was miserable; I can only imagine how Sam was feeling. 

Eventually we made it into the Bay Area, and our spirits (and the wind) lifted considerably. And luckily, we didn't have to climb Mt. Tam (pictured here). This is about when we realized that we were actually gonna make it to San Fran that day. It was a good feeling.

We finally crawled our way to the magnificent Golden Gate Bridge. Look at that. That's a bridge. 

When we got there, I noticed that Sam's rear tire was nearly flat (you've gotta be kidding me). We tried to pump it up with my little baby-pump, but inso doing, torked his tire valve in the same way I had done to mine in Ukiah (when we were stuck there changing my tire). So, at about 10:30 pm on the entrance to the Golden Gate Bridge, under 5 miles from home, we had to change his tire. It was dark and cold, and a general pain in the ass. Several cyclists passed us as we were there, and every last one of them, as they rode by said, "you guys all set?" or "you guys got everything you need?" or something like that. Cyclists are awesome.

Eventually Sam got her all fixed up, we pumped the tire (not to ruin it this time) and we crossed the bridge into the city, where Madison and Shani were waiting for us on the other side. We took the least hilly route through the city to Sam's house, which was still really damn hilly. We finally got there around 11:30. What a stupid day. I guess it was only fitting though.

Out of sympathy for Sam's plight on that day, there will be no Special Sam moment. Seriously I don't know how he biked 70 windy miles without eating more than a bagel and half a cliff bar, and with the worst stomach ache he's ever had. Trooper. But we made it. In your face, whatever deity didn't have anything better to do than try to prevent us from finishing our trip.