Once Around on a Bicycle
Clancy's Bar at Seal Beach was opened in the late '50's. The owner's son is standing in the doorway in this picture. He told me that 'Clancy' is not his last name, but one of his father's given names. I did not go inside and have a drink. I still plan to donate my liver to science.
This must be the safest stretch of beach on the entive coast. I saw all of these guard towers clustered together at Huntington Beach.
This is a typical scene along the Orange County coast in SoCal: cliffs, a sandy beach, and the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway). There are bike lanes on much of the PCH, except as it passes through a few downtown areas. Then, cyclists have to battle with parked cars and distracted drivers. I was lucky to get through those areas without suddenly meeting a car door.
They enjoy their sailing in San Diego. That's the downtown skyline in the background.
The high desert west of San Diego is very desolate. It's not as bad as Australia's Nullarbor, but you wouldn't want to be stuck out here without a full water bottle or two.
The town of Jacumba (population 400) on the Mexican border has its own airport. This isn't all of it. There's a windsock out of frame.
I rode on Interstate 8 through the In-ko-pah Gorge down to the Imperial Valley. It was a descent of about 2500 feet in 8 miles; a real E ticket ride. In the language of the local Indian tribe, In-ko-pah means 'more darn rocks'. Or, maybe not.
Much of the farm land in the Imperial Valley is below sea level. I took this picture of silos at a sugar factory just north of El Centro. Notice the line and words painted halfway up the first silo. It says 'Sea Level'. This might be the low point of the trip, pun intended.
The Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area is where the gearheads come out to play with their ATV's, OHV's, SUV's, dune buggies and dirt bikes. For 10 to 15 miles I cycled on the only paved road through the sand dunes. The DOT has sand plows patrolling this stretch of road to keep the sand off the blacktop. They weren't very successful the day that I passed through because of extremely high winds. At the eastern edge of the sand dunes is the town of Glamis (a store and a few trailer homes). I stopped there to have a quick snack and to remove sand from parts of the bike and myself.
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