The final days!

The trip has not ended as gloriously and triumphantly as we had hoped. Yes, dear readers, we are in San Fran! The last 150 miles were travelled by bus, rather than bike, though.

The day after our completely awesome day, we started out as always, ready to make it to Gualala. We were both a little sore and a little tired from our hard-core day, but we were ready to chug on. About an hour in, though, something wasn't right. Zac was dragging more than usual. When we were climbing hills at the same pace, I knew something wasn't right.

When I looked up and saw him curled on the ground in the fetal position on the side of the road, I knew something was WRONG.

He had hit a crack in the road, and since he was feeling under the weather, his reflexes weren't as quick as normal. Ironically, in my distress at seeing him on the ground and my urgency to help him, I hit the same obnoxious crack!

So we pulled off the road, repaired his gashed knee, and biked on. Well...tried to bike on. A quarter mile down the road, it became apparent that Zac had pulled a muscle in such a way that biking wasn't going to happen. So we found a state park parking lot to rest in while we planned our next move. Have I mentioned we were about 9 miles from the nearest town?

And that's when we me our curmudgeony guardian angel.

While we were resting, a large white pickup truck pulled in. He must have seen our bikes and come to find their owners. I walked up to the driver's side and before I had a chance to open my mouth, he grumbled, "you're looking for a ride somewhere, aren't you?"

We threw our bikes into the back of his truck and he gave us a ride to Elk, the next town south of where we got stranded. He was a gruff sort of fellow and made it a point to remind us that he was not only doing us a favor, but also going out of his way to do so! But we were so grateful to him not only for giving us a ride, but giving us a ride to an inn with the most beautiful gardens and seaside views:

So we rested, and recouped...and then Zac got righteously sick.

And then I got sick.

And then we decided it was time to stop biking and hop us a bus to San Fran.

So that's exactly what we did! We quit while we were (sort of) ahead, took care of ourselves and have had zero regrets about doing so! In my mind, we still biked from Vancouver to San Francisco, and it was a phenomenal trip.

Stay tuned for another entry or two...because the adventure's not over yet...and I really need to tell you about how we surprised our favourite apogee kids at the golden gate bridge...