PC_Day34

Day 34

Friday, 2 July 2004
San Diego, CA to Imperial Beach, CA
20.3 miles, 1h43m, 11.9 mph
Elapsed Time: 2h49m, Max speed: 20.6mph
Total Climbing: 220ft, Max elevation: 77ft
Total mileage: 1985.9

An historic day for cycling...at least for JT and me. A short ride of 20 miles and we'd be done with the entire coast! Woo-hoo!

The Last Day: Starting at the Residence Inn

We rode about a half mile before stopping to purchase tickets for the ferry to Coronado. This would be our eighth and final boat ride of the trip. Along the way we had some nice views of the aircraft carrier Midway (CV 41), which we would tour later in the day. The Nimitz (CV 68) was also nearby, but it looks like the Navy's still using that one.

USS Midway in San Diego harbor.

Token San Diego skyline photo.

At Coronado we picked up a bike path heading south that ran past several naval facilities before reaching the city of Imperial Beach. We stopped briefly at a 7-11 before riding through town to the very southern edge of the USA. In Border Field State Park the road turned to heavily washboarded gravel and we really had to fight for the final miles. The road turned back to pavement right at the end.

Why couldn't they pave the whole thing?

We took the requisite photos at the border stone and along the fence. I must say, from this perspective Mexico looks much more prosperous than the USA. There's a small town, complete with bullring and taco stand just on the other side of the fence. The American side is just a big empty field.

At the border stone: bullring is behind to the left.
Taco stand is 100 yards behind to the right.

We dragged our bikes down the steep bluff to the water's edge in order to reach the very southernmost point on the US Pacific coast. After a couple of photos the border patrol guy came driving down the beach and ran us off. He didn't actually say anything to us, but we got the message.

The very corner of the US Pacific coast.

We turned around and started riding north.

Eventually we got tired of baiting the border patrol guy so we loaded the bikes in the rental car (a Buick Rendevous) and headed back to San Diego. On the way, I called a bike shop and learned that they would pack up our bikes and ship them for us, so we headed for the San Diego State University area. After we got rid of our bikes, we returned to the hotel to clean up, and then we celebrated with lunch at a nearby pub.

The Victory Lunch.

After lunch we walked over to the Midway and toured the carrier. It was appropriately cool.

Can you spot JT on the flight deck?

JT in control of flight operations.

That evening, Linda an I went out to a Padres game at Petco Field. We rode the "trolley," which is just a glorified light rail system. It would have been faster, cheaper, and more comfortable if we had walked, but we had to learn the hard way.

Petco Field is the newest stadium in the major leagues and it is receiving rave reviews. I wasn't so impressed. It looks like they took a little bit of every little thing that gives other stadiums character and threw it all in one ballpark. As a result, I'm not sure this place has any character of its own. It's not a bad place to watch a ballgame though.

Petco Field.

Tomorrow is officially a rest day. I think we're going to the zoo.

Previous | Next