Dr. Judd’s Bay Area Adventure

October 11, 2013

We hopped on the Amtrak train for the Bay Area at the Sacramento station with our bikes and far too much gear and made our way Richmond, where there was a BART terminal.  After getting to the hotel and securing our gear we went to the Giants/Dodgers game and saw the Dodgers go down in defeat.  The trip started out great!

The next morning saw us again on BART getting off at the Embarcadero and riding through the city, enjoying all the sites and smells.   I love the smell of San Francisco, riding past the flower shops, the fish markets and just the hustle and bustle of the morning.  We had a nice long breakfast at Ghirardelli Square and then headed west to connect up with Highway 1.  We gathered ourselves at a small market there in Pacifica, chugging Gatorade and then trudging south.  We did not know that the hardest part of the day was immediately in front of us.

The road went inland, weaving upward and upward through the mountains, and I was struggling.  There was no bike path and the cars were right on us.  There were many times that I just had one more push on the pedal to keep me from falling into the hill, but I made it to a rest area.  Eric and Noah were both patient with this old guy.  The road was uphill and down for the rest of the day.  We had started late and sunlight was leaving.  Half Moon Bay was behind us but there was no way that I was going to make our goal of Santa Cruz.  I spoke to the guys, as there was no town or place to stay nearby.  I couldn’t go any farther and thought of hunkering down somewhere on the beach.  We found Pescadero and made our way into the wonderful four-way stop town.  There was a farmers market going on and it seemed to be that everyone was in town for the evening.

After begging and cajoling for a place to stay the night, we were put up in small bed and breakfast inn about a mile outside town.  I told Eric and Noah that the day’s ride we had was just too much for me and that I was considering catching the bus out of town the next morning, allowing them to go on.  Eric said, “Dad, let me ride your bike.  You have all the weight in your saddle bags.  Take my bike and you will be fine.”

This we did and the next day’s ride into Santa Cruz was great.  It was the beautiful ride that we had envisioned.  We made Santa Cruz by 2:00 PM and found a nice fish taco place, had a well deserved lunch, and then loaded ourselves and our bikes onto the bus to San Jose and then back to Sacramento by train.  It was a great couple of days. We had ridden close to 100 miles and were fine. We made mistakes, but over all enjoyed out time together and look forward to doing it again next year.

Now since we are done with our adventure, I am excited to return The Art of Dentistry as your dentist in Roseville, CA.