Grinning Idiot

We made it to Sausalito on Friday night. Climbing over Mt. Tam brought some sweat and tears, but we made it. I certainly am kicking myself a little bit for not investing in a better granny gear. While Acey and Davin are spinning away, making it look like light work, I’m chugging along like the little engine that could.

Having never been to San Francisco, I was overwhelmed by the cityscape and the amount of people. It’s beautiful here.

The Golden Gate Bridge. Originally planned to be painted yellow, but opted for red to hid the dirt. Good decision San Francisco.


We stayed at the Yuba Bike shop, a modest space tucked amongst industrial containers and ship building ports. Ben, the founder of Yuba Bikes, is a friend of Davin’s mom. He was gracious enough to offer us a place to sleep and took us out to the town’s finest Indian food. I can barley handle the spicy factor of fresh ground pepper at times, so while everyone was enjoying the conversation I was focusing a significant amount of energy on keeping my caboose in the chair and rationing my water supply.

Yuba Bikes


The next morning Yuba Bikes was competing in what I would call some kind of scavenger hunt, alley cat, benefit race. About 200 people entered and brought back 8,000 and some odd pounds of food to the food bank. I felt like we happened upon a little gem of the city, bumping into such a vibrant crowd of unusual suspects and hipsters alike. There were people were in Santa suits, v-necks and tall black boots. All the bases were covered.

Tour guide Steve


Steve, one of the Yuba team members, took us on a nice hour and a half jaunt over the Golden Gate Bridge to the city. As soon as the bridge was in sight I became the biggest grinning idiot. I loved it. The fog, the people, the cars. I felt an overwhelming joy and love for the city. I loved the mass amounts of steel and cables. Watching the tide flush out from under the bridge. All the tourists on their townie bikes. Steve was the ultimate tour guide too. We stopping along the way and got mini history lessons about the town. I loved every minute of it.

The eagle has landed! We went straight from city sight seeing to alley cat racing. We just got wrapped up in the momentum, it wasn’t in our plan to ride in the race, but before we knew it we found ourselves zipping through China Town with the Yuba team. They were packing 50 pound bags of rice on the back of their Yuba bikes, it was madness. This one guy backed his bike into a car and I literally thought a fistfight was going to break out. Acey had the camera out and I was getting a little uneasy. Should we be filming this? In retrospect, I’m glad we did.

China Town


This is just outside of the AT&T Stadium, they were meeting up to discuss their game plan. And as per usual, we were documenting.


Check out this contraption. It bumped the tunes, all pedal powered. And the flight wings/stabilizers! Inconceivable!


Ben with Yuba bikes bringing the load back to the food bank. I think the total was 550 pounds.


After the race we went to the after party, AKA, hipster’s paradise. There was beer, vegan cookies, coffee, a taco truck and enough messenger bags to outfit the entire city.

The Yuba Team.


Yesterday was supposed to be our day off, but we logged about 20 miles just biking around the city. I love city riding. There is even a distinct city smell here. I love that too.

We are currently staying at Nicole and Jonathan’s house, Davin’s cousins. The house was built in 1901 and could be featured in one of the ghost hunter shows. It’s great. From here it looks like we will be headed down to Santa Cruz and arrive in Huntington Beach around Christmas.

Doing the tourist thing, but hey! It's my first time.