Friday, July 13, 2012

Day 11 - Los Banos, CA to Campbell, CA

Today was a very short day, only 75 miles. It was already hot when I left the hotel at 9:30 and had to fight strong cross and head winds for the first 20 miles. When I came over the pass between the central valley and Gilroy, the wind stopped and the temperature must have dropped at least 25°F. Sufficiently cold to bring up thoughts of possibly stopping to dig out the wind proof jacket liner. There were a lot of fresh fruit stands along the highway so I bought a white peach and cherries for breakfast. A much better offering than the minimal, sugar laden breakfast at the hotel. Fresh fruit, what Alaska is missing...

I was originally planning to bypass the whole San Jose-San Francisco area due to my desire to avoid heavy traffic. My wife had booked a hotel in Campbell, which is on the southern side of San Jose near Cupertino, for tonight as the family reunion doesn't start until tomorrow afternoon. Not too bad of a place though there were a lot of whiners on the Hotels.com site complaining that it was an old hotel. The traffic wasn't as bad as I had expected on the freeway coming into town from the south but it was much more crowded once I got off onto the side streets. I got a number of "thumbs up" from other drivers on the freeway the last couple of days. Maybe they saw the Alaska plates...

3375.87 miles since leaving Fairbanks according to the GPS.

6 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. I had no desire at all to navigate San Francisco...

      Delete
  2. You made it to the reunion. YAY. Have fun.

    You certainly have ridden a long ways - I guess that would be half way.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yep, made it to Santa Cruz this afternoon. I did get lost a couple of times as I kept missing turns. Interesting on CA-17 this afternoon with all the lane splitting bikes. (Not me)

      Delete
  3. Richard,
    Roll on summer - you guys are making me extremely envious with all those fantastic long distance trips.

    Safe riding....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A problem with living on an island, it's more challenging to take long trips.

      Delete