4th July 2018 - The final, final and thrice final blogpost until next year

Hello Everybody!

Route: Vallejo to San Francisco

For the non-mathematicians out there:

Distance: About 4 miles (Total 3,478)	Average speed: slightly more than walking pace
Calories: I had a small coffee and muffin	Cycling time: A little while
Average cadence: 74 rpm	Climb: 5’10.5”ft, Descent: -5’10.5”ft
Heart (yes I have one): Max 180 when Ruth arrived Aver 280 when Ruth is "suggesting" something to me	Aver Temp: 37C, Max temp 37C
Temperament: Still wondering what the heck happened

I had a very nice breakfast with Kay and left (for the first time) at around 9.00am. We travelled about 300 metres and then I decided to search for my passport, which I could not find. I went back to Kay’s house and we both searched my room. We could not find the passport so I decided that I had packed it somewhere and even if it turned up I could always go back to Kay’s place given it was only a short ferry ride away. I got to the ferry terminal, bought a ticket for the 10am boat and waited with another small coffee, his name was Casto and he previously played football for Huddersfield Town. I had another look for my passport and found it in my handlebar bag. I had searched this bag at least 47 times earlier in the day but I guess I had my “do not find passport” glasses on.

The boat started out of the Vallejo bay on a very gentle course which changed as soon as we got to open water. It was a jet boat styly and went like the clappers. I got talking to Dan, who spotted my cycling top, and we traded business cards – very SF styly.

I got to the SF ferry building around 11.30 and made my way to the hostel I had booked for the period 4-10 July. The 10^th July was the date when Ruth would arrive (assuming she had booked things as I specified) and was also the date when she started to tell me what I had done wrong. I imagined this would be a long conversation but luckily only a one-way conversation until I said “yes you’re right dear, sorry”.

The hostel was very clean and my room was great. The hostel was right in the middle of Chinatown, Financial district and the Waterfront so ideally placed to tour SF.

I went on 3 “free” SF guided tours during what I termed “my last happy days” - the tours covered Art Deco, Chinatown and the Ferry Building areas of SF. All were good tours and they were free but they expected a donation to help them maintain the service. I happily donated as they were really interesting taking anywhere from 1 hour to 2 hours. I also went to the cinema to watch Deadpool 2. If you have not watched Deadpool or Deadpool 2 you are missing something in your life. I laughed like a drain throughout 1 & 2 but then again that is not a very good measure of what is a good movie or bad movie. Either way if you like gratuitous violence (and who doesn’t), more gratuitous violence, lots of funny lines, images and moving pictures, men in tight lycra (and who doesn’t), plus X-Men then these are the movies for you.

I also did three 4 mile runs along the waterfront to try to keep whatever fitness I had whilst also trying to protect my ASI issue from getting any worse.

So as day follows night or is it night follows the chicken, the 10^th July edged closer. First of all I left my hostel and cycled all the way to the Airbnb I had booked for us to share between 10^th July and 20^th July. I had a little lunch at the local cafe, a quick shower and then a 4 mile run in the local park.

I thought I felt another earthquake in SF but ended up thinking it was just an after effect of the spicy meal I had on the evening of the 9^th July. Either way I found myself travelling on the BART in the direction of the Oakland International Airport around the time Ruth said she would or maybe would not arrive. In the end she was a little late due, apparently, to the RAF 100 celebrations in London. Yeah right.

Ruth emerged from the Norwegian Airlines customs gate with a bottle of Prosecco in one hand, a box of chocs in another and in her third hand was a little present for me – i.e. a series of receipts for things she had ordered off the in-flight, on-screen, shopping application, unsurprising named “Nor Way You’re Not Buying While Flying”. Total was only £2,461.08 which is what you can spend in Bognor Regis on useful tat over a 5 year, 3 months, 2 week, 5 day and 17.6 hour period.

Ruth looked fairly reasonable given the arduous journey she had just taken and we quickly left the airport via the same means as I arrived. I must admit that I was surprised Ruth had got the correct date and time but I suppose statistically she had to be right some of the time.

Arriving back at our Airbnb house we went to the local Mexican restaurant and had a very nice meal. The following day I was trying to hide a fairly big secret which I just managed to get away with. We spent the day mooching around as Ruth was a bit jet lagged although we did go to the local park to see the Painted Ladies. You may wonder what that is so look it up lazy bones.

Anyway around 6.30pm Ruth was relaxing on the sofa and I was sweating buckets. I looked out of the window and the surprise was in play. I said I was going to get some wine for Ruth and left the house. About 5 minutes later I entered with our daughter Sally, two grandsons, Jack “Hurricane” Harrison and Daniel “Daredevil” Harrison and our son in law, Ian. Ruth’s gob was fully smacked but she recovered quickly and hugs were had by all, although Hurricane was off investigating his yet to be conquered new domain.

This was the cunningmost cunning plan that myself and Sally had prepared since the previous cunningmost cunning plan for Ruth’s 80^th birthday party. As you know Ruth has never been very good with dates.

So instead of us having a nice time together we had a nice time together with our extended family. We went to the north beach the following day so I could officially finish my USA coast to coast cycle ride. I did about 4 miles cycling with no headwind and mostly downhill and then a quick dip of the front wheel in the San Francisco bay – see photos.

Yes it is Jack's arm

Franklin in my hand, Arnold and Arnolda just entering the water

All of the humans

So my trip was done, finito, ended, consummated, finished, done, accomplished, completed, and thrice done. I will never do anything like this again although I would certainly cycle Nevada again.

As with my trip so my blog will end too. However it will re-appear sometime in 2019 when I cycle from Land’s End to John O’Groats with a special friend, who may or may not be called Simon.

If my blog was a movie (and I have already received a few preliminary enquiries about a potential independent film to premiere at Cannes) then the following items would be known as “post-credits scenes & extras”. I will do in a list format as we all know why by now.

List of post-credits scenes & extras that I did not include in the main movie:

1. I got stung by a bee on my right temple as it got stuck between my head and my glasses. The bee obviously panicked as I love bees and honey. My head is already massive so any swelling was not noticed by anyone.
2. I was telephone interviewed by a chap (Thomas) I met in the Corner Grind coffee shop in Terre Haute (15^th May 2018 blog). Please see link for subsequent story. The columns ran the first two Thursdays in June in the Republic-Monitor in Perryville, Mo., in case you were wondering. It ran as two different columns but Thomas put it all on one post: http://powdermillrise.com/cycling-starlight
3. I got “buzzed” by two real “Topgun” naval jets whilst I was going up a gentle hill in Nevada – the day I arrived in Middlegate. They are based in Fallon and I saw a number of jets when I travelled to Fallon a couple of days later. They scared the life out of me as I thought they were a very, very, very loud truck but I did get up the hill a bit quicker.
4. Starlight USA arranged for me to meet their CEO, Chris Helfrich while I was in SF – he lives over the bay in Oakland. He was a very nice man and we got on very well I think – see photo - I am on the left. I was also telephone interviewed by Tara from Starlight and they will be doing a short blog on me. They also donated $100 to the cause. What a nice bunch of people.
   
   
5. I cycled through “Area 51” and was abducted by aliens (small “a” just in case). They did not do experiments on me even though I was begging them to. All we did was watch re-runs of Breaking Bad and they kept asking me to explain why Walt never blinked.
6. Last blog, I signed off with another person in our team – namely Arnolda. She, for she is female, is Arnold’s girlfriend and I have imagined her as well. She is an internationally renowned swimmer, is not “orange” colour blind and likes the sound crickets make. When we visited the SF north beach, both Arnold (who is also a pretty good swimmer) and Arnolda decided to swim across to Marin County and move to the imaginary village that is there. The village is called Imagination and is a place that we should all go to every day. They telephoned me earlier today and are living very happily ever after. Arnold will keep in touch via Whatsapp (to help with telephone charges mainly) so our friendship will continue albeit on a less frequent basis. Arnold was a great team player and both Franklin and I will miss him. I promised not to tell, but Arnolda is expecting an imaginary baby to be named Arnie.

Love & Kisses to my dear readers, Alan, Franklin, Arnold & Arnolda xx