Eastbound at 9 mph!

Since we were homeless on my birthday and warmshowers and couchsurfing both failed us in SD, Iz and I decided to start out yesterday. We took our bikes into the sand, walked to the surf, took a couple pictures and pedaled away. One revolution at a time we slipped unhurriedly out of San Diego. By late afternoon we had only covered thirty miles since we stopped to consult our map myriad times and talked to countless curious people. Its so fun to have cars pass and see people giving us thumbs up or fist pumping to cheer us on.
Nearing three oclock we found a San Diego park on our map with a campground and decided to have a short day. To our delight, there was an art show, reception and native american wind instrument concert all for free at the park visitor center! We unabashedly loaded plates with cheese squares, crackers, grapes, carrots, chips and salsa, pastrami and my personal favorite...deep fried ice cream balls!
Losing daylight and wanting to set camp, we rushed on to the campground only to find it closed. Through certain methods of sweet talking we were able to stay anyway. And more importantly we got wonderful hot showers for the first time in five days, built a nice campfire, had hot tea and then the camp host who didnt let us stay for free brought us two medium pizzas; one hawaiian and the other, his favorite, mushroom onion pepperoni and green peppers! Amazing day.
Today though was our first set of real challenges. We had to sneak out of the campground just after daybreak which was very cold on bikes. Midday on our first big climb up the San Bernadino mtns Iz promptly broke his chain. He pushed his bike to the top of the hill then we coasted down the other side to a jack in the box. After a few phone calls and texts we located a shop three miles away so I dropped all of my panniers and pedaled away. Six miles and fifty dollars later I returned with a repaired chain, a new chain and a new chain tool. We were two hours from chain break to back on the road. The hills really took a toll on us today. Things were looking grim late in the day for a place to camp. We have ridden out of the area our map covers and everybody we asked had no clue were to camp. Finally though we met a Mexican gentleman who is allowing us to spend tonight and tomorrow in a camper on his ranch! Longterm dividends of working hard to go to Uruguay...speaking the only language our new friend speaks! Thats all for now. Goodnight.