so many hills so little time....

As mentioned previously, waking up in the ghetto was cold. Actually, this isn't true, but it sounded funny so we kept it; the room was really cold, but it wasn't the ghetto. How do I know? There was a Chile's across the street. Some people did, however, think that this was the ghetto. How do we know that? It was written on hotels.com, which we checked for reviews on the Budget Motel in San Bruno Ca. We only thought to do this after we checked in and walked to a Starbucks, our new first choice to find free wifi, which was not provided at the seedy motel. Actually, we should have known this because hotels.com, from who we ordered the room, never said it did. It did, however, say that it had free breakfast AND free coffee which, momentarily, angered Alyssa enough that she contemplated calling and complaining and attempting to get free things for our trouble. This aspiration was soon abandoned when she realized that she would actually have to call them in order to do this. Anyway, we awoke, repacked our bags because they weren't weighted quite right the previous day, and set off for Golden Gate Park in San Francisco by way of the coastline. We made it two hills and three to four blocks from the motel when the reality of how hilly San Francisco was set in; also, this just happened to coincide with locating a Starbucks. After some morning coffee and a few games of Mahjongg, during which two hours passed, we set out again renewed, with lower expectations of our accomplishments, and a new route. Of course, this did not avoid hills. Honestly, I knew there would be hills, but there are a lot and are very steep but thankfully, not too long. Even though there are many steep hills, it is still unbelievably cold. I really can't believe it. Here is an example of just how cold it is: I started the morning in jeans, a t-shirt, and a wool flannel. By the time we got to Starbucks, I knew the flannel wouldn't cut it and changed into my new waterproof double-layered raincoat and a t-shirt. This was ok, but only after we had climbed a rather long hill. After the sun came out around 2:00, I was able to change back into the flannel. We eventually found a thrift store where we both sought to buy new warm clothes. In Alyssa's words, "We can just buy warm clothes and send back all these useless t-shirts." which we plan to do. Alyssa also made the point that at least we won't have to worry about all the bears, which my mother informed me were very hungry, since "they're probably all hibernating now." I say all this only to try to convince all of you that, although I personally hate the cold, this is not a matter of preference; it's empirically frigid here. Thats enough about the weather though. San Francisco is pretty cool, and would probably be sweet if it was experiencing a little ice age. We made it to the Pacific Ocean which I saw for the first time ever, and the hills mellowed out as we approached San Francisco. We ate a snack while waiting for our host, and found yet another Starbucks to start writing this blog. Right now we have just ate some delicious tacos and are watching a man absolutely shatter the record on Super Shot at the bar. It is seriously a sight to behold. He come from the kitchen to respond to a challenge by his co-worker and was one point from the high score which earned him a free game. On his subsequent try, he, at one point, had made over 20 baskets in a row and tied the high score! Thats all I have for now, we're due to meet our host anytime now.

-Alyssa and David

photos from our trip! check back often, it will be updated with the blog :)
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2229088&id=39105848&l=0f558c7ef7

"It's as cold as the goddamned winter here!"

From the nature of this quote and the general nature of me, you may be inclined to think that I said this; however, it was Alyssa. She, who packed seven t-shirts, two v-necks, a tank top, and only a track jacket for warmth despite the warnings that I gave about the cold which were mocked by her and others who I have already mentioned in this blog, and despite his help, will not get a mention in this post, thinks that it is cold, and rightly so because it is the goddamn winter here. Its super windy; 20 - 30 mph gales blow all day long, and the sun, which seems to be less effective in the wild west, can only manage to keep top the thermometers off at 65 in the afternoon. More about the weather to come tomorrow, today it was rather manageable because we spent most of the day in an alcove of the hotel's courtyard assembling and zip-tying our bikes. We quickly realized that we would need much of the day for our bikes, and after finding out that we had a host for Saturday and Sunday, decided not to venture north to San Francisco. We made arrangements to save $14 by getting riding two miles south to a new hotel in San Bruno. With the bikes finally finished at 4:30ish, we bid our first hotel goodbye by using their free wifi to find a route to the new hotel, which was actually a motel, which probably couldn't REALLY even be called that. We successfully, rode our bikes in rather inconsiderate airport traffic to the Budget Motel, rang the buzzer to be let into the "lobby," and got the key for room 209. The room numbers seemed to go 207, 210, 211, but on second look a long and mysterious alley seemed to harbor two doors which, due only to the fading evening light, were we able to see had two numbers on: 208 and 209. So we walked down the dark alley, used the antiquated key card to open the door, and walked into a very seedy mystery. The room was huge. The bathroom had something like a foyer and a closet. The room itself had a couch, a table with two armchairs to sit at, a tv with more channels than the night before, a fridge microwave combo, and a hallway that led to a locked door and had a full sized closet. Also notable, was the plywood door added to the wall of windows that looked out to a small alley between the motel and the building next, and the numerous vent windows in the bathroom, the mystery hallway, and the bedroom itself. We took our bikes inside anyway, and Alyssa went to ask when breakfast was. There was no breakfast which was probably a blessing. She returned to inform me, and realized that she forgot to ask about wifi. There was also none, which did not surprise us, and Alyssa declared that she thought that the only employee of the motel had realized that Alyssa expected much more than she was able to offer. After agreeing that this was the seediest hotel (or motel) we had ever stayed in, we decided to get a shower, and find food. Food ended successfully with a delicious pizza from Seniore Pizza which caused us to pass out promptly afterward and sleep restlessly throughout the night. If the hotel was nothing it was hot; until the morning then it was freezing.

-Alyssa and David
P.S. - check out all our photos on Alyssa's Facebook page....when she adds them.

"Is that box undersized?"

The unthinkable happened as soon as we arrived at the airport, which was made possible thanks to the support of Peter Brown and the bouge-mobile; driving people around in style for about a week now. The lady checking our bags immediately asked if they were under the size limits (they weren't), and for a brief moment, I thought that a simple, "yes." on my part would provide our passage. No such luck. She returned with a yard stick. Turns out that 75% of our boxes were oversized which would be great if that was my bio final score, but instead that meant that we had to pay a total of 420 dollars for our boxes to ship which was after a performance of shock followed with kindness yet riddled with my disbelief and apologies for not knowing that they were oversized which got us one box counted as appropriately sized. After the kindness that got one of our boxes on the plane unpenalized, some useless woman who had previously been so content chatting with her co-worker that she couldn't tell me whether or not I needed to check-in if I had online and had my boarding pass printed already, finally breaks off the conversation that she was having to come over and attempt to inspect the box herself. I told her simply that it had already been measured and would not need to be measured again. Alyssa, angry and slightly in disbelief that that we were forced to pay for the boxes that we knew were oversized, turned her attentions on me to inquire why I had not thrown my carry-on in frustration in the style that I would have employed on our previous trip. It seems that I have turned over a new leaf. We settled in at a gate a one or two down from our own and started looking for places to stay since couchsurfing had failed us thus far, and taking some photos. Next thing we knew, they were saying our names over the PA system. Curious, I sent Alyssa to investigate. Turns out, our flight had already boarded and they didn't want to leave without us! We apologized and the rest of the night and our flights, aside from a yaowling child whose mother did nothing to silence him for our entire twenty minute descent into San Francisco, was uneventful. Alyssa and I did the Sky Mall crossword and played Anagramarama. We saw some other cyclists with the same idea setting up in the baggage claim area who were being watched over by a large bunny(good karma), and we took a shuttle to the hotel. After getting our room, briefly inspecting the boxes and pondering whether or not there might be any damage done or lost pieces due to the fact that they wouldn't fit into the x-ray machine and required a hand inspection by homeland security, we went on a chilly walk to IHOP and then to bed.