Being in San Fran

I have to admit that on our ride Friday into San Fransisco, I was really excited. I smiled outright and waived my hand in the air at first sighting of the Golden Gate Bridge, prompting a confused cyclist coming from the other direction to wave back at me, clearly not wanting to be rude if he indeed knew me.

The ride over the bridge was a bit confusing since we ended up on the side that was closed and had to maneuver our way back through a tunnel that went under the highway and cross some convoluted intersections to get to the other side. But the sun was shining and we didn't have to ride over with traffic, pedaling for our lives or anything dramatic like that. There was a nice section for pedestrians and cyclists and we pulled over every once in a while to look over the bridge at Alcatraz and the city skyline. Lyon was able to point out Coit tower and indicated that our hostel was just on the other side of it. He has stayed there twice, once with his friend Chris on a road trip and once with his brother Sam. Also, it's "fleet week" here in San Fransisco, and these jets were looping around the bay in perfect synchronization, and flying straight up and then doing nose dives and flips and things-which was really incredible.

Our first night we took advantage of the free dinner at the hostel, but really only met one other person among hundreds in the dining hall because all we could do was eat our food and stare at the table. Technically, we shouldn't have been that tired because we'd had a short day-just 25 miles. But it was like the entire month had come crashing down on us and we were beat. Still, we half-heartedly joined in on the pub crawl sponsored by the hostel. I couldn't help but think of the yearly zombie crawl that happens around Halloween in downtown Northampton (and probably other cities too), because I felt like a mindless zombie, unable to really socialize with my peers, only capable of following our hostess around from one block to the next. But it was good to be out for a short while. We watched the Giants lose at a sports bar, and stuck around for a couple of songs from a local rockabilly band, and then headed back to the hostel for our first sleep in a bed in seven nights (not before having two slices of pizza because we are still on a very regimented food schedule which requires ample pigging out).

Since then we have just been getting used to being around large numbers of people again. We put our bikes away yesterday and walked everywhere, but today got them out for getting around town, though we found that we still had to walk quite a bit with all the insane hills. On every block there were kids running down steep hills on the sidewalk yelling and pretending they couldn't stop. We biked to H&M and purchased some essentials. Lyon bought JEANS, which made him feel more normal since all he has are bike shorts and windbreakers (which really don't go with his western-style "normal person" shirt). Tomorrow we are going to mail a few things back to Texas. We're sending our rain pants since we're not expecting rain south of here in the next week, but we're keeping our rain coats because are not stupid. I think we'll lose the tarp too. We bought it in Raymond, WA during a rainy spell and it was really good to us for a while, but now it's just weighing us down.

Today was really good and my legs are starting to feel more normal when I go to stand up after sitting for a long stint. Lyon got to see old friends, Cody and Ross at a restaurant in touristy Fisherman's Warf. Both Cody and Ross work there, and they treated us to some delectable appetizers, entrees, desserts and beer. We sat chatting with my friend Jesse who moved to San Fransisco from Northampton about 8 months ago. He looked tan and happy. He admitted he finally felt settled in after a rough adjustment. It's not easy leaving little Noho!

Then we got to see Rabiha, also from Western Mass, and it felt so good to practice our social skills again catch up. We walked around and grabbed a coffee. I think seeing friends helped make us feel like we are really here.

Tomorrow we tourist it up with a boat ride to Alcatraz!