Day 40 – Carlsbad State Park – 102 km
Our last night on the road. Tomorrow we’ll be in San Diego. We’ll mark the official end of our journey with a 20 mile ride to the Mexican border the day following.
I’m glad this odyssey is coming to an end. The last week we’ve been pushing hard to make San Diego for Sophie’s deadline – a flight booked to Mexico City. Making that deadline sucked all the time out of our days for lingering anywhere. We’ve been riding past endless stretches of beach for the past week and haven’t once been in the ocean. I’ll make up for that in San Diego, where I have four days to relax before flying home.
Over the past six weeks I’ve been struck by how beautiful and varied the Paciffic coast of this country is. From rain forests to redwoods, vast expanses of planted fields to desert hlls, wild rocky coastline and crashing waves to sunny beaches and rolling surf. Just the public beaches alone leave me amazed. I used to think Vancouver had impressive beaches. The massive beaches of LA dwarf our piddly strands. I’ve discovered the mythic SoCal beach culture is very real and not just a creation of Hollywood and holiday marketers, as I had thought.
Yesterday we arrived in Huntington Beach to an airshow provided by US Navy pilots. Jet fighters screamed overhead in all directions trailing smoke and producing the most gut-felt roaring noise I’ve ever experienced. They made passes 100 feet off the ground, slowing to a speed that seemed impossible for flight, and then suddenly full-throttling it, making the ground shake with the roar of their engines. It was a naked display of military macho, to make the crowds gathered at Huntington Pier and beach proud of their country and the lethal power of its weapons. It really was impossible to not be impressed. These aircraft come as close to “god-like” power as anything I’ve ever seen.