We also made it!

We got to San Francisco and made it across the Golden Gate Bridge in one peice! And I emphasize that last part because we really almost didn't. So our last two days were in Sonoma Beach State Park, we stayed at the Bodega dunes, and then we stayed at something Taylor state park about 20 miles outside of San Francisco.

Both days were fairly short distances, and the climbs were nothing worse then we hadn't already seen. We had a fairly good headwind, but thats about it. On our last day when Julia and I began approaching the bridge we just started gawking at its sheer enormity. Like that bridge is freaking huge. So we're biking to the bridge, and then realize that we're suddenly like... on the bridge. Like with all the cars going across the bridge, and in case you didn't know there is a shoulder made specifically for bikes and pedestrians. And despite this knowledge, we couldn't figure out how to get onto the shoulder because its seperated from the highway by like a fence.

So we end up on the bridge biking with heavy flows of traffic and angry people honking and shouting at us and giving us like no room, and we're pretty much peeing ourselves. Like holy crap, this is seriously terrifying stuff. But we cant stop and turn around, its a bridge, and we can't just stop in the middle of traffic. So we're riding and we're riding, and suddenly I hear a cop from behind me shouting "STOP! AND GET OFF THE BRIDGE!!" and I do as he says, I slam on my brakes, and he starts shouting "WELL NOT THERE!! STOP AT THE GATE" well I didn't see the gate so he pretty much had to lead me to it, and once I was off the bridge he sped away.

At that point I realized I didn't see Julia. I assumed that the cop had stopped her too and she would be further up the shoulder, so I started walking towards the beginning of the bridge. I still don't see her. After ten minutes or so I see this little like.. golf cart type vehicle with a construction worker in it, and to his side was Julia, and in the back of the vehicle was her bike.

She told me that there are this things called expansion grates on the bridge, and when we were riding trying to exit the bridge as fast as possible, I had biked over one no problem, and she thought nothing of it did the same thing and caught her wheel in the grate and flipped over her handle bars! Thankfully the car behind her was a police officer, who got her off the bridge and tracked me down before I got hurt. Julias totally okay, she's got some road rash on her shoulder, but needless to say we weren't really feeling much like being in San Francisco after that, and high tailed it in the direction of home.

But I think despite all the bad things that happened, we really did have fun. Like we seriously had the time of our lives, and feel seriously lucky that one: we even had the opportunity to do this, and two: we were capable of doing such a thing.

And a lot of that has to do with you guys, friends, family, El Grupo, GABA, everyone, for your overwhelming support in favor of us. I know that after this experience, although not perfect, we both intend on doing a trip like this again, hopefully with less mishaps.

Thank you all so much for the support and the help! This will probabily be our last post, so see you guys at home!