Day #33 – San Diego!!!! – 22 mi – Total 1518 mi

Peter and Janos were close to their final destination. By 11 am they arrived in Old Town San Diego State Historic Park.

The brothers started their journey on June 19th in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. Their original goal was to ride their bicycles all the way to the San Francisco Bay, about 3600 miles. The first section of the trip, the 414 mile long Dalton Highway proved to be much, much harder than they expected. This is dirt road, and a recent 3-day rain had turned it into a mud-road. That, combined with freezing cold and wet weather, was more than what Janos was ready to accomplish. After a day and a half he decided to skip the Dalton Hwy and caught a truck ride to Fairbanks, AK.

Peter was determined to finish the Dalton, and in 10 excruciating days, he did. But knee pain, dehydration other health problems caused by this trip took out all his energy and  he decided to give up on riding across the wilderness of Canada. The brothers decided to change the rest of the route into a North-to-South Cross-Country trip.

Janos waited for Peter in Fairbanks for more than a week. The first few days (including his 18th birthday) he spent on the street, until he found some nice people who gave him shelter, and also something meaningful to do. After learning about Peter’s change of plans, Janos felt that he wanted to try himself and wanted to do the cross-country trip by himself. Peter was going to join him after his knee would heal, until then he headed home.

Janos flew to Seattle and started his solo trip on July 5th. He rode alone to San Francisco, where Peter joined him. The brothers finished their journey in San Diego this morning. Their third brother Andras and their sister Anna picked them up. The siblings will spend another fun day in San Diego and Los Angeles, and should be back home on Friday.

Thank you, Dear Reader, for following the brothers’ stories. Thank you for all the comments. If your haven’t done so yet, please also take a look at Peter and Janos’ New York – San Francisco 2012 trip and their father Imre’s Yukon 2014 trip at www.gojudoka.com

Each of these adventures were fundraisers for the Blind Judo Foundation. Please check out their website and if you can, send them a donation. Every little amount helps.

Thank you.

Janos has been wearing bicycle gloves for 33 days. Look at his tan!   Total Distance: 1518 miles.

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Day #32 – Cardiff – 42 mi

Peter and Janos had to cross a marine camp. They have been worried about this, what if they were not allowed to enter? That would mean a long detour. But there was no problem. They had to show their IDs at the entrance, and everything went smooth.

They arrived to the hiker/biker campsite early afternoon, and had to wait until 4 pm to be able to check in. “Since then we have just been sitting here waiting for tomorrow” – said Janos.

The brothers were trying to choose a spot in San Diego that would be a nice place to finish their trip. They selected Old Town San Diego State Historic Park. This is where Janos’ 33 day long North-to-South Cross-Country trip, and Peter’s 15 day long Pacific Coast trip will end. The map to the right is a screen shot of the text Janos sent to us. The red pin shows their destination. Their brother Andras and their sister Anna will meet them.

 

Day #31 – Doheny State Beach – 58 mi

The brothers had bagels for breakfast, then they started riding along the beach. Later they continued downtown. They expected (and have been warned) that riding there would be quite dangerous. They felt that the dangers were over estimated.

After lunch, the last 20 miles were mountainous, with traffic packed on the last 15 miles. They were going faster than the cars. They constantly needed to squeeze through narrow areas between moving and parked cars.

They campground was packed, tents way too close to each-other, and there were long lines to the shower.

Downtown Long Beach            Peter wet his head to better cope with the heat.

 

Day #30 – Los Angeles – 0 mi

“We slept in, ate a lot and did all the tourist stuff” – summarized Janos their rest day in LA.

“Zero miles, beach, lots of rest; nothing special” – said Peter.

The brothers also had a chance to do laundry, charge all devices and make detailed plans for the last section of their trip. They had a fun, relaxing day with Peter’s friend and her family.

 

 

 

 

Day #29 – Los Angeles – 40 mi

“Rich beach towns, very expensive cars. I passed a Ferrari riding downhill” – said Peter.

The brothers said goodbye to the two men they have been riding with for the past 3-4 days, as both bikers had LA as their final destination. Peter and Janos chose a bike road that followed the beach for almost 20 miles.

The family of Peter’s friend will host the boys for the next two nights. Thank you!! 🙂 🙂 After the boys took a shower, the three of them went out to eat and had some fun on the beach. Peter took a dip, Janos just relaxed. They are planning to spend the next day enjoying a break in LA. Monday morning she will drive the brothers back to the same spot where she had picked them up, so they can continue their journey.

Day # 28 – Leo Carrillo State Park – 35 mi

Last night the brothers roughly planned the remaining days of their trip to San Diego.

They plan to arrive in Los Angeles on Saturday afternoon. They will spend one day with Peter’s friend in LA. The terrain from there to San Diego is rather hard again, so they allocated 3 days for that section. This means they should arrive on Wednesday.

Los Angeles was two short days away, so today the brothers took it easy. They reached the campground in just a few hours. They were able to take a nice shower. Janos’ abrasions are not too bad, he just feels a bit of burning when they get dirty and sweaty. The brothers had plenty of time for conversing with the two men they were riding with.

Janos’ dinner for tonight                                      Malibu

         

 

Day #27 – McGrath State Beach – 57 mi

As Janos and Peter woke up they admired the beautiful scenery. Ocean, palm trees, even the fog looks beautiful.

They had authentic Mexican food for lunch.

When riding in a tunnel, the pavement was unexpectedly wet and Janos probably rode a little too fast in the turn – the back wheel turned out from under him and he fell. He says he slid about 10 feet on the ground on his side. He got a few abrasions on his knee and his elbow, but luckily nothing bad. The scratches burned a little but they got better when he had a chance to wash them. His bike is OK too.

By the end of the day they got some tailwind once again.

Two of the men from the party group the other day stayed with the brothers all day long. After taking care of some shopping, Janos and the others prepared and enjoyed grilled salmon at the campground.

Day #26 – Refugio State Beach – 74 mi

The brothers were planning a long day. There was no suitable campground at 50-60 miles, and they needed to pick up the pace anyway. They set the alarm clock and started earlier than usual.

The first half of the day was harder, it was really hot and there were flies everywhere, they said.

They has Chinese food for lunch for a change.

The afternoon was nice with some friendly tailwind.

The campground was on the beach. The brothers met some of the members of the group once again, and they all had some fun in the water.

It seems Peter was inspired by the palm trees today 🙂

Day #25 – Pismo Beach – 58 mi

Peter and Janos had left the mountains behind their backs and now they have a chance to start making up for the lost mileage.

Janos’ knee was grateful for the better terrain and hurts much less. Peter’s knees aren’t getting better yet. We were wondering, how come that two years ago the brothers accomplished 3886 miles while riding from New York to San Francisco without any knee pain, and now they are both having problems. Janos had an answer. When they ride on very steep inclines, even the lowest gear (of their fairly inexpensive bikes) does not give enough torque: they often have to pedal while lifting themselves up from the seat. This is how Peter had hurt his knees on the Dalton, and Janos did the same while riding solo from Seattle. Until he realized that this was bad for his knees. Anyway, the hardest terrain is behind them, and the brothers know better now.

The campground they were looking for, did not exist. They rode back North about three miles to another one shown on the map; that one was closed. Back to South, they found a private hiker/biker camp site.

The two top pictures (of Peter) were taken by Janos. The three bottom pictures are from Peter.

         

Step 1. Broken tent pole                       Step 2. Temporary solution

Step 3. Aluminum tube bought at Home Depot:
Tent pole is good as new! 🙂

Day #24 – San Simeon – 42 mi

No communication until the afternoon, when the brothers passed a small town and we had a chance to exchange a few text messages. They confirmed what we already knew:

– This is the first time in a day and a half that we got phone reception – said Janos.

– My knee is pretty bad, that’s why we take it easy while in the mountains – said Peter. – Here a few pictures, I will tell you about them later.

Unfortunately as soon as they left the populated area, we couldn’t communicate any longer.

UPDATE: Late in the evening, Janos spent 10 minutes climbing a hill so that he could have “1 bar”, and would be able to call home. 🙂

He told us about how in the past few days they have been more or less riding together with several small groups or bikers. Two middle aged women, an older man, a newlywed couple, two older women, and another man – they sometimes go faster or slower than the Kabai brothers, but Peter and Janos still meet at least a few of these groups each night as they settle down at one of the hiker/biker campgrounds. We already heard about a long conversation with someone the other night, but we didn’t realize that there are several groups and that they keep bumping into each other every night.

The 10 bikers actually had a party tonight. They assigned who was responsible for what: hot dogs, buns, condiments, dessert, etc., and they were hoping everybody would actually arrive to the San Simeon campground by the evening. Janos was their cook, he BBQ’d the hot dogs for everybody, using a piece of foil, and two spare spokes as tongs.