Day 39

June 30, 2011

Today was a fun day because the ride was nice and I made $100. The agenda for the day was to ride from Doheny State Park in Dana Point to Banana Bungalow Hostel in Pacific Beach, San Diego. I left moderately early (8:30) and started heading south along the PCH. Only a few miles into the ride some ladies on the sidewalk motioned to me asking if I had a phone. One of them had injured a tendon and needed to call her husband to pick her up. Only a quarter mile down the road I saw a phone on the ground. It was a MyTouch (fancy smart phone) and it looked like it had been thrown out of a passing car. I imagined that some guy's girlfriend got mad at him for texting, took his phone, and threw it out the window. I picked up the phone and since it had no reception at that spot I kept riding hoping to find some reception further down the road. As I rode through the side roads of San Clemente, I kept checking the phone for reception and never found any--stupid T-Mobile. So I finally decided to just call someone using my phone, hoping they would know the person who had lost their phone. Luckily the first person that actually answered their phone knew the guy who lost his phone and 20 minutes later the owner pulled up in his fancy sedan to get the phone. I couldn't believe how happy he was to get his phone back. He was just ecstatic. "Jon! I don't even know you, but I'm gonna give you a big hug!" His name was Kevin, I think, and he had just gone on a trip to New York and had taken all his pictures with his phone. He hadn't loaded them to his computer yet, so the pictures on the phone were very important to him. "I want to give you $100 for returning my phone. Not too many people would have done that." I couldn't believe it. We chatted for a bit about my tour and then I left to head down the road, $100 richer. As I left, Kevin motioned his arms like he was bestowing good karma to me and he said, "You have no idea how much good karma is coming your way, man. Thank you so much."

The rest of the day was a nice ride. I passed through Camp Pendelton, a Marines base, rode up a big hill at Torrey Pines Reserve, and then I arrived in the San Diego area. The first area of town I passed through was La Jolla, which seemed like a very cool place. I rode along the beach road traversing the hill and saw some very beautiful beaches. They had lots of big, smooth rocks and areas with sand. There was one spot that was particularly awesome at Ellen Browning Scripps Park, which had a sandy beach, bordered with smooth rocks where lots of sea birds were perched alongside s a few seals. There were lots of people swimming in the water, snorkeling, which looked like a lot of fun because the water was very colorful, indicating something very interesting underneath.

It wasn't long until i arrived in Pacific Beach where I'd be staying for the night. I found Banana Bungalow Hostel and went inside to check in. As soon as I stepped in the door I was starting to regret my decision to stay there. There were guys sitting around inside drinking Bud Light and who's new motto should be "Bud Light-A Sure Sign of People Who Only Drink Beer To Get Drunk." I checked in with the rude hostess who didn't speak clearly. She gave me a tour of the hostel and showed me my bed in the 12 person dorm, which was coed. I asked where I could keep my bike and she showed me an area behind the hostel where tons of junk was piled. It was at that moment that I spent a lot of time in prayer, asking God to keep my stuff from being stolen. The hostel had 7 blackboards with colorful chalk writing describing the special event for the day. 6 out of 7 were basically different ways of getting wasted. Party Bus, Deck Party, Beer Pong, etc. Tonight's event was a party bus where you get driven around the city to check out all the bars, including 2 strip clubs and a couple places with live music. Why did I come here? I had already paid for the two nights ($40 per night), so I was stuck. I went into loner-mode and didn't really talk to anybody there. One Brazilian guy talked to me for a minute, but that was it. I left the hostel and decided that I would try to spend as much of the evening as i could away from that place.

So I spent a lot of time that evening at the beach, at Starbucks, and at the grocery store where I had the foresight to buy ear plugs, knowing that it would be impossible to fall asleep without them. One pint of Ben and Jerry's, one Americano, and one Passion tea later, I went back to the hostel around 9:00. Still in loner-mode, I got my computer out and worked on a few blogs. As I was working on them, the staff were standing around, talking about how great a community they had there. At 10:00, I headed to my bed, inserted earplugs, and placed a sock over my eyes while the guys in the dorm were standing around chatting, and I was able to fall asleep in about 45 minutes. I was happy enough to fall asleep that fast, given how much music and loud talking was going on out in the common room. I will say that when the guys noticed that I was going to sleep, they left the room and turned off the light, which was much appreciated. What a place though.