Summary: Cars are scary, my passport was stolen, and I’m stuck in San Diego till I get a new one.
Full account: After visiting Environmental Charter school Monday morning (see next entry), I found the closest bike store and asked for dirctions to highway one. They did not know any good ways to bike there, and I followed a busy street with no bike lane.
At highway one, which has green signs reading ‘bike route,’ I found myself comfortable biking only on the sidewalk as rush hour traffic filled the three lanes. Traveling slowly, I stopped many miles short of a campground and was forced to stay at a cheap hotel near the intersection of two highways. (Watch the movie on the left if you have a high speed connection).
I departed at little after 5 the next morning to avoid rush hour, and soon biked in the dark through steaming oil refineries and petroleum-smelling air. As the dawn came, I made it to Huntington Beach and Newport Beach, and found a bike lane and shoulder along the roadside.
A tailwind blew, and other than a few busy towns, the riding was easy. In Camp Pendleton marine base, I stopped at a small convenience store, and, as usual, brought my bike into the store and left it within sight of the cash register. While talking with a marine outside, I must have left my wallet, with passport and drivers license, at the bicycle. In a few minutes, it was gone.
Perhaps my guard was too low because I was still in the U.S., or my blood sugar wasn’t high enough to keep track of my stuff. My anger is mixed with feelings of frustration and ineptitude, and I hope I can use this as a lesson to keep better track of my stuff as I travel south. I am about to buy a better bike lock.
Soon, two other cyclists with loaded bicycles pulled up to the store. The two friends, Gregg and Brooks, started in July in Alaska and are also riding to southern Argentina. They are raising money for diabetes research, and have a great website. We rode the last 15 miles to a campground in Encinitas, and talked about the road behind and ahead: What did you hear about that dirt road in Baja? (great but hard) Are you biking Colombia? (maybe) How will you get through the rest of Mexico? (go inland) When will you finish? (November 2006) What has broken on your bike so far? (frame, wheel rim) Have you run into others on this route? (Yes, at least one other group.)
After sharing a campsite, I said goodbye to Gregg and Brooks the next morning. They will ride far ahead of me in Baja while I get a new passport, but I am sure our paths will cross again. I then biked 15 miles to San Diego, where I will stay with my friend Sheila Walsh until I get a new passport.
Dear Dave,
Let’s hope these are the the last things you lose. Probably some illegal alien has them by now.
Chris and Nona had their annual lab party last Saturday. Great food as usual. We miss you but enjoy your adventures.
Best wishes,
Jan B.
Hopefully you’ll be back on your bike before too long. Better this happened on this side of the border!
Hey, what’s your take on the latest piece on global warming from Bjorn Lomborg, the author of “The Skeptical Environmentalist”, and oft-quoted “environmental pragmatist”?
Link: http://news.inq7.net/opinion/index.php?index=2&story_id=58840&col=75
I think his idea about requiring each country to spend .1% of GDP on renewable energy is pretty interesting, and his main argument, that Kyoto is too little too late and a huge waste of money is compelling. Isn’t it too late to prevent the continuing warming trend? What about those urban legends that the CO2 that is effecting the atmosphere now is what was released in the 50s and 60s and that we have no chance to stop the bolus from the last few decades?
nr
RESPONSE TO NICK: Here is a reply to Lomborg, which talks about how Lomborg grossly underestimates the costs of climate change.
Secondly, how can Lomborg both say Kyoto is too much and too little? As far as Kyoto not being enough, he is right. Kyoto is a small first step – we expect to do more down the road, especailly because the treaty ends in 2012. Also, even if Kyoto fails, which it still might, I think it has been a good first step. We need to set up a system to reduce carbon dioxide. Creating a system of carbon trading is very difficult, and the effort to create it today will make abatement easier later.
Also, there is a big difference based on what we do today. The findings for the effects on California show that there is a big difference in the future depending on what we do today. Yes it is going to get warmer, but we have a choice whether it gets only about 6 degrees F warmer or 10 to 14 degrees F warmer (for the summer temperatures in California). And that depends on what we do now.
Finally, Lomborg is right that we need to spend more on AIDS and poverty, and I think it is criminal that we are not doing more as a world. But I do think we can do both.
(Also, I don’t think the United States could have complied with Kyoto, so I don’t think we should have signed it. But we should be doing something, or trying to renegotiate instead of just backing out.)
[…] I have ridden since Durango with Gregg and Brooks, who are riding from Alaska to Argentina to raise money for Diabetes research. I met Gregg and Brooks back in San Diego, only to split ways when my passport was stolen. No, we are not racing, as the movie on the right suggests….(I say this only because it looks like they will beat me). […]