Amanda Jones

PALO ALTO, CA 08/08/02 - Leaving San Francisco was one of the harder departures. Two nights with the Trembaughs had me feeling like one of the family. Why go running off down the peninsula. I was really asking myself that when I started trying to navigate my way out of the mess of one way and dead end streets in South SF. Two hours later I'd managed only 10 miles and a mile was probably the longest I stayed on any one street.

For some reason the fact I'd only made it as far as SFO, the San Francisco International Airport, struck me as very funny. It was a place I'd been several times both by car and by plane, and yet for some reason it seemed really absurd to have ridden all the way there from Reno by way of Portland. Even more absurd was to consider all the places I've been by way of it in my life. Picturing a trail of string left everywhere I'd been between my birth in Dallas TX and that instant, sitting on a bicycle in front of SFO. Seeing it criss cross the world world,

tangling to knots in some places, a long solitary line in others. It helped put the trip in perspective. I started wondering where I'll have left that string between then and the next time I find myself at SFO.

In San Mateo an hour before showtime I called Martin and told him I didn't think I'd make it to Palo Alto on time. He had someone with the city and call and give me directions. I got on El Camino Real right as she told me I had around 15 miles to go. Her advice was to take the train in. The only problem I saw with that was I'd be sitting around for 30 minutes before it showed up, I knew I'd have gone crazy waiting for it. I crammed a donut down and prepared for a push. I don't mind being in that kind of a crunch, trying to see if I can make it happen. The short of it is I arrived with 10 minutes to spare.

There was a quick ceremony at the Bike Station, an old train station that housed a bike shop and bike storage for commuters who take the train. Three or four city councilpeople turned out (some of them even riding over) and they presented me with the proclamation. Two bent riders showed up, Mark and Mike. Mark had ridden his Vision and Mike had ridden his Sun EZ-1 he'd converted to an electric hybrid. It was something he'd been working on for a while and was very happy to talk about it. [For more info about his bikes check out http://www.25mph.com ] After the ceremony the two of them rode out to San Jose with me. Mark's going to let me stay with him on Saturday night before the ride into Santa Cruz. We went by his house so I'd know where it was. Mike headed home and Mark and I grabbed dinner at the all you can eat salad restaurant before I went on out to where my friend Chris lives.

andrew