Today was a pretty intense logistical day. We started in San Jose and made it all the way up to San Francisco, a distance of about 50 miles, using bus, train, Lyft, walking with our awful broken suitcase that we used as a checked bag, and finally our bikes!
We started the day by going to Apple’s new headquarters. We were not able to go inside but went to the visitors center and walked around. It was an absolutely massive building surrounded by some intense landscaping that shrouded most of the views.
Apple’s campus was a weird space. It felt kind of like a public monument/museum, but was actually celebrating a massive company... We had never experienced anything like it.
After shuffling around our plans we ended up going up to Palo Alto to get lunch. We found an Indian buffet and decided that stuffing ourselves would be the best way to prepare the energy lost in biking.
The next phase, picking up our bikes, was the most exciting (meaning stressful). We entered the wrong zipcode when we shipped the bikes, so they originally went to the wrong place. Then, after clearing this up with the shipping company on Tuesday, they were set to go to the correct FedEx store, the one on the Stanford University campus.
Everything was set to be correct but we were still wary since this was the most likely spot for something to go wrong. We received an email that the location it was going to wasn’t set to hold packages even though they had said they were when we called a couple weeks ago. After receiving this email we called the location again and they again said they offered the service. After constant refreshing of the tracking page, we got a unconvincing call about our packages being ready to pick up. We walked from the restaurant across the Stanford campus (where basically everyone had a bike) to their FedEx location and bike shop. We walked into the the FedEx and waited in line and were originally were told they didn’t have the service we’d expected and would have to wait 24–48 hours for them to process the packages. After emphasizing the urgency of our situation (😬😬😬) we finally got someone to go back and look for the 3 humongous bike boxes that had just been delivered in the last hour. He came back about 45 seconds later with one (though we had to watch him flip it from being upside down to right side up). It was a very relieving moment. We than gleefully carried our boxes through the bike shop to their outdoor stand and began assembling.
After everything was assembled, we joyfully dumped our awful broken dumpster suitcase and made our way to our next host 30 miles away near downtown San Francisco. We initially were struggling with following the turns every quarter mile or less that switched between roads and paths, one of which cut through a school playground. Google called all of them roads. Eventually we got onto larger roads with more established bike lanes and longer stretches without turning. About a third of the way into the trip we encountered a pretty serious headwind that tortured us for the rest of the trip. We also had frequent stops to eat a granola bar or adjust some bolt or cable that was not quite how we wanted it. This was a small but pretty intense way to gauge what the rest of the trip would look like. After what felt like forever, we reached the home of the Bolanos family, a connection we had made through the mennonite church in San Francisco. Ben, an EMU grad as well, greeted us with some wonderful tacos which were much needed after fighting the wind and traffic for 3 hours.
Here at the end of day 1, we’re optimistic and reflective. We’ve already learned a ton through the various trials by fire we faced today. Lessons in logistics, planning, bike building, navigation, eating, pacing... Its clear we’ll learn a ton more about these things by the end of the trip. Tomorrow, we’re excited to see more of San Francisco, and to really get on the road.
David: “You guys, we’re doing this thing.” A friend who rode across the country last summer: “...it was the best most miserable thing I ever did.” Aaron: “Guys, I’m hungry again”