I enjoy riding in rural areas so much that when I do come to a large city I find it a little unsettling.  I am experienced riding in traffic defensively but the whole race and bustle of the city seems so pointless to me at this point.  I find this interesting since I used to be part of that.  It seems so far away from where I am now.

I rode across the Golden Gate Bridge on my way into San Francisco.  This may seems strange but until I was standing on this massive structure looking down at the water far below, this whole trip didn’t quite seem real.  This major landmark informed me that I am not anywhere near home; this is awesome.

I found some friendly people, not hard to do in San Francisco, who gave me directions to my friend Beau’s office.  Unfortunately they didn’t take into account that I was on the bike when they handed out their advice.  To any other cyclists touring in San Francisco I would NOT recommend cycling up Steiner and then up California.  There must be a better way around this hill.  On one 4 block stretch I had to stop seven times to rest.  That steep hill coming out of Elk ain’t got nothin on these hills.

I was lucky enough to spend a few days visiting with Beau and getting some errands taken care of.  I was also able to meet with my friend Barb who just returned from many of the places I’ll be going in South America and got the lowdown.  SF is a great city.