The YL

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For those of you not from the YL, you might not know what the YL is. And who can blame you, it's a tiny area in North Orange County famous for being my home town, but originally famous(or is that infamous) for being the hometown of Richard Nixon. You'll now find here, the Richard Nixon library, and I think there is some sort of shack leaning up next to the library that represents his home or bedroom or something like that. I can't tell you much. Like many people who travel, I fail to be a tourist in my own area. The unlimited access leaves me feeling without much motivation to explore- no sense of rush. Besides, I've never had much desire to check it out.. no offense Señor NIxon.

Anyhow, that is the YL (aka Yorba Linda) and now you know a fun fact for the day as well. Another fun fact is that the YL is only about 85 miles from Malibu if you are riding your bike down the coast. After our 100 mile day to get to Malibu the day before, 85 miles = no problem of all. The day only had 1 legitimate hill through Palos Verdes and the rest was smooth riding (mostly along the coastal boardwalk). As we might have mentioned before, we have little white boards that we attach to the back of our bikes. Before we get on our way in the morning, we write a message on it. Our way of communicating and interacting with the outside world as it goes by at 10 miles per hour. Emi usually writes something creative and quirky. I have become committed to drawing a big smiley face when inspiration for writing something clever doesn't come. (gimme a break, it's hard to be clever at 6:30am). But today I wrote out an "ALMOST HOME" in big block letters. Underneath that, I wrote a "Vancouver --> OC" as well. Just to clarify. This could be misconstrued as being attention seeking behavior, and maybe it was, but I was excited to be "almost home" so it seemed natural. Besides, with all the bags and stuff we pack mule on the back of these bikes, everyone seems to ask "where ya headin?" anyway (always followed by "where'd ya start"). Well, with most of the day spent on the bike highways on the boardwalk alongside all the other bikers, you wouldn't believe all the comments, cheers, and shouts of encouragement my white board induced. People were stoked for us. "Way to go!" "Almost there!" "Good Job" "Where in Orange County?" "A few more hours to go, good luck!!" "Really? from Vancouver?" and Emi's favorite: "That's allllright" It was a constant stream of comments and positive support. If were getting honked at on the road, it wasn't because we were taking up the road, it was because someone was sticking their head out the window and giving us the thumbs UP! And this was L.A; aren't people supposed to be rude in L.A? On the boardwalk, the streets, PCH, Anaheim st, the farmers market in Long Beach.. everywhere we went for a full day we were getting support from random strangers and it was awesome! It was the end of Phase 1 of our trip. We didn't have the heart to tell most of these people that were actually about 1/6th of the way done with our journey. But still, maybe Vancouver to Orange County is a pretty big deal after all.

So, we spent the entire day slowly making our way towards home with supportive honks and comments to keep us going. At about 4:00pm we got to meet two of our biggest fans (and maybe 1/4th of our blog reading population), my Mom and Dad. It was a great feeling rolling up the driveway and stepping back into home. Now it's 3 weeks of family bonding time (and of course the warm showers, comfy pillows, and cupboards full of food that go along with it.) WAHOO. Maybe I'll even be a good tourguide and show Emi the Richard Nixon Library.... then again... I'm sure we'll be back here some other time.

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