The City of Angels

Angels do exist…and we met many while riding in Los Angeles County. I’ll get to that in a bit.

Los Angeles, aka the City of Angels, is also the city of crazy traffic, nonstop noise, and exhaust fumes. We didn’t enjoy most of the riding we did in this section. But it sure was sunny.

We started this section after leaving Ojai. Our first night we camped at Point Magu State Park at the Sycamore Canyon Campground. We were really excited about our ride the next day through Malibu, Santa Monica, and Venice Beach. What we encountered though was road construction, no shoulders, and so many people. It is stressful to ride in those situations. Another rider suggested we ride in the middle of the lanes and make the cars wait. Surprisingly, that did feel safer.

It did get better when we arrived in Santa Monica where we encountered lovely dedicated bike paths on the beach and a lot of colorful characters. We settled in Manhattan Beach that night. As we went to get our groceries, we met our first angel who gifted us a wine key when he heard us discussing that we didn’t have one on this trip.

We were planning to get to Long Beach the next day, staying at my brother’s house while he was away. That morning we grabbed breakfast at the Ocean Diner in Hermosa Beach and met our second angel. Dave talked to us as we were leaving, sharing his stories of touring. He recalled how people were so giving during his trips and how cool he thought our adventure was. Dave then gifted us $20 to buy coffee or a beer and wished us safe travels.

As we headed towards Long Beach, we encountered a pedestrian tunnel that went under the 110. It seemed fine so we slowly made our way through. When I got to the end of the tunnel, my bike hit a pool of motor oil and I wiped out. As I picked myself up, I found myself bleeding from both knees and covered in oil. My bike was also covered in oil and my shifter was bent. Erik and I did the best we could with our small first aid kit but it was a huge job.

Enter our third angel, Marisol. She had seen us sitting on the side of the road and went home and grabbed her first aid kit and came back to help. With the help of hydrogen peroxide, ointment, and gauze, Marisol and Erik cleaned my cuts and patched me up. She even offered me a ride to Long Beach.

She had her young daughter with her who was excited to share she learned to ride without training wheels. What a great example her mom is. We are both so grateful to Marisol for her willingness to come back and help a stranger. I have healed nicely because of her kindness.

We had 10 miles to ride to Long Beach after the fall. We had another angel in the form of my brother and sister-in-law. We had a place where I could clean up and recover for a few days. And because they own a few restaurants, we had a meal at the Long Beach Beer Lab and gave the $20 we received from Dave to our servers.

It was good that we had a home base so I could get my bent shifter fixed. Thank you to Cameron at My Bicycle for getting us in and fixing it quickly. Cameron even took the time to clean up some of oil we couldn’t remove. He’s a great guy and runs a very cool bike shop.

We left Long Beach to head towards Brea, riding along some aqueducts by the San Gabriel River and the Coyote Trail to get there.

My twin brother was going to take us to the John Wayne airport the next day. Definitely another angel. Especially if you know anything about Los Angeles traffic.

We flew to Boise for a few restful days with our kids. A planned Thanksgiving/Christmas holiday which we cherished.

My brother then picked us up from our trip and even stored our bikes while we were away. We had a great time catching up with him, my sister-in-law, and our niece over beers and brats from Radiant Brewing.

Even though our riding in the Los Angeles metro area was challenging, our family and the exceptional kindness of strangers more than made up for it. It just goes without saying that the people truly do make the place.