Batman massacre aside, Sarita was right in not wanting to continue through Colorado.
Amy Goodman mentioned yesterday on “Democracy Now” that you can now see the flames of the fires from space! She had on the air with her an ecology expert who explained that this current global change heat wave could be as bad as the one in 2003 which caused 71,000 deaths in Europe. So it is all well and good that we are not biking through that heat anymore.
Also, the day after she got home, Sa was offered a job which she is now doing Monday through Friday in addition to finishing the international baccalaureate program at Berkeley High and applying to colleges. It’s way more than too much and she is perfectly placed being home.

We left right after the last blog on Saturday afternoon and put the pedal to the metal and got home Sunday afternoon!
It was horribly fast. When we first got in the car and started driving, Sarita felt disconcerted with how fast the land was all flying by. Myself, as well. Also, I had grown a costumed to tons of silence while just watching the land so having a conversation with my friend was difficult even though she is a fascinating person.
I was not ready to be home. To appease myself, I am doing a daily ride of 112 to 14 miles with 1300 to 1680 feet of climbing. (Thank you STRAVA app) Up to “Grizzly Peak” and back daily.

This is “Skyline Drive” in Oakland in the morning before the fog has burned off. It is magical and early morning bikers all say hello to each other which is not the case later in the day.
When you get up to Grizzly Peak, the right side of the road looks like this

The left side of the road is impossible to photograph much less with an iPhone while biking but I have tried. Perhaps tomorrow I can get one worth putting up here. The view is thousands of home, big highways that look like small grey ribbons, the brightly reflecting water of the SF Bay and the mystically vague looking land which lies beyond the water. That of course being San Francisco.

Not too shabby I know.
Still, I don’t have to start working again until the end of August
So August first
I am flying to the Northern tip top US airport on the West Coast (Bellingham WA) and
I am planning to bike from there down Highway One to home.
Not too hot and without mountains. I’m thinking 2 1/2 weeks which is what I have available.
We’ll see.

Here is a picture of Sarita and I in the Great Salt Desert. We took the road I biked on when I was 21 back to SF. There is no way in heaven or hell you could bike that now. There is nothing there. Unfortunately, what I see everywhere is the disappearance of a small family owned business in favor of the chain on the interstate (and precious few of them on this land, which apparently is just to be driven through).

Amazingly, on said land, are some young gentleman scientist types who have serious professional apparatus and organic plant paraphernalia like seeds and such. They are doing an experiment
To see if people can grow food on the moon.
I am not sure how I feel about that.