Made it to SF

Day 16

Miles today: 225 Total miles: 4,221

Made it to San Francisco today. I decided to scrap the idea of going
to Yosemite today because I wanted to make it here to see Stephen and
Stacey. I've know Stephen since we were about 3 years old, and Stacey
is his fiancée seeing them was most of the reason for this trip, and
I'm really happy I made it here.

Today was a nice day for riding until a storm moved in this afternoon,
so I rode through rain for the last 3 or 4 hours of the trip. Constant
rain lowers my tolerance of temperatures I can ride through, because
all the moisture combined with the wind really saps your heat. I
pulled off a fee times to warm up, and the last time I pulled off was
on the penninsula just south of the city. I told the guy behind the
counter that I was just going to stand in the corner and warm up a
litte bit if he didn't mind. He was a great guy and brought me an
electric heater to dry my gloves with. We got to talking and he said
his uncle spent $85,000 on a custom built chopper, which blew my mind.
He also mentioned that he was related to Troy Polamalu, the Steelers
safety. It's pretty hard to fake being Samoan, and this guy was about
6' 2" and pushing 3 bills, so I belive him.

I've been hearing a rattle in 5th gear since LA or so, but it's so
minor that I can't tell if it's serious. It seemed like it was getting
worse when I was riding today, so I decided to just ride in 4th for
the rest of the day. Sometimes there's an inner monologue running
through my head, and in this one, I was the coach, talking to my
pitcher, 5th gear: "Great effort out there today, kid. That was really
some performance. We're gonna shut it down early for you, though. Doc
says he's worried about your health. It's a long season, son, and you
know we need you for the long haul. Go grab a shower and we'll have to
doc take a look at you tomorrow."

I got in pretty late, and Stephen had to get up for work around 4
(that's o' dark 30 eastern), so we're all just going to bed.