Pacific Coast Highway

Last time I posted to this blog I was sat in a hotel bedroom in Madrid with my tail between my legs; our winter Spanish getaway had been cut short by freak Arctic weather which was forecast to deliver overnight lows of -7c and we were heading home after just 5 days.  Since then there have been cycling trips but only commercial ones where I don't usually blog.  With no further 'Grumpy Old Men' trips imminent I have decided to make an exception for my next jaunt:

 On Saturday I head to Merica to chaperone 17 riders 1600 miles down the Pacific Coast Highway.  I was last scheduled to lead this ride in 2020 when Covid sent everything tits up and it was, naturally, cancelled.  At that time I ended up having a massive fight with BA over my flight refund.  A long story but I eventually took them to arbitration and got my refund but I vowed never to fly with them again.  I am a man of principle so on Saturday I will be boarding a BA flight to Seattle where we need to dodge smoke from wildfires in British Columbia.  When we finish at Imperial Beach on the Mexican border there may be after-effects from Tropical Storm Hilary which has just given Southern California a right old pasting.  Along the way we have to detour round the iconic Big Sur coast because the road has been washed into the sea….. again!  I wonder how many years before climate change renders this ride undo-able?

 My co-leader is Dom, who has owned Bike Adventures since I sold up.  He flew out on Wednesday and is driving our support vehicle 1100 miles north from Los Angeles (a long story…basically it is cheaper this way) to meet me in Seattle.  Along the way he has to buy the various things that baggage limits prevent us hauling out from blighty.  Most notable, obviously, will be a splendid electric beer cooler which I will enjoy helping him stock once I land. 

 The group comprises Dom and I, 6 septics and 11 plucky Brits. For obvious reasons I must be diplomatic and discreet (practically my middle names) about the antics of the punters but I feel sure that the Merican population at large will provide more than enough material for a few blogs.  Hopefully you can join me along the way.

 

 PS – I must confess that I used Google to establish that Pacific Coast Highway is indeed a song title.  To my surprise there are 10 or more, all very obscure but they include a pretty terrible one by the Beach Boys and an instrumental by Burt Bacharach.