Orange County Girl

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4 more riders joined us in Redondo Beach and we are now at our full complement of 26.   To look at their luggage you would think it was 62!  How can anyone need 2 sodding great bags stuffed with christ knows what for a 10 day ride in the sunshine?  The group is now so large that I can no longer keep track of everyone.  My plan is to just check the van each night for unclaimed bags and inform the next of kin.

Our day started with 12 urban miles, cutting across the base of the Rolling Hills Estates peninsula, before joining the beach path in Long Beach and rolling south through the OC.  I have seen more Rolls Royce's and Bentleys today than I have in the last year!  Passing through Newport Beach, Huntingdon Beach, Laguna Beach and Dana Point (which obviously didn't get the 'beach' memo) there is an ostentatious display of wealth that has to be seen to be believed.  Was it only a few weeks ago that I was complaining about people living out of carts in the parking lot?

Actually, I think I felt more at home with the hobos than I do with the privileged, perma-tanned millionaires with their perfect teeth.  After 4 weeks living mostly in a Ford Transit, which is now ankle deep in crumbs, sand and things I prefer not to examine too closely, I crave the wide open spaces of a parking lot and the natural crumb-shedding ventilation of a shopping cart.

Tomorrow we go to San Diego where execute an important, but daunting, left turn. 

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