Belated - my coastal trip!

Hi there. I am getting prepared for a big trip to Japan and Asia and I have been getting excited about my travel plans. Plenty of my travel in Japan will be by bicycle and I was scanning photos from my trip almost a year ago, from San Francisco to Portland. In doing this, I decided to make a little movie of my photos and the short amount of salvageable video that I had for user enjoyment. The second video runs a little long but for me helps illustrates travel by bicycle. Travel mostly involves zipping from A to B and then right onto C, snapping a photo and moving forward, bicycle touring, on the other hand, leads to many hours between destinations. This time permits plenty of time to taste what surrounds you, stopping where you wouldn't if you were in a car because it would make you late. Bicycle touring frees you of that constraint.
Anyways, enjoy.

Pacific Coast Bike Tour - San Francisco to Portland from DC Rider on Vimeo.

Goodbye Murrieta

This has been a very instructive last 3 months. I have had to learn how to be flexible, how to continue to make the best out of the situation in front of me, how to adapt, and how I am a cog (a unique one, but not irreplaceable). I was fortunate to work with such great people and really enjoyed getting to know them.
I felt like I had exhausted my entertainment in the area. I was sick of having to drive to san diego or los angeles when I wanted to do something fun. I had hiked/played around in much of the national forest at the back door, had taken a few trips out to joshua tree, and explored the area. I never did go a winery though, not certain if I had wanted to.
It'll be nice to be in San Francisco and not be the only person cycling, not be the only person who values alternative means of transit.
The city is set up at this confluence of interstates and all roads need cross them and must be have an off/on ramp. Vehicles would be flying up to make a partial stop and I was never certain how much they were really looking for people. Judging based upon the number of pedestrians v autos our emergency department serviced, I had not expected drivers to see me. After running the gauntlet of death bridges/underpasses, you would then find yourself in a sea of Model homes ("communites"- all with salad dressing names French Valley - theres 4, Valley Estates...). Only then would you find yourself in a more idyllic scene rolling farmland with barbed wire fences with tumbleweeds strewn across them like a poorly decorated wall all ran into the burgeoning wine industry, and all of the ground was covered in chaparral. You would soon be back into the sea of model communities then again fighting to not be struck by a passing car.
Murrieta certainly reinforced my ideas of what I value as a livable community.
Bon Voyage southern california.