Day 6 - San Diego CA

Day 6 and I’ve made it as far as I have to ride before heading to Mexico to stay with my friends Dave and Mindy. Dave is one of the buddies that whenever he is in the cities visiting all of the guys make at least one trip to Savoy for their pizza, some of the best pizza in town. Anyway, today’s ride was also the shortest that I had with only 6 hours between me in Casa Grande and San Diego with a planned on arrival at 7:00 when Dave got home from work that I have the whole day to spend doing some site seeing. Not necessarily sure what I’d see along the way, but I’m sure I could find something to do to keep me busy.

Again, thanks to Joanie, Jason, Jessica and the boys for seeing me off with a full tummy of some great biscuits and gravy that I probably won’t have to eat until dinner rolls around. It was already hot in Casa Grande when I left that there was no way I was going to need to start out with a jacket and according to the weather forecast it’ll likely be no need for a jacket at all today. I hit the road figuring I’d find a gas station pretty quick since I had to head back on the interstate I came in on for a little ways to catch the 8 to San Diego, but I take it it was after all the gas stops that I had to go further than I had hoped before I found gas. A little run down town which fortunately had gas, but it sure would have been nice getting it sooner than worrying about whether I was going to run out again, or I should say for the first time on this trip. I’ve pushed it a few times, not necessarily on purpose, but the gas stations in these parts are few and far between. It is a long drive from station go station and there isn’t much of anything to see along the roads except a lot of desert.

So after my first scare of almost running out of gas, I did run into a couple of more for the days ride. The next was getting to Yuma which I figured wouldn’t be any problem. According to my odometer I can usually get about 150 to a tank, that I thought it’d be easy once I saw how far I had to go, 162 that I shouldn’t have any problems what so every. The thing I didn’t account for was some head winds that can change that a great deal that it was fortunate that the gas stop was 10 miles before Yuma cuz I don’t think i would’ve made it. Anyway, I did and even though I was 14 miles from having to put my lid on for the read of the trip through California and Mexico, I hit the road without the helmet, remember I have time to kill so since I found out from the gas attendant that there really wasn’t anything in Yuma to veer off and see, it was straight for the border and another stop just for the helmet. No problems, but it’s just a matter of having to wear one for the rest of the trip. The one thing I don’t mind about the helmet though is the visor which helped keep the sun out of my eyes.

Once I got closer to San Diego the ride got a lot more interesting riding up through the mountains. I missed a picture of the sign that said I was at Sea level, but that quickly changed going through the mountains and there were plenty of warnings for strong winds, but the other thing I noticed was how fast the temp changed. It did cool off enough I thought I’d need a jacket, but I pushed on. The highest peak that I noticed was 4181 so we climbed quite a ways from sea level in a hurry and again, wouldn’t you know it, I’m pushing it on the gas that I need to make a stop pretty soon. This time after a border checkpoint, which I’ve forgot to mention are all over through West New Mexico, most of Arizona and some of California I did see a sign for gas, not a quick off and on, but at this point I just needed gas. That put me in a small mountain town Pine Valley CA that looked oddly familiar to me and may have been a stop I and to make last time through this way 8 years ago for the same reason, time to get gas. Anyway, I made it that I’m close enough to San Diego now that I shouldn’t have to worry about pushing it any more. 

Since I had so much time to kill before heading to Dave and Mindy’s I decided I might as well visit Coronado Island since I’ve been there before and always enjoy seeing it again. That and I had to dip my boot in the Pacific again just to show I made it far enough West. I did dip the boot a bit too much, or I should say the tide came in stronger than expected that I almost got a boot full of water. Anyway, visiting the island on a beautiful California day is definitely worth it and with the time to kill I even got to hit a bar for a quick appetizer taco and some beers to watch the college football games. Football will likely be something that I won’t be seeing too much of while in Mexico, at least our version of football. 

My last day in the states and thanks to Dave and Mindy for letting me stay to have some familiar faces to see me off. I got to enjoy some good Italian food with them which is also something I probably won’t see too much of while in Mexico. Tomorrow will be the big test on how hard it is to get across the border and not get lost since I won’t have my phone’s GPS to count on. 

Day6 Casa to San Diego pics