Our last day in Mission Beach, riding in Temecula December 17-18

December 17,18 .... On Tuesday, Pam and I rode our bikes for about twenty miles, and I showed her some of the trails I've been riding, but she had never seen. We rode along Mission Bay, and went on the Mission Beach 'boardwalk' trail. At times, the beach trail was too crowded with slow bikers, fast bikers, joggers, skateboarders, walkers, totally  clueless people who thought they were the only people out there, eliptiGO riders, surfers and stoners. I can just imagine what it's like in the summer. It was almost like summer, sunny and 80 degrees, a worthy day to ride. We stopped at a great little restaurant right on the trail, and sat at an outdoor counter facing the ocean, people watching as we ate burgers. The surf was pretty big, as there is a front coming in from the west, and the surfers looked like dots compared to the waves. There wasn't a whole lot of good surfing going on. It looked like a bunch of tourists who shouldn't have been out there. The good surfers were spotted way down at the south end of Mission Beach, surfing near the jetty. As we sat there the clouds started moving in and it started getting cooler, so we headed into town, hit the post office, and then picked up the trail by the bay, and road until we had twenty miles.

On Wednesday morning we (she ) got it packed up, and headed up Interstate 15, taking the inland, mountainous route around LA. We decided to stay in Temecula, because Pam found an RV park where we can stay for under $25 a night because it's Passport America, one of our discount clubs we are in. We are also at the Pechanga Indian Casino, so we will check that out. After we pulled in, I decided to go for a ride and burn every bit of good weather before a cold front moves in tomorrow. I also burned every bit of daylight I had, and Pam had to come into Old Town Temecula and rescue me from total darkness and mad traffic. I decided to do a loop around Lake Elsinore, which was about 20 miles north  and even though I cut the trip short and pushed pretty hard with the tailwind, I didn't make it back before dark. The sun goes down about 4:45 anyhow, and the mountains to the west made the sun disappear even earlier. I rode 39.5 miles in about three hours, and had a couple of nice climbs, so I got a decent workout, which my legs needed. They felt pretty good after the week in Mission Bay, where I really tried to recharge my batteries. After getting cleaned up, Pam and I went to the casino and cleaned up on the crab legs and prime rib at the buffet.