strongbad being a hobo thread

[strongbad]

last night we stayed with a warmshower's host (cyclists housing cyclists sorta thing) and it was this extremely eccentric couple in their 60s who lived in a yurt during the weekends (we camped next to it). the woman was literally crazy (self identified psychic, coould talk to people after they died, etc), and the guy was a software developer working at a startup. both were very nice and super engaging. they bought us sushi for dinner and gave us beers (but they didn't drink lol). they also had two adorable dogs that we got to pet. the guy gave me a tour of his property and showed me all his marijuana plants that had died since his water pump broke lol

very fun and weird night

[strongbad]

how huge are your calf muscles by now

they are actually swole as hell dude. im such a skinny guy but my legs are huge lol

[Kalahari Inkantation]

last night we stayed with a warmshower's host (cyclists housing cyclists sorta thing) and it was this extremely eccentric couple in their 60s who lived in a yurt during the weekends (we camped next to it). the woman was literally crazy (self identified psychic, coould talk to people after they died, etc), and the guy was a software developer working at a startup. both were very nice and super engaging. they bought us sushi for dinner and gave us beers (but they didn't drink lol). they also had two adorable dogs that we got to pet. the guy gave me a tour of his property and showed me all his marijuana plants that had died since his water pump broke lol

very fun and weird night

this is the most stereotypically california thing i have ever heard LOL

i mean this could be a gtav subplot

[The artist formally known]

last night we stayed with a warmshower's host (cyclists housing cyclists sorta thing) and it was this extremely eccentric couple in their 60s who lived in a yurt during the weekends (we camped next to it). the woman was literally crazy (self identified psychic, coould talk to people after they died, etc), and the guy was a software developer working at a startup. both were very nice and super engaging. they bought us sushi for dinner and gave us beers (but they didn't drink lol). they also had two adorable dogs that we got to pet. the guy gave me a tour of his property and showed me all his marijuana plants that had died since his water pump broke lol

very fun and weird night

this is the most stereotypically california thing i have ever heard LOL

i mean this could be a gtav subplot

i live in California and agree. when i read this i was not surprised by anything.

[strongbad]

The people in California have been so damn nice

We had a stretch of 5/6 days where some stranger made us dinner WTF

The other night we stayed with a guy we met briefly in a cafe and he treated us to a chinese all you can eat buffet. Trip highlight

The next night we met a family at a state park campground that got us drunk off shitty beer and made us dinner. Also gave us weed muffins that we ate the next morning and we did our whole (although short) 30 mile day in one stretch without any stops lol

Staying with a cool guy from warmshowers in Santa Barbara. Hes taken us all around to cool spots and been super accommodating. Cool town.

I'm having fun

[The artist formally known]

I'm planning on hitting up some beaches in Malibu this weekend, I don't have a whole lot of free time since my fiancée will be with me and she has piles and piles of homework and studying. Kind of unlikely to actually meet up.

Anyways that is so tight your experiences with California people are super enjoyable sounding. Chinese buffet is the best.

[strongbad]

Enjoying a break day in San Diego. LA was a bit of a slog to get through, but I'm loving it here. Today is my last full day in the states, too. Luckily we lined up a Warm Showers host in Tijuana for tomorrow night, which means we only have ~26 miles to put in. This should hopefully take the stress out if the border crossing and the chaos of riding through Tijuana (from what I've heard). The guy we're staying with has a lot of feedback and is excited to host us- said we could stay as long as we want. Strangely enough he is in Seattle right now and will be getting back to Tijuana the same day we arrive lol

Finally bought some new earbuds so I can get back on the podcast grind. The sound isolation isn't as good as mine that broke but they are better than nothing. To ease my mind from boredom while I ride, I've progressed (regressed) to hitting my vape pen all day long lol. Going to hand it off or throw it away before the border crossing of course, but it will be missed.

And then just a few more weeks and I should be in Cabo! Crazy how fast time flies. We estimate that we're around 2/3rds done with the trip.

[strongbad]

also I've been updating my Instagram story pretty religiously if you are interested in looking at different pictures of my bike from the same angle lol

[Mando Pandango]

also I've been updating my Instagram story pretty religiously if you are interested in looking at different pictures of my bike from the same angle lol

I was gonna ask for the link but it's in your sig!!!

[strongbad]

For your convenience

[strongbad]

hello from Tijuana!

crossing the border was pretty chill. we almost walked out without getting our passports stamped (how is that allowable in the system?) but luckily we knew roughly what we needed to do so we asked for help and got our 180 day tourist visas without pain

biking through downtown TJ was fine but Christ the highway was hell. Somehow survived and made it to playas de Tijuana, which is just the coastal part I guess. Much mellower and doesn't feel like the TJ that you hear people whine about. Our warmshowers host lives in this area and is very pro-tijuana and has talked up it's excellent craft beer (best in Mexico?) and music scenes. He's taking us out for drinks later so I guess I'll be the judge of that. He also reassured us that the highway gets much better and that stealth camping will be extremely easy most of the time. A good change in pace coming from LA lol

Also ate 5 tacos and am excited to consume roughly 4000 more during this month

[strongbad]

Cycling the highway in Mexico is pretty interesting

The shoulder is worse or non existent compared to the states but the drivers are about 10x more considerate. Many give you a nice wave, peace sign, or yell encouragement as the pass. A nice change in pace from the us where there is so much disrespect towards cyclists that drivers are willing to put your life in danger and pass with minimal room.

Food is cheap and so are hotels. Weather is hot as fuck but we've found that if we start our day at 7 and get most of our miles in before mid day we can avoid the heat for the most part.

We stayed in a really small town last night and the only restaurant was a pizza place. My friend and I split a large pizza (terrible idea) and while it wasnt a bad pizza I think I overdosed on lactose (am intolerant but usually just fart a lot) and have had diarrhea all day. Pretty sure it is from the pizza and not water.. hopefully. We've filtered water a little bit with our hand filters but after doing some research I learned that if I want to be 100% safe from giardia (which I've had before and was hell) the filter isn't enough and I need to boil too. After the diarrahea scare (that I think is over) I'm going to fuck the environment and buy bottled water only. Will cost me less than a dollar a day and is well worth it for peace of mind.

Also shipped my vape pen home in San diego (RIP) which was probably good since I was perpetually high almost all day every day lol. I did buy new headphones so getting blazed and spacing out while riding has been replaced by podcasts, which is much better lol. Hit me with your recommendations.

Overall I feel very safe and am loving the cheap food and accommodations. The water scarcity and heat are a bit of a challenge, but we just have to plan our days strategically and we'll be ok. My mediocre Spanish has been improving slightly and locals have been mostly happy to work with me which is really nice. I feel bad when I can't understand everything they're saying, but I certainly have enough to get by and have minor conversations.

Our mileage has been all over the place. We need to average 41 miles a day to get to Cabo in time to meet my gf (our mileage throuhhthe states averaged out to 60-65 a day so no prob) and we're aiming for 50 so we can work in a couple break days and enjoy ourselves more.

Hope you guys are enjoying hearing about my weird trip. I'm having fun but I fantasize a lot about getting home and binging overwatch and getting back in the swing of things. And being able to be more active on boyah of course

[C.Mongler]

And being able to be more active on boyah of course

this is more important than ANYTHING

[Kalahari Inkantation]

Hope you guys are enjoying hearing about my weird trip.

I look forward to every entry.

you have convinced me to spend $600 on a bike lol

[Mando Pandango]

i would but biking around Boston would definitely eventually lead to my death