So It Begins: Day 1

Dennis drove us down to Mission beach around 9am after having a nice breakfast of pancakes and strawberries.  We set off from the beach around 10 after Lyle got drenched from his bladder leak.  After a couple miles we stopped and fixed the hitch for the trailers, tightening them up.  We then stopped at the Chargers Stadium and talked to a man named Jim who was biking around and he helped us figure out a route to get out of San Diego.  We then biked through a beautiful park that wound through a gorge that traveled by the oldest catholic mission in San Diego.  After picking up some plastic utensils from the girl on roller blades at Sonic in Sentee we aimed for Wildcat Canyon road.  We were soon held up by our first major breakdown that was not actually that major. Steve's pedal broke which didn't allow him to clip in but he was still able to ride.  We found on the iphone that there was going to be a bike shop in Ramona called Kirks Bike Shop (which sounds a lot like out local Shirk's Bike shop).  Lyle said, "This is great...Wildcat Canyon sounds flat, its prolly gonna cut right through the mountain."  Wildcat Canyon was indeed  beautiful but by no means flat, and climbed us through a mountain pass that had us crawling at 5 mph.  Jody and Lyle quickly realized that pulling the trailers would prove to be a challenge that Steve has yet to face.  After PB&J lunch we were devastated to realize that we were only halfway up the mountain.  After a little more riding we arrived in Ramona and immediately went to Kirk's Bike shop and Steve bought two used pedals for a good price.  Dinner was served at Jack in a Box and we conversed with several locals and endured several Phillies jokes.  After dinner we set out to look for a home to stay for the night because we were all tired and ready to pitch our tent for the first time.  We soon found a man named BJ who was outside packing for his upcoming motorcycle trip.  He offered us a place for our tent, warm shower, and good conversation.
 PS: We learned that sun screen needs to be thoroughly applied.

45 miles, broken pedal, sunny