I like to be in America: We knocked the bugger off

Day 2b (written by Rose)

Bucket list out...... and tick!

It was hard work but it wasn't as scary as some people had told us... and the ride down the other side was great fun. And, best of all, the weather was perfect, sunny, coolish and just the slightest breeze.

The Golden Gate Bridge, so named because it was the gate to the golden country, is a must- do

if you are a cyclist.

We went on a guided tour with Blazing Saddles and our saddles were certainly doing that when we got to Sausalito on the other side.

Our guides were treasures. Mary the California girl with the perfect teeth and long blonde hair, and a long lean grey-haired man whose name we didn't get, who genuinely loved his job and had a Kiwi friend and knew all abut the All Blacks - so he instantly had three more Kiwi friends. They were ridiculously cheerful and made it all more fun.

We were a mixed lot. We three who have done lots of biking and others who clearly had not. Our bikes were great and we choose the one that suited us with the seats easily raised or lowered as needed and plenty of gears for the hills in front of us. We headed off along the flat with we will call him Mike in front and Long, Blonde Mary as tail-end Charlie.

This was the time of the Govt shutdown and so of course "Mike" was an obvious taget for me. in common with everyone so far he was cringingly embarrassed by the whole thing and aware of how it looked to the rest of the world.

The first part of the trip took us along a bike track more or less along the sea shore and lots of historic sites. One of them was the amazing Palace of Fine Arts. This mgnificent folly was finished in 1915 and was built to celebrate the reovery of the city from the 1906 earthquake and firestorm. Like much of Hawke's Bay San Francisco has been shaped by earthquake and lives in constant awareness of them.

The Golden Gate Bridge actually takes a bit of getting to past former military bases and through one small National Park that could not be closed by the lunacy in Washington and then up a gentle but long hill that our Moore Rd training should have prepared me for but hadn't quite. I wasn't the first one off my bike but Rich and Nicki cruised up! I did make it up the last climb and then there it was! The Bridge - the thing we had talked about for weeks! Mike warned us to look out for "maniacs in spandex" - a timely warning indeed. However, there was plenty of room for all to ride the roughly 2km of the actual bridge.

We were told not to stop and to watch out for pedestrians on the track that is quite separate from the whizzing traffic. The sea was a long way down but not once did we feel unsafe. The feeling on reaching the other end called for high fives! Then we had a steep drop off the bridge - dare you to release the brakes - before we headed up again for Sausalito. Then a cruise into this delightful if touristy seaside town with a million places to eat and shops to be checked.

We gave our best shot before we caught the ferry back to San Fran. Then we had quite a ride along Fisherman's Wharf through the Columbus Day crowds back to Blazing Saddles base. It took us an hour or more and then a small hill climb back to the Shop. - to be greeted by huge enthusiastic cheers

from the young and gorgeous staff! They seemed genuinely pleased that we had made it - or perhaps they were just pleased to see their bikes back unscathed!!!

We didn't have far to walk/stagger back to our hotel where it was showers all round before we headed to the bar downstairs to meet Will and Julie - of course we were wearing our souvenir "I biked the Bridge" T-shirts to go Ta Daaaaah to the kids when they arrived. They had the grace to look only moderately embarrassed. We were too pleased with ourselves to worry about it!.

Good sleeps alround that night and then to wonder what's next on the bucket list?