Paul Kramer's blog – Page 2 – Cycling and other musings

October 12, 2025

Day 6: Casa Grande to Tucson, Arizona

75.5 miles, 1894 feet climbed

I use the Epic Ride Weather app preview the conditions each day. With the exception of a light tailwind on the first part of Day 1, it has shown us facing a combination of headwinds and crosswinds. Headwinds were predicted for the entire route today, increasing to 8 mph getting into Tucson. I’m not a big fan of riding in groups/pacelines but tagging along at the end of the faster group helped knock down those headwinds. And they seem to stop every 6 miles or so for a roadside break.

October 12, 2025

Day 5: Gila Bend to Casa Grande, Arizona

72.4 miles, 1636 feet climbed

First rain of the trip towards the end. The spray kicked up by passing trucks was at least as strong as the rain itself. With overcast skies and rain threatening, just a couple of photos.

October 12, 2025October 21, 2025

Day 4: Welton to Gila Bend, Arizonia

88 miles, 1509 feet climbed

18 or so of our miles were again on I-8, still well-paved and remarkably free of exploded tire tread debris. My “recovery” shake today came mid-ride, at Dateland, a date shake, of course. They have other flavors and I think they said their ice cream is made on site. Worth a stop, feed your monster.

October 11, 2025

Day 3: El Centro, California to Welton, Arizona

97.2 miles, 2177 feet climbed

Another hot day at the finish. More time on I-8. Another recovery milkshake. Settling into a pattern, I guess.

October 11, 2025

Day 2 – Alpine to El Centro, California

93.3 miles, 4831 feet climbed

Plenty of climbing today beginning right out of the Casino Resort to hop on I-8 for about 3 miles. Then we exited on to Old Hwy 80 for about 40 miles, going through Guatay and Pine Valley then over to the south side of I-8. When the time was right we turned north on some pretty broken pavement to get to El Centro. While our tour leader, Dennis, worked out a room snafu, some of us consumed recovery milkshakes from In and Out.

October 5, 2025October 11, 2025

Days 0 and 1, San Diego to Alpine, CA

Day 0, San Diego: 8.6 Miles, 306 feet gained

Day 1: 40.7 miles, 3510 feet gained

Day 0’s ride consisted of my returning to the Ocean Beach Hotel after returning the rental car I drove from home near Sacramento to San Diego. Doing so saved me the trouble of disassembling my bike for a flight and reassembling it after getting to the hotel. We had our orientation and a very nice dinner at Tom Ham’s Lighthouse on the tip of Harbor Island.

Day 1 was relatively short so we didn’t leave very early, first stopping to take a group photo on the beach:

September 30, 2025October 21, 2025

Fall 2025 Update

I let this site go cold toward the end of 2023’s West Coast Ride. Sorry about that. While I didn’t finish the uploads for the last few days of that ride, when I came back to wake it up just now, it appears that the days after day 8 that I’m pretty sure I posted have disappeared. I may try to put together some of the photos from those days in a single wrap-up post; stay tuned.

September 15, 2023

Day 8 — Bandon to Gold Beach, OR; Day 9 — Rest

81.1 miles, 3041 feet climbed

563 miles down, another 1,000 or so to go. A guy could make a career out of photographing rocks protruding out of the sea.

September 14, 2023September 14, 2023

Day 7 — Florence to Bandon, OR

81.1 miles, 4026 feet climbed

Today my goal was to make sure I visited the Bandon Dunes golf courses, one of the top golf complexes in the US. I thought it might be a bit off course but it was not. I was rewarded for my initiative by a flat tire on the access road. I spent most of the day riding with Lou(ise) and John, who didn’t stop for photos and thus my two shots are from the courses, now 4 in number.

September 14, 2023

Day 6 — Lincoln City to Florence, OR

74.8 miles, 3510 feet climbed

Today’s goal was to make it to Florence in time to chair a Committee of Bar Examiners meeting. Thus, fewer, shorter stops. I arrived with enough time to get a burger before the meeting.