Obviously I had no sleep. How the heck was I ever supposed to sleep!? I’m just about to cycle thousands of miles on my own in a country which is (lets face it) in a bizarre political climate right now and also I’m starting in San Francisco! Oh and also, I was staying in a cupboard in someones garage.
So I got up and I explored. The first thing that hit me about America; it’s bloody huge.
Oh and everything was back to front for me traffic wise… this was problematic, I’d never ridden a bike on the right hand side of the road… and I hadn’t ridden with panniers on before either.
Like I said, I don’t give myself an easy time.
So I distracted myself from these glaring scary hurdles by sauntering around San Francisco, I took in the water front, the amazing Museé de Mechanical, found my safe space (a bookshop) and luckily, LUCKILY discovered the Adventure Cycling Maps I used for the first part of my journey.
And so, armed with my maps I decided to have a celebratory pint before I left the next morning. I discovered a little dive bar that looked good online and headed straight for it. My server, Jonny (I took this as a very good omen- because one of my best pals is called Jonny and we both worked in a bar back home together) asked my story and gave me my first pint “on the house”. Nice wan Jonny!
bitter/sweet 