Day 19: San Jose, California

Starting Mileage: 11923
Ending Mileage: 12439
Miles Traveled: 516
May 1, 2008

Got up early and headed out for home. Brian was determined to be home by May 1^st because it was the premier of the movie “Ironman”. Hey—we’re a family of comic fans—what can I say? Kyle had bought tickets already so (for the *midnight* show)—we had to be home.

After a couple of hours, we stopped at IHOP for breakfast. The special for the day was a caramel and banana stuffed waffle—which Grace begrudgingly shared with Brian.

Back on the bike…and off we went. It turned out that it was a good thing we didn’t go to Bakersfield the night before—because we went a different way out of Barstow: towards the ocean. Instead of heading northwestward to Bakersfield, we headed on a more westwardly route towards Santa Barbara and then took the coastal route most of the way home. The ocean air was quite a bit cooler…but well worth it with the views we had on the nearly 250 miles of coastal roads.

We made it home by about 6:30pm Pacific time. Everyone was home—even the cat—although Tora managed to look “unimpressed” by our arrival for about 20 minutes…then yowled for Grace to take him upstairs to his food dish. It was great to be able to hug Kyle and Kevin good and hard.

Brian’s mom had a hot stew waiting for us and that was WONderful. We talked about the trip and then tried to unwind.

And yes…we went to the midnight “Ironman” show—and it was also neat because a lot of the boys’ high school friends were there—whom we hadn’t seen in quite a while—it was almost like a reunion. Oh…and the movie was *hella-COOL*--be sure to stay to the END of the credits!

What a way to end a really great adventure! We thought of all of you along the way—y’all were great company.

:^)