Left the lap of luxury at my brother and sister-in-law’s house for the subway which brought me to Union Station. There I had east on flat wide roads with bike lanes, however, the traffic lights were never ending for twenty-eight mikes. After four hours of peddling I stopped for lunch and a break. The constant stopping and starting took its toll on my legs but I knew forty miles was the bare minimum I had to cover. Before moving on I messaged two warmshowers hosts in the approximate area I would end up, somewhere around Upland. As I was riding along on a bike path in a area devoid of vegetation, off in the distance I spotted another cyclists loaded up with panniers. Alas, my first encounter with a fellow long distance cyclist. We stopped and chatted for a few minutes. John was from the finger lakes in New York doing a cross country trip, route 66 included. He had sixty miles to reach Santa Monica. He mentioned he was staying at a warmershowers just up the road. I checked my emails and one of the two warmshowers hosts had gotten back to me. Coincidently, we were staying at the place! Had I missed thus guy I would have overshot this place by miles. We rode fifteen minutes and arrived at our destination next to Pomona College. Carole and Win (John Winthrop Aldrich related to New London’s founder) took us in for a very enjoyable stay, dinner with plenty of good conversation. I learned from John that at the higher elevations there would be a very good chance of me running into cold weather and snow, not what I wanted to hear. That was less than encouraging news; first the unrelenting wind now the cold and snow. There is a mount pass ahead but at least the stop and go riding will taper off.
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