I’ve arrived in San Diego on Saturday evening, coming down from the mountains in 40 deg C heat and high humidity, plain suffering! Additionally I’ve had two punctures (only one puncture and a defect valve as I found out later), strangely on the inside of the tube where the rims are!
Then I arrived at Tom’s place. Tom is my CouchSurfing host for a few days and he helped me a lot by letting me send the camera and hardware to his place before I arrived. Tom and Omar live really relaxed and I’ve had such a nice time here. His girlfriend Lynna also made me feel like I was @home, she’s maybe not a good car driver but a genius when it comes to painting and a lot of fun to talk to.
Having tested the new Canon Digital Rebel XSi camera with a nice travel lens, remote control, battery grip, filter and more, we set out for the beach and soccer field the next day.
It’s so much fun with the new DSLR camera I just don’t want to stop shooting any more! It fires fast like a machine gun and the quality of the pictures is phenomenal. I enjoy all the manual controls, the analog zooming by rotating the lens, the new circular polarization filter and remote control. I can’t wait to use it in South America!
And as some of you might already know, my father will join me in a few days in Caracas, Venezuela. Together we will cycle down the Andes to Chile for half a year.
The recumbent arrived back at home after a several month journey by container ship from China to Europe, just about 2 months ago. Norbert Gurt, my neighbor, made sure it would arrive back at home. The cost for sending (almost 800 Euro) got kindly paid for by my father - thank you so much!
And even though my father had a lot of things to do before leaving the country, he still managed to make a DIY 4x 1 watt Seoul P4 LED light, that looks just frightening:
I can’t wait to scare the crazy car drivers away with the immense light beam resulting from the setup!
Just today my sponsor and producer of my beloved Speedhub 500/14 has posted a news article about the Project VELAIA and the unification with my father. It’s really a pleasure to work together with the Rohloff team.
Hallo Daniel,
höchste Anerkennung für deine Wahnsinnstour, ich hoffe das klappt weiterhin so gut.
Danke an all die Menschen entlang deiner Weltreise die dir so selbstlos helfen, dich unterstützen oder dir einfach nur mit Freundlichkeit und Hilfsbereitschaft begegnen.
Dein Papa dürfte ja jetzt bei dir sein, pass mir auf den “Alten” auf, wenn er Lang genug auf seinem Rad rumgelegen hat, dann hätte ich den ganz gern wieder zurück.
Bin gespannt ob sein Ledbeamer funzt.
Gruß
Wolfgang und Wolfgang und Kollegen
Daniel:
Thanks for the phone call last Sunday when Mike & I were partying at Ocean Beach in San Diego, having just arrived and finishing my ride from Florida to San Diego.
It was a pleasure meeting you. Your stories as we raced downhill (me in front of you) and climbed uphill (you in front of me) were entertaining. Perhaps we will meet again.
Don’t forget for your next visit to the US, if the waitress at the restaurant tries to take your soda glass while you are eating she is probably trying to refill it for free.
Dan
Daniel
Good to see that you had a trouble free ride in the USA. We hope that it will be the same for you and your dad in South America. We will keep following you on the net. We are planning to ride from Santiago to Ushuaia starting Jan.2009.
Kind regards
Arnold and Marieke
Auckland
@Wolfgang Schlegel: Hier in Venezuela laeuft es richtig gut. Die Bevoelkerung kuemmert sich weiterhin hervorragend um die beiden Reisenden und Papa hat sich schon gut eingelegen auf der “Liege”.
@Dan: Yeah, that automatic free refill service really confused me - I thought she wanted to steal my half full glass of Coke 
@Arnold and Marieke: I think we´ll miss in South America again by a few weeks or months like we did in Central Asia. But maybe we´ll one day meet on the street, that´d be cool.
Die 4xLED Beleuchtung mit den Seoul P4 Dioden blaesst mich manchmal beinahe weg, wenn ich mich nach ihm umdrehe, um zu gucken ob er noch hinter mir ist oder sich eine Stufe tiefer gelegt hat (er hat ja schliesslich einiges an Gewicht in den Taschen dabei).
Bin mal gespannt, ob er nach der Tour wieder zu den Audianern wechseln moechte, denn die Autos kann er im Augenblick nicht mehr wirklich “riechen”.
Happy training and road cycling to New Zealand!