Sunday, 1 September, 2024 – Sunday, 8 September, 2024
The big day arrived; it was time to leave Europe and fly into the USA. One would suppose that after 6 days in camp, we were all packed and ready to go, but that wasn’t the case. We still had some packing to do, so we had to get up at around 6 AM, pack the tent, squeeze it in one of the suitcases, stuff bike boxes with padding, weigh everything, and tape down both boxes and suitcases. We also had to pack everything from the campground back into our camping van, along with all of our luggage and bikes. We were ready to leave the camp at around 8 AM, having a 10-minute drive to the airport. There, we had a problem finding a parking spot because of the height of our van, so at the end, Mom and Rozi stayed in the van, while Dad helped us carry everything into the airport. After all the rush, we were 25 minutes too early to start our check-in, so we had some time to spare.
The lady that worked at check-in was extremely kind; she helped us with checking-in our suitcases and buying “tickets” for our bikes that we had as extra oversized luggage. It was a good thing that we were early because we spent almost an hour there trying to figure out why their credit card reader wasn’t working. Before leaving our suitcases there, we had to open one of them and take out our pepper spray cans; apparently, Iberia Airlines doesn’t allow them on the airplane. We will probably get another one in the USA, just for our peace of mind if we ever need them.
After taking our bikes to oversized luggage check-in, we went through security check without any problems. At that point we still had an hour to spare before the boarding process would begin, so we found a great view of other airplanes landing and taking off. It was fascinating to see them this close. Also, a great thing was that there was a bunch of electrical outlets in the waiting hall, so one can easily charge everything if needed (apparently not all airports have that). We were among the first ones for the boarding process, completely missing large letters on our tickets, saying “Group 4”, so we naturally stopped before “Group 1” gates. After more people arrived, but we were still among the few elite ones by the “Group 1” gates, it occurred to us to check our tickets. Well, it turned out that we were not VIP passangers, so we had to join the regular folk in the last boarding group. It was a good thing that most people can’t be anywhere on time, so we were still close to the beginning of the longest line. This meant that we won’t board among the last ones (if you are, it can happen that the headroom space above your seat is already full, so you have to take your bag to some random place on the plane and look for it before getting off).
After everyone else, it was time for group 4 to board, and everything went smoothly. We didn’t get the seats by the window, but it was nice that every seat had a screen with a ton of movies and TV shows to choose from. This way, the 13-hour flight will pass faster. One thing that bothered us was that when we boarded the plane, the air conditioning was running with full power, cooling down the already cold airplane. Luckily, we had warm clothes and even a sleeping bag with us, so we weren’t that cold, but not everyone had this luxury. For them, there was another option if they didn’t want to freeze. By some lucky coincidence, the plane crew went around with a trolley of warm blankets, and one could buy them if needed. A lot of people did. And when all the cold people got their blankets, the air conditioning on the airplane stopped working with full speed; for the rest of the flight, the temperature inside was a little chilly but not that cold anymore. This could be a great tactic to boost the sales of blankets.
We left Barcelona at around 14:30 local time, and after 13 hours of flying, we arrived in San Francisco at 18:30, the same day. Because of the time zones crossing, we went 9 hours in the past! To enter the USA, we applied for ESTA (electronic system for travel authorization) back in July instead of a regular visa, and we got it approved fairly quickly. This allows us to stay in the USA for up to 3 months, and we can’t extend our stay without first leaving the country. After we landed in San Francisco International Airport, we thought that it would be easy to just find luggage and leave the airport; after all, we had all of the papers to enter the USA. Oh boy, were we wrong. There is a piece of text on the ESTA application that says, “Your travel authorization has been approved […]. This does not guarantee admission to the United States; a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer at a port of entry will have the final determination”. This means that you can fill out all of the paperwork, fly over to the USA, and still get rejected to enter.
So we got to the CBP officer, they took our pictures and fingerprints, then we had a few questions to answer: “Why are you traveling to the USA?”, “Where will you be staying?”, “How long will you stay and how do you leave?”, “How much money do you have with you?”, … And with each question, there were a couple of additional questions, like “What route will you take?”, “How did you earn this money?” or “Sir, can you please stop talking and let her speak for herself?”. Apparently, the question “Where do you plan to go?” requires both of us to give the answer, as if we will take different routes and we were accidentally traveling together by airplane.
After all this, the officer wasn’t pleased with the answers, so he called out “Escort!” and we were taken to the “Second check” area. There was a larger room with around 25 chairs that we shared with people from Asia, Arabic countries, and some from South America. How do we know where they were from? Well, there wasn’t any privacy in that room; the officer behind the counter was calling people ahead and questioned them out loud. At some point, even we felt a bit awkward when they were questioning a poor girl about how she got the money and how much she has, and she even had to show her bank statements on her phone. After being there for over an hour, Iris got called up front, and she had to explain everything once again. And this time, they were more interested in how much money we have with us and on the bank account. We suspected that it’s because they don’t want you to work in the USA, so you have to prove that you have enough money for the period of your stay in the USA. All together, it took us over 2 hours at CBP, but eventually, we were approved to enter the United States of America!
It was close to 21:00 when we got out of the airport, and if it weren’t for our WarmShowers host Shirley, we would have to assemby our bikes at the San Francisco airport, pack everything in our bags, throw cardboard boxes and suitcases away, and ride around 12 kilometers on busy highways to the nearest hostel. But thanks to Shirley, we just texted her, and she was kind enough to come and pick us up at the airport, taking us to her place. When she offered us help a couple of days before that, we were a bit skeptical of how we would put everything in a car, but she has a large suburban truck, so it was easy to fit both bike boxes and large suitcases in the trunk. And there was probably room for at least one more bike. That was our first experience of what we’ve heard before: everything is bigger in America.
After some talking and getting to know each other in the evening, we finally went to bed after being awake for over 27 hours. That was our first night in the USA. The next day (day 70), we assembled the bikes and found out why Shirley is known as the Cookie Queen. She had baked us a ton of chocolate chip cookies and peanut cookies—so many of them that we will have to take some with us on the road! We also tried the American food for the first time, and everything tasted more sweet (for example, jam) or salty (for example, peanut butter) than the same food back home. Because of the jet lag, we took a short nap around midday and went earlier to bed.
Day 71, Tuesday. At first we didn’t plan that, but because we stayed with Shirley, where we could leave all of our things, we took our empty bikes on a train and went to the center of San Francisco. We drove around the east coast of the city, through Fisherman’s wharf, and all the way to the Golden Gate Bridge, one of the most famous bridges in the world. The center of the bridge is open for traffic, but on the sides, there are quite wide sidewalks where one can walk or cycle across. We did just that, arriving at the viewpoint on the other side. Around the bridge, there were a few signs and phone booths for suicide prevention; some parts of the bridge had a high fence, and there was a safety net under the full length of the bridge. We went back over it, this time having the view over the city of San Francisco. This time, we avoided the coastal part and went right through the center, finding our way through the grid of streets, a lot of them being very steep. As much as we liked the coastal part of the city with modern and large buildings, nice wide sidewalks, and a friendly vibe, the center itself didn’t impress us that much. We went through some nicer neighborhoods and parks, but closer to the center, there were a lot of homeless people, heavy traffic, narrow and busy sidewalks, and almost no bicycle paths. But at least we were positively surprised by all of the driverless Waymo cars that were driving all over San Francisco, available as taxis. Initialy, it was very weird and a little bit funny seeing an empty car just driving around, turning the steering wheel, and pationately waiting for people to pass the road.
Shirley’s house quickly felt like home to us. Instead of leaving on Tuesday, as we initially planned, we stayed with her for the whole week. She took us out to eat, showed us Costco warehouse store (everything is EXTRA large in there), and even drove us with her car around to show us exactly which roads we need to take when we will leave her house and continue south. She wanted us to see the nicest roads around there and to have a pleasant ride instead of going on some busy highway with nothing to see. And we loved her green Cadillac car that she got from her dad; it looks amazing, and we even went for a ride with it! In the next few days, we explored the nearby area, ate a ton of food (Iris is a good eater, as Shirley would say), hung out with Shirley, watched birds and squirels in her backyard eating peanuts, Iris played some piano, we updated our blog, and planned out the route through California to the south.
Shirley has been on the WarmShowers for over 14 years, and in this time, she hosted plenty of cyclists. This means that when you have some questions about cycling south through Mexico and Latin America, she’s the right person to connect you with someone who did similar tours. And she did just that; she wrote to 4 different people that have cycled through Mexico, introduced us, and gave us their contacts. So on Sunday, day 76, we had scheduled two video calls, the first one with Yors and the second one with Jorge. We explained our plans, and both of them were like bike touring enciclopedias with plenty of useful information and a ton of tips. Once again, we were amazed over our luck! We just got the most valuable gifts one can get on a tour: mentors and people that you can contact if anything goes wrong or if you ever have any problem or question. We’re increadibly grateful to Shirley for connecting us; without her, we would be much more clueless about what’s waiting for us after we cross the border into Mexico.
Sunday was also our last evening at Shirley’s house; we planned to leave the next morning. We were well rested and well fed, and we were eager to continue with our journey. And to make the last evening even better, Shirley got some steaks and started a barbaque in the back. That dinner was amazing!
Extra photos:
Ga. Shirley, tretja babica, hvala vam! 🫂💝!
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