I hurried to the airport so that I could get there early, as they suggest. Apparently, that's not a requirement at Toledo Express. There's so rarely a line that you can get there 20 minutes before your flight without a problem. I parked my car and rolled my suitcase into the terminal where I found one lonely individual manning the counter at the American Airlines end. As he started checking me in, the power went out throughout the airport. Moments later, the generator kicked in. I had to wait while the computers rebooted. I found it odd that they weren't on an APS.

When the system was back up and running, he checked my bag and informed me that there's no agreement between American and Virgin America (my connecting flight). As such, I would have to go get my bag off the conveyor at O'Hare and check it in at the Virgin America counter. That meant leaving the secure area, going to the Virgin counter to check my bag and then going back through the TSA security checkpoint. What a pain in the ass!

Finally checked in, I made my way through the heavily manned security checkpoint at Toledo Express. Seriously, why do they need 8 TSA agents for the minimal amount of traffic they see there? I'm guessing it's a union thing. To make matters worse, there was no TSA agent at the podium where the check-in process begins, so I had to wait. There were seven other guys standing beyond that point, but nobody to check my ID and boarding pass. When I got upstairs, I looked for some place to get some coffee. Of course, since it's Toledo, there's only one shop beyond the TSA checkpoint. And, as luck would have it, it was closed between 8 and 9am. Feh.

When the little cafe opened again, I went over and filled a cup of coffee. Then, I went to the register so I could pay. Remember the power outage? Yeah... the cash register didn't work because of that. I had to go over to the bar so that she could ring up my coffee. At that point, I should have just decided to start drinking - the way my day was going so far.

The only cool thing at Toledo Express is the sink in the bathroom. Or, at least I thought it was cool enough to take a picture of it.

The flight from Toledo to Chicago was really uneventful. There was nothing to look at after we got a few thousand feet off the ground because it was overcast... or is it undercast? Upon arrival, I made my way down to the baggage claim where I identified the carousel where my bag should be delivered using the monitors above the carousel that included my flight number. I waited. I waited and waited. Thirty minutes went by, then forty. I read some more of my book Pillars of the Earth while I waited, so I didn't really feel the pain of the time passing. One of my flight-mates did, though. Eventually, he tracked down someone in an American Airlines uniform and asked him where our baggage was. The guy said, "Oh, you in the wrong place. That bags is down on carousel number nine." We had been waiting at carousel #3 where the monitor still indicated my flight-number. The group of 5 of us made our way from #3 to #9 where our bags had just started coming out. I have no idea what took so long to get the bags off that little plane.

While I waited for my connecting flight, I got some work done. I was heartened to see that the airports have finally realized that everyone has something to plug in while they wait. When I boarded the plane, I got to my row - where I was assigned the window seat - to find there was a young Asian girl and her mom already seated. I said to them, "If she would rather have the window seat, I certainly don't need it. You can shift over and I'll take the aisle seat." It wasn't a completely magnanimous move on my part. The aisle seat allows me to stretch my legs a bit when they're not rolling a serving cart past me. I think I set Karma straight with that move. The rest of the day went better. Not perfect, but better.

I alternated between reading and playing Cribbage Pro as we made our way to the west coast. Virgin America has free in-flight movies and games on the screen that's embedded in the seat-back. I didn't partake in that, but I did monitor our progress on the GPS display. At some point, the younger sibling in the row in front of us woke-up and wanted a snack. She was so cute as she popped her head over the seat-back and asked her mom for this or that. Her little brother, who was also in the row in front of us, was totally silent on the trip. In fact, I didn't know he was there until we arrived in San Francisco and I stood up to stretch my legs. We saw kiteboarders on The Bay as we approached the airport. That made me really happy. I haven't seen that since Chris and I surprised my parents just before I went to Europe.

I found it funny when we landed and the GPS display showed us as out in the middle of the SF bay with an altitude of 0 and 4 miles remaining. Thank Pepe that I fixed my Karma and that didn't come true.

The SF airport is set up really nicely. I quickly found my way to baggage claim, retrieved my bag, and started toward the ground transportation. I probably should have done some more homework on the Bay Area Regional Transit before I got there. In the end, however, I got it all figured out. When I wanted to look at the map, there was a couple standing there studying it as if it were the entire map of San Francisco. In fact, it was just the map of the airport train system. I found what I was looking for and made my way to the Air Train which took me to the BART station right at the airport. I snapped a couple of pictures of the bay, which I could see in the distance. I also noticed that all the rooftops has solar panels. I liked that.

When I got to the BART station, I grabbed a "Getting started on BART" pamphlet, and quickly got acquainted. I purchased my ticket and made my way down to the trains. The BART tickets work just like the subway in other major cities. You buy the ticket, and put it in a slot when you enter the train system. The system reads it and gives it back to you. Then, when you get off the train, you have to slide it into a slot at the exit. That way, they know that you paid for the right distance. I missed my stop on the way into town, but I was able to cross to the return train and go back one stop to the 24th street station without any problem.

Once I was in the Mission District, I followed my host's directions to his residence. I had rented a room using AirBnB, so I was staying in a room off someone's garage. It was nice enough. It had a futon bed, a full bath, a mini-fridge and a closet. There was a chair, but I only used it to store my suitcase because the cushion was kind-of dirty. If you're traveling on a budget, I highly recommend AirBnB. It worked out well for me. I snapped some picture just to documented the condition of the place when I checked in - since the first thing I noticed was a stain on the floor. I'm glad I didn't have to use them.

Having dropped off my suitcase in my room and stuffed my laptop bag with my cycling essentials, I made my way back to the Mission & 24th station where I figured I could catch a cab. Soon enough, I was whisking through the streets of San Francisco on my way to the place where I had arranged to rent a bike. I fell in love with this city when I saw this sticker on the inside of the back window of the cab. Unfortunately, when we arrived at place which had provided the most professional reply to my rental inquiry, they were closed. I checked the time on my phone to make sure I wasn't in some sort of time warp because they had promised, 1) that they were open until 7pm and, 2) If I was going to be late, they would stay until 7:30. When I looked, it was 6:42. Clearly, they should have been open. So, all I can say is, if you're going to SF and you want to rent a high-end bike, stay away from Blazing Saddles. Instead, try one of the dozens of other bike rental places in the Bay Area. I rented mine from San Francisco Bicycle Rentals where I was treated very well. They fit the Specialized Allez with my pedals and my seat & post. I picked up the bike on Friday at 7pm and I returned it on Monday morning when they opened. Despite having the bike for three nights, they only charged me for the 2 days of rental ($90 total). Quite the bargain!

I rode the rented bike back to the AirBnB paying attention as best I could. It was like riding through a maze where the walls were all painted with images you'd love to take in slowly. However, there was also car/truck/bus/streetcar and pedestrian traffic to deal with while navigating through unfamiliar roads and new sorts of obstacles, like streetcar tracks in the middle of the roads. One must be very careful of these sorts of things. When I got back to my room, I decided that I would bring the bike inside when I wasn't riding it. No need to tempt fate - or criminals. I took this picture to demonstrate just how short that door is. I hit my head on it every time I walked through it. Luckly, I was ducking a bit each time and I just scraped my head. By this time, I was hungry. It was close to 8pm local time, or 11pm by my body-clock. In theory, I could have gone to some place where I'd spend as much as $35 for dinner because my employer will reimburse me for up-to that amount for each meal on travel days. I was too hungry to wait at one of the nicer restaurants to get a meal of that quality. There were a couple close-by where I could have gone, too. One had a 90 minute wait. The other said it would probably be "over an hour". Instead, I wandered toward the Mission St BART station and found this Taqueria where I ordered a Super Burrito and some chips. The burrito was, indeed, "super". It was super big and super high-quality ingredients and super-tasty and super-fast.

Though, I was a bit concerned when I placed my order because the little receipt they gave me indicated that I was number 61. Then, as I walked away, they called out, "97! Number 97!". Ain't nobody got time for 63 more orders between now and eating. But, what was I to do? They had my money, and I was there... waiting. Apparently, they had 2 or more order-books going because within 5 or 6 minutes, they called out my number and I was on my way back "home" to devour 1/2 of this huge meal. I put the remainder in the mini-fridge not realizing that I had no place to re-warm the left-overs when/if I wanted them. Oh well.

That night, I fell asleep watching part 2 of A World Without End on Netflix - the sequel to the book Pops gave me to read - Pillars of the Earth (which I'm thoroughly enjoying).

Saturday morning, I woke up at 6am. I tried to find a place to grab some breakfast and some coffee because I knew I would need the calories for my planned ride. I found the coffee. Not so much luck with the food. I did get a $5 cup of espresso though. That was... underwhelming. On my way back, I noticed a homeless person sleeping in a doorway at the Library just down the street from where I was staying.

After that, I figured I'd just use my energy gels to stay fueled during the ride. And, if possible, I would stop somewhere for lunch. What I didn't realize is that this ride was going to take me so far off the beaten path that I'd have to go 6 miles out of my way - and give back all my climbing - just to get lunch. Totally worth it, though. Totally.

As you can see, I first went west up a rather big hill. I was told that the top of that hill provided one of the best views of the city. They didn't lie.

Then, I headed north and further west through Golden Gate Park. The scenery there is beautiful. As I rode along, I looked to the north at a clearing and I could see the Golden Gate Bridge. This ride would take me there. I was very excited about that. There's a waterfall along the side of the road in the park that I had to stop and admire. It may be man-made. I don't know. Whatever... it's beautiful. There was also apparently some sort of organized run/walk thing going on because I saw groups of people all wearing pink tee-shirts and some others wearing bib-numbers. The western end of the park is bordered by a large body of water extending as far as the eye can see. Fortunately for me, they also provide a road leading north or south. I chose north. This view is one of the iconic northern California scenes and I was compelled to snap a picture of if.

Then, I rode up that hill you see in that picture. On the far side, I was greeted with this view. I have no idea what that structure used to be, but I thought it was a beautiful view.

I rode out to the area they call Land's End where I snapped a few more beautiful pictures before retreating to find the road that would take me to the bridge.