Illinoistocht

 I just completed a bike tour of California's central coast and Southern California.  I actually did it in two separate rides, one from San Francisco to San Luis Obispo (through the Big Sur area) and then a few weeks later I went from San Luis Obispo through San Diego to the Mexican border.    The northern leg was classic coastal California while the southern part, from Santa Barbara on, was mostly right on the beach in "Baywatch-land".  I think I must have pedaled by every single beach in Southern California.  All told it was 649 miles (1044.4 km) and 28,471 ft. of climbing (8678 m)--I did it in two separate legs--a three day and a four day trip, so each day I was going a long way.  The route was mostly along the ocean, except the first day I deviated not only from the ocean but also the Adventure Cycling route and stayed the night in Buellton, which was the setting of the movie Sideways.  Each day was mostly very sunny after the fog burnoff, even in Big Sur, so I now have very pronounced cyclist / farmer tan lines.  By the time I got to San Diego, I was applying copious amounts of sunscreen and zinc oxide everywhere--late on the last afternoon I failed to really clean it off and the photos are a little funny of me.  Photos of the two legs of the trip are at:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/35710734@N05/sets/72157624224826376/show/  and  
http://www.flickr.com/photos/35710734@N05/sets/72157624225682311/show/
The Amtrak trips back were not so bad, but a delay leaving in San Diego meant for a long day coming home.   I did get really comfortable with having the bike lashed in underneath in the bus' cargo hold, and because Amtrak's Pacific Surfliner train has bike racks in each car, I never had to box it up, which was a nice change.