I made it to Southern California.  My flight arrived on time at 9:30 am.  We are staying in the dorms at Vanguard University in Costa Mesa.  It has been fun to meet the other riders.  There are people from around the United States and Canada on this ride.  There a total of 220 riders that will ride all or a portion of this Sea to Sea ride.  People of various ages are making the trip.  Many college age students all the way up to 70 years old.  There are about equal number of men and women. I met Christy Statema, she is Pastor Cody Statema's sister.  She is also doing the ride from L.A. to Colorado Springs.  I also spoke with Shirley Folkerts and her husband.  Shirley is a sister of Shar Jelgerhuis.  Shirley and are husband are planning to do the entire ride on their recumbent bikes.    Yesterday afternoon, about 10 of us rode over to Newport Beach and walked to the end of the pier.  It was very crowded at the beach which is typical for this time of year.    We had devotions last night and then a long meeting on bike safety.  It is good to cover all these items up front so we all on the same page with hand signals and communication.

This afternoon we have a worship service at 2:00 pm and then we will all go over to Newport Beach to put our back tires in the Pacific Ocean.  In nine weeks, those who are doing the entire ride will be putting their front tires in the Atlantic Ocean.  My daughter Laura, who lives in LA, is planning to meet me this afternoon and we'll have dinner together.   I believe my brother-in-law and sister-in-law, Rick and Arlys Jasper,  will be coming for the worship service this afternoon as well.

The weather is beautiful in Costa Mesa.  The daytime is warm but it cools down in the evening to the point where we needed sweatshirts last night to stay warm.

Tomorrow we start our ride - going out to Redlands.  This stretch will involve the most car traffic that we will likely encounter on this early part of the trip.  Thanks for your prayers!