Time Travel

by fiftyrides

Still excited about the new bike, I asked my friend to do a short morning ride before work. He showed up and was still so stoked about the parts on his new bike that he hardly said anything about the orange rocket I was standing next to.

We took off and snuck around Twin Peaks on residential streets through Saint Francis Wood, passing cars whenever we could. We cut over to Geneva from Ocean and rode out to Bayshore, stopping by 7 Mile House for a moment to adjust things and throw out a leaky water bottle.

After that we headed south and turned onto Guadalupe Canyon Parkway. This is a strange road that curves out of the Bayview district, pops up and over the San Bruno mountains, and ends in up Daly City as East Market. It’s a little bit of mountain riding right on the edge of the City. With sweeping banked turns, down hill straightaways, and wide double lanes, it’s a great place to go open up the throttle.

At the bottom we decided to go to Wyatt Earp’s grave, mere minutes away in Colma. Winding past Lucky Chances Casino, we took the long way, looping around the speckled green cemeteries. In the Hills of Eternity, we searched for the final resting place of the famous lawman, card-dealer, gold-miner and pimp. Wyatt Earp was an alcoholic, so we poured a little coffee on his grave once we found it.

Wandering around, we looked at the names on stones from the 1800s. There was more than one man with the first name of “Wolf.” We could see the 280 freeway from the hill we stood on, but our thoughts (at least mine) were in another time. We all get so set in our little day-to-day routines, it’s easy to forget that a little left or right here or there can take us a world away. We can spend an hour going down the same old road. Or that little morning ride can take us through the mountains and back in time.

(The epitaph reads: “…That nothing is so sacred as honor and nothing so loyal as love!”)