San Diego to Pine Valley

After a short sleep we were up early to pack the car, shop and assess what we were going to do today with regards to cycling -the weather was so unpredictable with snow at 2000ft and where we wanted to get to was 4000ft. We went shopping our friend Rich from San Diego. At Walmart we bought two walkie talkies which have proved to be brilliant and were essential through San Diego. We took a gamble to try and get to Alpine or Even Pine Valley (50 miles) and set off from Dog beach after dipping my bike in the Pacific Ocean, within 10 minutes I had a potential technical problem

I hadn't tightened it fully when assembling it and it had worked loose and crossed threaded, this was a potential stopper however, managed to get it on and flush - it won't be coming off in a hurry.
Caro guided me through the suberbs and finally got out to the Historic Old Highway 80 which would take us to our destination. A quick pit stop at Burger King was required - 1000 calories in seconds:-) As we set off the inclines got greater and the temperature dropped to just above freezing, we must be the only tourists that will not witness true Californian sunshine! Lots of city folk were making there way to the snow, at this time I was starting to get worried as the snow was coming down heavy and the road was Slippy, fortunately it was all uphill. Finally got to Pine Valley to find that the motel was fully booked! Epic fail we had to go back to Alpine to get a room - early start to get to the starting point ready for pretty much the same again but longer and all day to get us to Brawley or even beyond.
Lessons learnt today
With an automatic car depress brake to select gear
Book motel in advance
Wear more than one thin pair of socks in freezing conditions