Day 47 (Dana Point - San Diego 116km)

I did it! The first leg of my epic journey completed in style. Steven and I rode the whole way into San Diego together and arrived at around 2:30 in the afternoon.
The day started out looking like it was going to rain and we had a slight headwind all day. I was really stiff , tired and sore from the previous day. The riding conditions weren't exceptional and the riding wasn't very exciting, but since it was saturday morning there were literally hundreds of roadies out in full spandex, some in uniforms matching their friends. We saw so many of them fixing flats in groups because they were training on race wheels that should really only be used for racing.
We passed through Camp Pendleton US Marine Corps base after flashing our IDs to some marines at the gate (while we were riding off I yelled "HOOAH!" and then spent some time quoting Full Metal Jacket. The base was absolutely huge with several towns and a big shopping centre, as well as cheap gas.
After leaving Marine country Steven and I split a delicious pizza and then we hit the road again for the final stretch to San Diego.
We missed a turnoff at the top of a tall hill in La Jolla by riding down the hill, and didn't want to go back up so we took a detour through UC San Diego, missed another turnoff and took a second detour along a bike path, not needing to make up any elevation in the end, which I was glad for since I was still drained and sore from the night before.
Finally reaching San Diego I booked a spot at the Banana Bungalow hostel and spent the evening playing beer pong with the other crazy guests. I got to the semi finals!