Oxnard to Manhattan Beach, CA

Sunday, 8/9 - 66 miles. Today was an interesting ride. It was  basically flat with a few small hills in the Santa Monica and Malibu areas. At the end of the day we went inland a few miles to a motel in Manhattan Beach and we had a few small steep hills to climb. After Malibu we got onto a bike trail and we ended of riding on several bike trails that took us all the way to Manhattan Beach with only a few breaks where we had to ride on the road for short distances. The areas we went through also varied. In the morning we passed several miltary bases, farmland, wealthy areas with beachfront homes and some much lower socioeconomic areas. After lunch we passed predominantly wealthy beachfront areas. I also saw a lot of nice state beaches although many were small ribbons of sand that were immediately adjacent to the highway so anyone using the beach must have been subjected to significant traffic noise. The bike paths on the beach were enjoyable to ride on although it was rather slow riding due to the sheer number of bikes on the paths. It seemed like the heaviest concentration of bikes was in the Venice Beach area. For dinner tonight Hal convinced me to try an all you can eat Mongolian restaurant which was across the street from the motel. You picked the various food items you wanted and then a chef cooked everything for you on a giant wok - like surface. The food was very good although I am unsure if it was really authentic Mongolian food. One interesting note about the restaurant was that the owner may have been Mongolian but the servers were Chinese and the chefs were Hispanic. At the beginning of the ride this morning I heard a loud banging noise coming from rear wheel after about two miles. I couldn't figure out the source of the noise until I laid the bicycle on its side and spun the rear wheel. A two inch piece of heavy wire was sticking out of my tire and it was hitting my rear fender every time the wheel rotated. Amazingly it did not puncture the tire so once it was pulled out of the tire I was able to continue riding. I was rather surprised I didn't get a flat!