My first all night ride was an unplanned 140 mile nonstop from LAX airport to Pacific Beach, CA. It all began by arriving so late in LA that I could change into my cycling gear in the baggage area with no one to see a thing. From there, riding down Sepulveda Boulevard on a loaded tour bike in the middle of the night seemed like begging for an end-of-life experience. I scampered through Long Beach like a rabbit before the hounds, flitting past parked cars that seemed occupied. Seeing flames dance on the tops of towering smoke stacks was surreal: like riding through the cover of a Pink Floyd Album. After all of that things began look up and what I'd planned as a 2-day trip had me thinking along the way that it was too late to stop at a hiker-biker camp until before long I was watching the sun rise in Laguna Beach, taking a towel bath in open sight with the barking of seals the only sign of life at that time of the morning. That was about halfway home so -- why stop now? -- was the thinking at that point.