I slowly broke the 1000-mile mark about a week ago riding my bike! Now I'm over 1060 miles. I also lost about 13 pounds since mid April!
The hills in Walnut were a killer at first, but now they seem ok. I could only do 14.3 miles (about 1.5 loops around the major roads in City of Walnut) in about 53-54 minutes, that's only about averaging 16 mph. That's a slow average, but considering I'm climbing the Amar hills twice I'm happy with it. I have yet to encounter anyone riding faster than me.
My fastest segments (because they are either downhill or flat) are:
Lemon Ave. southbound (35 mph)
Grand Ave. southbound (32 mph)
Valley Blvd. westbound (23 mph)
Speeds vary greatly when there are uphill climbs mixed with downhills:
La Puente Rd. westbound ( 15-25 mph)
Nogales St. northbound (10-18 mph)
Amar Rd. eastbound (6-30 mph)
I finally got my (small) truck load of stuff back last week! The United Van Lines drove their 18-wheeler up our hill and had to make a tight K-turn at a cross street. The semi-truck was huge, probably the biggest I'd seen. The cab seemed like it could sleep all 3 people who came to unload. I shifted though all the stuff and got most of the things I need out already. The rest will probably stay boxed until I find a new place to live.
I'm in the process of looking for a house to buy in the San Gabriel Valley. The housing market is still inflated here in LA. For $300k I could move into a mansion in Texas or Ohio, but here that's only a condo's worth. I have yet to get my pre-approval from the bank, but it seems like my price range will be $550k or less. My parents are going to help me out big time for the down payment since it's 25%. No more 0% down for doctors like before. I'm also looking at maybe a 15 year morgage, but first is to pay my parents back. The interest rates are low, so that's to my advantage.
Ivy and I will head back to Taiwan in August along with my parents. They will meet with Ivy's parents for the first time to discuss wedding plans. Hopefully things can get hammered out then. August will likely be hot in Taiwan. I'm also studying for the boards. We'll see how that goes. It's slow going so far with so many things going on. I know my trip to Taiwan will somehow disrupt the studying a bit.
On side notes, Fred had his surprise party at Seaport Village in San Diego. It was my first time seeing fireworks from San Diego's harbor. They had 4 fireworks going at the same time. Later that weekend Ivy secretly bought me my birthday present. 
It's a Gucci wallet! It's early, but no complaints. She had noticed that I needed a new wallet, but couldn't bring myself to spend more than $40 on a decent one. I wonder how much this Gucci wallet costs.
After 3 days, 2479 miles using 55 gallons of gas on my trusty Prius, Ivy and I made it back to California! Last Friday the United Van Lines movers came and cleaned out my apartment, except a few things, within 2 hours! They were pretty professional and packed every thing good. The only things left were my 2 bikes, computer, camera equipments, and clothes for the next 3 days. I decided to stay a night at a local Best Western since I didn't think I could last a night on the floor. So Friday night I packed every thing into my car and headed out to the hotel.
I started the trip from Columbus last Saturday morning. Ivy was supposed to start the trip with me from Columbus, but her original flight on Friday night was delayed due to an incompetent airline (US Airways). It was not a weather, mechanical, or air traffic related delay. US Airways was just slow in getting their planes to their destinations on time. As a result, Ivy took the flight to Indianapolis on Saturday morning so I could pick her up on the way.
Our first day of drive was the shortest, about 712 miles. It was a 3-hour drive from Columbus to Indianapolis airport. We stopped at St. Louis and visited the Gateway Arch for a bit. It was my second visit there and Ivy's third. We didn't go up the arch as both of us had done it before and didn't find it interesting. It was near 100 degrees and humid at St. Louis and we could barely make it to the arch from the parking lot without soaking in sweat. We then drove to Kansas City (Missouri side) for our stay at Sheraton near their airport.
Our second day of drive was about 873 miles. Kansas pretty much had nothing going on. The eastern half of Colorado was plain too. Even though the plains were as flat as Ohio, Indiana, or Illinois, at least those states had a lot of huge trees. Missouri actually has a lot of rolling hills and some cliffs. We didn't stop at Denver since we want to see the Rocky Mountains before sunset and get to our hotel at Grand Junction on time. The Rockies were quite a climb. It was my 5th trip up the Rockies on I-70 freeway. There were a lot of tunnels and the snow was still there. The Eisenhower Tunnel was interesting. This tunnel is the highest point on I-70 at 11,158 feet elevation. 
Ivy brought some sealed snacks and one of the snacks actually burst! We later passed by the ski resourt town of Veil and coursed along with the Colorado River down to Grand Junction.
Our third day of drive was 894 miles. It was not supposed to be our longest drive, but I had to take Ivy all the way to LAX at the end to pick up her car. The day started with us in Utah most of the time. It was very hot in the desert, at 115 degrees! 
There were a lot of scenic view points, but all of them looked similar to me. We made a stop at St. George near the Arizona border. We drove through the Las Vegas strip, but didn't stop. My parents wanted to see if we could make it home to have dinner with them, so after a fuel-up at the California border, we drove 200 miles non-stop to Walnut! After dinner I took Ivy to LAX to pick up her car.
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