Monday May 11, 2015

A wonderful breakfast provided by our host Barton – stacks of pancakes and I mean stacks. He made sure we were not going to leave his house hungry! What a lovely, caring man. We headed out in slightly sunny skies at just after 9:00.

We headed into Santa Cruz and followed the bike path all the way through Santa Cruz.

By the time we rejoined Highway 1 it was getting a little chilly and we had turned the corner on the sunshine and the wind. The wind was now heading straight at us!

Ralf took the lead and stayed there for the rest of the ride.  Although we were on the coast again, the wind was so bad we put our heads down and cycled.

At Davenport, only 33 kms into the ride, and 3 hours later we stopped for lunch. Ralf had a second breakfast, Barton told him to eat the two remaining pancakes but he said he was full. However, he managed to eat a veggie omelet with home fries and toast, he had been working hard against the wind. I think he deserved the second breakfast.

A young French Canadian cyclist joined us. He, of course, was cycling north to south. He had started in San Francisco and was heading to LA. He had been planning the trip for a couple of years, and had been training. His itinerary was very good – taking a couple of days off in the main places – Monterey, Big Sur (to do some hiking) and Santa Barbara, we warned him how expensive Santa Barbara was.  Fortunately, he has someone to stay with in Santa Barbara.

After lunch we headed out to the campsite, only another 20 kms to go, but that wind, what hard work. We arrived at the KOA and noticed the “tent bungalows”. A tent pitch was going to be $37.00, the “tent bungalows”, which had a queen size bed and linen and towels was going to be $109 incl tax. Too expensive for us, but it was so windy and cold and looked like rain. Could we convince ourselves to pay $109 for a plastic garden shed. I asked if there were any discounts for being carbon neutral. Surprisingly she said there was an Eco-Discount! That reduced the rate to $93 including tax, somehow that convinced us to shell out the extra money!

The “garden shed” had a queen sized bed and two chairs. It also had electric blankets. I personally don’t like electric blankets, but Ralf turned on the electric blanket on his side and I must admit I may migrate over to his side of the bed if I need to.

The showers and toilets are in a heated shower block, luxury. There is also a sauna and outside showers.

We had a wander around the property, looking in the store, the restaurant (way too expensive) and the lodge. It is very nice.

We got the computer and accessed the internet in the lobby. Then we went back to the “garden shed” and ate our pasta we decided not to buy any beer, it was too expensive, we had hot lemon tea instead.

We were in bed by 9:00, snuggled under the blankets, listening to the roar of the surf and the wind flapping the plastic against the wooden structure.

As a point of interest it was warmer in Barrie today than it was in California – 17 degrees C in Barrie, 14 degrees C in California.