Wednesday May 20, 2015

A cool start to the day again. As we were about to leave the Manchester KOA, Ciara and Emily showed up on a school bus. Ciara has been having problems with her chain, and they managed to get a ride on the school bus. The kindness of strangers at work.

It was not a good days riding for me today. I was feeling cold, achy and I had left the legs at the campsite, basically no energy. I knew I had a 60 k ride to Fort Bragg or 70 k to the State Park and again another hilly ride. I am not sure why I had no energy, we have been eating well, it could be the cool, damp nights and the restless sleep for the past few nights or the fact that we have climbed over 3,225 metres over the last four days.

There are not many photos today, every time Ralf stopped to take photos I needed to carry on. I told him I just needed to keep peddling because otherwise I would not make the ride today. If I keep cycling then Ralf has to do double-quick time to catch up, which is harder on him.

We saw a few single-touring cyclists heading south and we only got a wave from them. Then we came across four cyclists chatting to each other. We crossed to join in the conversation. Two women were heading south and the Dutch couple were heading north with us. The Dutch couple have been on the road for eight months cycling around the US with a break in the Baja Peninsula to reset their American visa. The women were on a two-week trip down to San Francisco. While we were all comparing notes, one of the women commented on the fact that they were only doing two-weeks. I said “all cycle trips are important whether you are cycling to work, you are able to cycle for two weeks or two years they are all accomplishments. But, be warned after doing a few shorter trips they only get longer”. The women were going motel to motel, and mentioned that Fort Bragg had expensive motels, the one they stayed in would not allow them to bring the bikes into the room. Oh well, I thought, we will have to push it to the State Park, although I really wanted a motel room for a good nights sleep.

We all went our separate ways and Ralf and I got into Fort Bragg at about 1:30. I was knackered, the last few hills really knocked me down. We stopped in Safeway and while I was picking up lunch Ralf was calling motels for prices. He found the Ebb Tide Lodge for $65.00 including taxes. The rooms are a little tired, but clean and big white fluffy towels and friendly people. We often find that if the motel is owned by an Indian family we can get a deal. If they are the big chain motels, we may be able to get a discount, but more often than not we cannot.

I needed to get my bike checked out, the front chain ring was a little sluggish in changing. It was either an adjustment or a new chain. It was a new chain, brake pads and he cleaned the bike. Ralf needed a new chain as well. Fort Bragg Cyclery is a very good shop, reasonably priced and did all the work there and then. Really important for a touring cyclist to be able to get work done quickly.

We walked back up to Safeway and got something for dinner. An early night was in store for us.

As we looked at the maps for the next few days, we realized we have not planned this leg of the trip very well. We will be in the Avenue of the Giants (redwoods) during Memorial Day long week-end. I hope we can get into the State Parks, as I am sure all the other camping sites and motels will be full.