Saturday April 25, 2015

We were awake early due to the planes taking off from San Diego airport. The hostel is on the direct take off path and take off every 30 seconds.

We were showered and had breakfast by 7:30. We were loading our bikes and chatted to a guy who wanted to record an “interview” with us. Three attempts later and Nick was a happy guy. Nick wants to do a big tour, but like so many people is not quite ready to give everything up to do it.

We eventually left the hostel and 9:30 am. We are following the Pacific Coast Route to Vancouver. After meandering through the streets a little, we were on the beach path. Lots of people as it was Saturday and it seemed as if everyone was interested in the bikes and us.

Every time we stopped either to check the map, check the garmin or just take photos – someone would stop and ask us questions, even at traffic lights we would be questioned. Where are you going? How many miles? How long have you been out? It took us six and a half hours to get to our warmshowers host at Carlsbad!

We passed numerous beach rental homes, multi-million dollar homes in Oceanside and some nice communities. We chatted to one fellow Canadian, Marie had left Canada a few years ago.

They like their piers along this coast.

When we arrived in Encinitas there was a street market, we slowly strolled down the street and enjoyed the atmosphere. We had a lovely lunch and chatted to an older guy who had travelled in Europe by bike 50 years ago. His budget was $1.75 per day.

We stopped in at a bike shop and I treated myself to a new heart rate monitor, mine had finally given up the ghost coming down the big drop in Arizona.

As we headed towards Carlsbad it started to rain – of course – I had cleaned the bikes. We arrived at the warmshowers host at about 4:30pm, he wasn’t home yet, but arrived 15 minutes later.

Erin put together a wonderful cheese plate – triple cream brie, smoked gouda and fig goats cheese – it was heavenly.

Dinner was Mexican tacos with home-made salsas and wine. We had ice-cream and Steve’s homemade chocolate fudge. We have stayed with some amazing hosts.