Sunday May 3, 2015

A bit of a late start this morning, 8:45. It was a little overcast and we had our jackets on for the first few kilometers until the first big hill. We had a choice to make early on, follow the ACA route up Harris Grande Road or stay on Highway 1 through the air base. We had been warned that Harris Grande Road didn’t have much of a shoulder, the road was narrow and the traffic was very busy and didn’t give you much room. We decided that as it was Sunday and early we would stick to the ACA route and go up and over Harris Grande Road.

Another 1,000 feet climb out of Lompoc. When we got to the top, we stopped for a break and another touring cyclist was coming up the other side. We chatted to him for a while, he has done this route a few times but doesn’t like Highway 1 from Lompoc to Guadalupe, he preferred going towards Sante Maria and Arroya Grande paralleling Highway 101. Again we decided to stick to the map. Although the road was narrow, and very little shoulders in areas, most of the car drivers gave us enough room.

The route today was very rural. The sweet smell of strawberries and the rotten smell of cabbage, what a mix! It was a lovely route.

Although as we came down one hill, we noticed that the hillside was bare – if we had been in Portugal or Spain those hills would have been covered with olive trees.

We followed Hwy 1 for a while and saw our first live snake.  When I see a dead snake on the road, it reminds me to be very careful when I need to take a wild wee.

We chatted to another set of touring cyclists on recumbents. They had started a couple of days ago and were heading to Mexico. The recumbents can get broken down so that they can go on Amtrack, which is how they will go home from Mexico. They asked about the hill and we told them it was steeper going the way they were going but the alternative would be to go through the base. Although we have no idea what the steepness of the hill would be like going that way. He said he had an option of 87 gears on his recumbent, he can get up most hills, but slowly.

We stopped in Guadelupe for lunch. A young guy asked what we were doing. We told him that we were cycling to Seattle. He then offered to sell us a bike frame, I have no idea where he thought we would carry it but we declined the offer.

We carried on to our ‘campsite’ for tonight. We were climbing a little hill, when I noticed the High School, Laura had told me to turn left after the High School. I wasn’t sure we were that close to the place, but then I noticed the name of the street. I shouted to Ralf that we were already here and stopped two-thirds of the way up the hill. It is a good job it was the right place as we would never have been able to start again.

We could have stayed at the campsite in Oceano or Pismo Beach, but there were no hiker/biker sites. This place was on the ACA maps as a cyclists only camp site, it is actually an Airbnb. There are several sleeping options, a teepee, a regular colman tent, a camper, a really cool building that used to be an old water tower or we could put up our own tent. We opted for the latter we need to try out our new air mattresses. I have decided to name my mattress Hank. Now before you think I have lost it completely, to inflate the mattress you have to put your hands on the pillow area and push down, it feels as if you are doing CPR on the mattress. Consequently, I think the mattress should have a name. I think the ‘dummies’ you use when you do a CPR course have names – so why not an air mattress. O.k. after reading this again, I have lost it completely.

We went for a walk to the market about a kilometer away to pick up our dinner.

The views from this place are beautiful, we can see the dunes and the ocean. Hopefully we get a nice sunset.

After dinner we lit a fire in the fire pit and sat around the fire chatting to Ben the owner of the AirBnb for a while.