Thursday May 7, 2015

We decided that we would take Murdoch up on his offer and stay an extra night. The forecast was going to be rainy and the night time temperature was going to drop and be rather chilly. Rainy and cool is not much fun when you have to camp. Tomorrow’s forecast is supposed to be better and with a bit of luck a tail-wind!

Murdoch is a Forestry Fire Fighter, he lives in a beautiful valley and really enjoys travelling. I saw a red-tailed hawk this morning.

Today I cleaned the bikes, Ralf tried to fix the shower for Murdoch that a previous warmshowers guest had broken. We planned our route for the next week and generally had a relaxing day. It rained this morning, the sun came out briefly and the afternoon was very cloudy and overcast.  I am glad we opted to have a rest day.

It is nice to have a relaxing day. Tomorrow, we will be heading to the Big Sur State Park and we will be camping. An early night and an early start tomorrow.  Looking forward to Big Sur and the climbs.

Wednesday May 6, 2015

What a ride today, we are now experiencing the headwinds that everyone has warned us about. It was brutal. Although it was a relatively short ride, it was exhausting. We knew we had some hills today, they would have been manageable, if it wasn\’t for the wind. The scenery was stunning, although with the wind and hanging onto my bike to keep it in a straight line, I couldn’t really enjoy it. We saw about eight other touring cyclists, all going in the opposite direction. We didn’t stop to talk to anyone, we were either pedaling down a hill or struggling up a hill. Please note I said pedaling down a hill. If you remember my posts in New Zealand where I complained bitterly of having to pedal downhill, well we had to do the same today. At one point the wind stopped me completely. I had to get off the bike as it had stopped me in my tracks and pushed me into the middle of the road, a little scary. The road was quite narrow and no shoulders. At times it was a little scary as the Californian drivers didn’t like to share the road. For the very first time on this trip, I gave someone the finger, he was overtaking a car and heading towards us, I had nowhere to go.

Enough complaining, we cycled into the Hearst Castle grounds. We decided we would see how close we could get to it. The castle is on top of the hill and you get a bus from the parking area up to the buildings and gardens. We decided not to bother with the tours.

We carried on along Hwy 1, and saw elephant seals. They are in their molting period at the moment.

The younger males also practice their fighting skills. Swinging their heads around and trying to bite another young male.

The route was very scenic.

We had to remember to look away from the sea and look at the hills and valleys opposite the coast.

We arrived at our warmshowers host at 2:30, he was not due home until 6:30, we had a long, cold wait. Although the door was unlocked he had said he would come home and let us in, then leave again for a meeting. I took this to mean that he didn’t want us making ourselves at home, while he wasn’t here. Some people will let us in to their homes without them being there, others are more comfortable in being around.  When Murdoch got home, he was very friendly and welcoming.  He let us in to his house, he showed us where we would be sleeping and told us to make ourselves at home.  My house is your house.

When he came home from his meeting,  he made us a wonderful dinner of pasta, spicy sausage and garlic bread, lovely.  He also gave us the choice to stay an extra day if we needed to.

Tuesday May 5, 2015

We had a late start this morning, we didn’t leave Mary’s place until 9:30 am. She gave us directions to get down to the Rock and the bay where we could see sea otters.

We headed downhill I had initially put on my light windbreaker, but by the time I got down to the Rock, I put on my leggings and socks and my heavier jacket. Average temp 13 degrees, a cold day today.

We saw ten sea otters, even the locals were surprised that there were so many in one group.

They are so cute, lying on their backs, floating along. One otter, was spinning circles and flipping around, I couldn’t help but laugh. It reminded me of the movie Ring of Bright Water.

We spent about 45 minutes at the Rock, watching the otters and the surfers.

We eventually hit the road at 10:45. It was a relatively short ride today and no strenuous hills.

We stopped in Cambia for lunch and decided to motel it tonight. It was very cool with the wind and it is supposed to drop down to 8 degrees tonight. We called the motels on the ACA maps and then a lady told us that there was a motel 6 in San Simeon. Off we went down the final stretch to San Simeon. There is a strip of hotels from Motel 6 to Best Western. We found the Surf Motel at $60.00, it is clean and has a fridge and microwave.

Tomorrow we have another warmshowers, then Thursday there is no alternative but to camp. I hope it warms up by then.

Monday May 4, 2015

A slow start this morning, it was a little chilly so we stayed snuggled under our blankets for a while. The advantage with the new mattresses is that we can connect them together. Hank was very comfortable. I think he needed a few more pumps to get him firmer but he was still very comfortable.

We left at 9:15 climbed the little hill then instead of following the ACA route we took a left turn (as recommended by Ben) down a steep hill and through the valley.

It was lovely, we picked up the ACA route again and probably cut of about 5 ks.

Today we followed the coast through the beach towns of Oceano, Grover Beach, Pismo Beach and Shell Beach, all very pretty little towns.

Ralf still enjoys taking photos of old and interesting cars.

At Ontario Road we cut inland away from the coast, to San Luis Obispo. SLO is a lovely town, if we hadn’t arranged a warmshowers in Morro Bay, it would have been nice to stay there for the night. Nice shops, restaurants and a really nice feel to the town. We had lunch then carried on to Morro Bay.  We arrived in SLO just as the Mission Bells were ringing for noon.  It was lovely to hear them as it was very different from just 12 strikes of the bell.

Of course by the time we were on the road again, the wind had picked up and it was a head wind. My wonderful hubby took the lead and stayed in front all the way into Morro Bay (about 27ks).

The road had a wide shoulder, and was relatively flat which was handy as I was being blown around with the wind gusts. At the 12 k mark we made a right turn and the hills started, there was no shoulder and the wind was now coming from the side. As I geared down, I felt like a kids balloon being blown all over the place, I put my head down and pedaled up the hills. Then I saw my “favorite” sign windy roads for the next 2 miles, great that means 3.5 ks of hills. I was about to say a few choice words against the wind, the hills and route when I looked up. The scenery was beautiful, not stunning but beautiful. Rolling hills, with rocky outcroppings which surrounded us on either side. The road was winding, instead of being all uphill it was up and down and the ups were not too steep, my lovely hubby was still pulling for me and protecting me from the wind and I couldn’t help but smile. What a great ride.

As we got to the bottom of the hill, Ralf pulled up so that we could find out where our warmshowers was going to be tonight, left turn up a hill, then up another hill, then up another hill!!

Mary wasn’t home yet, but she had told us that she was going to leave the front door open and we could make ourselves comfortable in the little studio in the back of the house. We were just investigating the place, when she arrived home.

Mary bought the house a year ago and had to gut it throughout. The house had been “interestingly” decorated with a maritime “theme” including seaweed and portals. A variety of colours and textures. The only thing that she could not change was a ‘pocket’ door, she decided that she would not have this door open – ever,  so it could stay in its original condition. This gives you an idea on what the rest of the ‘theme’ was like.

How on earth she could see past this to what she created is beyond me. It is lovely, very calming and relaxing – definitely a home. She jokingly asked us if we would like to house sit for a month. Don’t tempt me. This is a lovely house not far from the beach and lots of things to do in the area. Of course it would mean cycling up hill every day to get home.

However, we are really enjoying the Pacific Coast route it has the variety of coastal route, inland and small towns. There seems to be plenty of places to stay both camping, warmshowers and motels (although they are not cheap) and I personally couldn’t stop for a month. We should be in Canada by the end of the month and then heading across the country on our way home.

AARG got to meet his American cousin.

We had a great evening with Mary, lots of laughs and good food, so good we didn’t go to bed until 12:30!

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.

Saturday May 2, 2015

What a great day of riding. The first 30 ks were on Highway 101 and was typical of highway riding. It was pretty, but when you have to concentrate on the traffic, it doesn’t give you much time to appreciate the scenery.  However, we did spot these llamas.

We had to go through another tunnel. However, this tunnel had flashing lights to indicate to the vehicles that there were cyclists in the tunnel. I was peddling like crazy. I could hear transports behind me in the tunnel, they passed me as soon as I got out the other side and onto the shoulder. I think they were straddling the centre line in the tunnel so that no one could go around them, thereby keeping it safe for me. Although hearing them behind me made me nervous. So noisy in the tunnel.

A mile after going through the tunnel we exited Highway 101 and joined Highway 1. We had a 4 km climb up to 1,053 feet, sounds so much more impressive than 321 metres.

It was a beautiful route all the way into Lompoc, rolling hills, farmland and valleys, just lovely.

It was a cool, windy ride and when we got into Lompoc we opted to stay in a motel rather than putting the tent up. Washing needed to get done and blog and research can be done for the next week of cycling. Good excuse anyway.

We will have to start sticking to the budget soon.

Friday May 1. 2015

Not a good start leaving the State Park to Santa Barbara, we missed the turn as we left Carpenteria and had to do a U-turn, only added about a kilometer but this should have given us an indication on what the day was going to be like.

The signage on the route today was not very good. We would often get to an intersection and have no idea which way to go. We found this lovely old church because we took another wrong turn.

As we followed the road we spotted this sign, it is quite interesting as the company I worked for had a similar issue in the Township of Tiny.  Public space!!

We eventually found the beach road into Santa Barbara.

We decided to pop up to the REI – oops budget hit! We changed our cot/mat system to a single thicker REI mattress which saved us 3lbs in weight. After we had spent about an hour and a half in REI we decided to see if we could find the hostel in Santa Barbara and stay the night. We eventually found it $85.00 per person in a dorm room – Say What?!!

Forget that, we headed out to El Capitano State Park 32 ks to go.

Then another problem a new name for the book Four Flats – yep I got a flat. We got it fixed and once again headed out to El Capitano.

We had to go through California University Campus, once again no signage and we got misplaced again.

By the time we got to Goleta it was 4:30, we decided to bite the bullet and stay in a motel. It was helpful, as we were able to check the route and send out a few requests for warmshowers over the next few days. Fortunately we do have alternatives if they don’t come back positive. There are state parks along the coast and they are reasonably priced. Of course they have limitations – no power and no internet.

It was one of those days, we cycled 50 ks and didn’t seem to get anywhere. Ah well, the sun was out and it wasn’t windy.

Thursday April 30, 2015

Another great ride today. We had a little climb out of Mugu on Highway 1 and passed Mugu Point Rock.

Then we joined the coastal route, it was lovely. Hills on one side and ocean on the other all on a dedicated cycle lane. We passed a naval base and saw these missiles.

We came into an area where we could smell strawberries, acres upon acres of strawberries.

Then lettuce and cabbage, and more strawberries – Driscoll and Dole have farms in the this area.

A \’poor\’ neighbourhood where every house had a boat dock, some with little boats but most with big boats moored alongside.

We passed two kilometres of parked RV’s. This was a state park area – a small strip of beach on one side, the highway on the other and a trail line next to that – very scenic.

A great new bike path running parallel to Highway 101.

The bike path was obviously needed, as we spotted another ghost bike.

We ate up the miles chatting to a few people along the way. Some suggested we go through Santa Barbara to one of the other State Parks the other side of Santa Barbara, but we decided to stay in Carpenteria and visit Santa Barbara then continue to one of the other parks tomorrow.

We chatted to a lovely lady when we came into Carpenteria, We had lunch at the local grocery store, which had wi-fi. No responses to our warmshowers requests, so we settled into the camp site. Another biker/hiker site.

We went back to the grocery store to pick up something for dinner and more provisions for the next couple of nights.

While we were having dinner, I noticed a couple of trailers that looked really neat. I decided to go over and chat to the owners of these really cool looking vehicles.

This was a mistake! Not because they were not nice people, but because we didn’t tidy up our picnic table. We had left our groceries on the table along with our dirty dishes. The seagull really enjoyed the package of tuna and package of salmon that we had bought and left on the table. Fortunately they didn’t get into the bread or the pasta. I called Ralf over and we tidied up the mess and put everything away.

We have a neighbor who is travelling from north to south with his 80 lb Labrador – in a trailer. Sally (the dog) was more interested in the ground squirrels than being sociable with us, she is very well trained and very gentle.

Another good day.

Wednesday April 29, 2015

A lovely ride today. We left the hostel bright and early after perfectly cooked poached eggs and avocado on toast. Lovely. We quickly got back on the beach path and stopped to chat to a fella, he was Canadian and had lived in Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver. He is now living out of his jeep in California. We continued cycling along the beach path where there were a lot of people sleeping rough, a lot of people! Some of them looked like young people on holiday – others looked like homeless people and this is all they had.

We stopped at this building to take some photos and again we got chatting to a lovely couple from Texas. His thoughts on the folks sleeping rough were, if you have to sleep rough a California beach is not a bad place to do it. His wife was giving us ideas on getting sponsors for the next trip.

At the one-hour mark when we usually stop to have a snack, we had only travelled 5 kms! Ralf jokingly said at this rate it will take us all summer to get to Vancouver.

We cycled through Santa Monica but didn’t stop or go into the main city area, just stayed on the beach cycle path.

When we got to the end of the beach path we spotted a loaded bike, the tent was on the beach surrounded by solar panels. We joined the Pacific Coast Highway again where the shoulder was intermittent, and the cars whizzed by us very quickly, a little unnerving but we got used to it.

We stopped for lunch at Trancas – Malibu Beach area. As we were parking the bikes a couple of roadies came to chat to us. They had just taken part in the opening of a 1.5 mile dedicated bike path. Scott and Chris were an integral part of getting this bike path built and open. They said they had to jump through hoops and there was a lot of opposition, but eventually they got it done. Good on them, 1.5 miles is not very long, but at least it is a start. Now if they can only get a dedicated shoulder/bike lane all the way through their area – that would be awesome.

They asked us if we were going to write a book and if we had any problems with the bikes. We told them we might write a book and no, just the regular wear and tear, and proudly told them only 3 flats in 12,000+ miles. They were astonished “12,000 miles and 3 flats, really 12,000 miles and 3 flats”. Ralf said, what a great name for a book.

We have often been told we are fit or strong but this is the first time that we were told we looked healthy. That’s good because there are times when I am concerned about our eating habits. Pasta seems to be the main stay when we are camping, it is the easiest and quickest to cook. We try and have our veges and fruit, but often it boils down to bananas and nuts. If we are in a hostel we will add more veges to our diet. I think over time our body tells us what we need to eat. Our bodies start to “crave” a particular food – cheese or yogurt, so we add that to our diet. If we start to really look forward to eating an apple, we know we need more fruit, so we try to find a variety of fruits to eat.

One of the problems we encountered today was the large garbage bins that were in the shoulder. They were set at such a position that we had to go into the main lane to go around them.

We arrived at the campground at 2:00 pm, we checked out the facilities. The other campground about 2 miles down the road does not have hiker/biker sites. Hiker/biker sites are for people who arrive by bike or on-foot. You pay less for the site because you could be sharing the area with other bikers or hikers.

The choice was hiker/biker site here, with proper toilets and showers and a picnic table for $20.00, or beach camp site, “long drop” toilets, and only outdoor beach showers for $35.00. No brainer. I think the camp-site is lovely, very quiet in a wooded area, it is a bit sandy but that is because of the drought.

Ralf thinks it could be better, could have some grass, but the showers were good even if we had to pay an extra $1.50 per shower.

After setting up the tent, we went for a walk to the beach. Ralf found a lovely heart-shape stone and gave it to me.

He is still giving me his heart, after all these years. I wrote a message in the sand for him, but it got washed away.

I did it again, and held the waves back so that he could see it.

We love spotting faces in rocks, on this outcropping we could see face and a lizard.

Then we met a family having fun on the beach.

Tuesday April 28, 2015

A lovely ride today. We had to find our way back on to the ACA route which took us through a few subdivisions and on to a busier stretch of road with no bike lane. We spotted a cyclist ahead and passed him. As we passed him we noticed a little girl on a home-made seat (similar to the ones we had seen in Cuba) sitting in the front. We greeted them with a friendly hello and carried on. The Dad picked up speed and we could hear the little girl laughing. As we moved ahead she was urging her Dad to go faster, “Faster Daddy, faster, they are going faster” He managed to stay with us for about a kilometer and the little girl was giggling and urging her Dad to go faster all the way. It was so cute.

We joined the ocean path in Hermosa Beach and once again we followed a lovely off-road cycle path along the ocean all the way into Venice Beach.

We chatted to a guy Cody, who had recently bought a touring bike. Unfortunately his wife is not a cyclist so he is planning on week-long or two week long trips.

We arrived in Venice Beach and found the hostel. It is not as nice as the one in San Diego, but it is cheaper than the hotels around here. We got here at around 12:30 which gave us plenty of time to do some laundry and for Ralf to take his bike to the local bike shop to get his brakes fixed. They did the work for half the price.

When we went out to get some provisions, we stopped in to another bike shop and after chatting to the owners, they gave us some drive train cleaner and some oil for free. How nice is that.

We had a lovely dinner and I managed to update the blog.