Last Day

We got a little earlier jump on the day since we knew that we had two monster hills to climb. So we had a great breakfast at the Raddisson and were back in the saddle at 7:30. The first while was spent going through more agricultural areas until we hit Harris Grade Road. Just know that when someone puts in the word "grade" as part of the street name, they mean it. That was hill número uno that then dropped us into Lompoc. We stopped there at Albertsons and had them make us a nice deli sandwich for later. As soon as we got out of Lompoc, hill numero two began and went on and on and on and on. After all was said, it ended up being 14 miles to the top of the hill. What we also found out is that it's a lot funner going down than it is going up. As we were ascending I had lots of time to think so I started counting how many rotations of the pedals it took to travel a mile in the middle gear. I then extrapolated how many rotations we would have made over 350 miles and came up with 154,000 (for those who care). At the bottom of the hill we made it back to the coast and it was a perfect, sunny day.

We stopped for lunch along the coast in sight of an old Chevron plant, just to make Scott feel at home near Gaviota.

Then it was a 20 mile ride before we got off of 101 at Hollister.

From there it was on to UCSB where supposedly there would be a clearly marked bike trail. "Clearly marked" can be disputed as far as we are concerned. After making a few wrong turns we ended up on a dirt trail, barely fit for walking. Rather than retrace our steps like logical people, we decided to keep going. When we hit some sand dunes with these narrow pathways down to the beach, we began to second guess ourselves.

Nonetheless, we overcame it all and finally found our way back to the elusive bike trail. Just to wrack up more experiences, I ended up getting a flat tire about 5 miles from the end of our trip. After fixing it, we found our way to downtown Santa Barbara where Carolyn was waiting for us. We were happy to have arrived and absolutely loved our adventure. A total of 361 miles!

Location:Santa Barbara

Day Four

So this was our "easy" 80 mile day. We started off a little after 8am from the bed and breakfast place. The proprietor fixed us a wonderful breakfast of eggs and pancakes and then sent us on our way.

Then it was off into the fog where we needed windshield wipers for our glasses. We stopped in Cayucos for some Gatorade since I likely didn't hydrate properly yesterday. We blew through Morro Bay (but we kept our speed down so we wouldn't get pulled over again). Also we decided to ride through a road closed sign - only to end up on a dirt road and ran into workers replacing some culverts. We ended up getting filthy. Then it was on to San Luis Obispo where we providently ended up at a bike shop.

The salesman ended up selling us some good tasting nutrition food and pointed us to a great pizza place where got a great slice of pizza and a raspberry salad.

The sun came out while we ate lunch. Then it was back to the coast where we struggled with a head wind for most of the rest of the day. We headed off the marked trail to Santa Maria since there were few if any hotels along the coast.

Location:Santa Maria

Day Three

We left Big Sur at 7:45am for parts south. Little did we know that there was a monster uphill right after our hotel. At least our legs were fresh at that hour. The day started off beautifully - more sun, as canbe seen below



We stopped at Lucia for a little break and ate some lunch. We are finding that a lot of these towns consist of a couple hundred people and a single store.





Our next stop was in Gorda where we filled up with cool water and animal crackers. After that we ran into quite a bit of construction due to mud slides. It was fun talking to the flag people while we were waiting.


There was one spot that we stopped for a picture even though it was clearly marked otherwise.


Most of the rest of the day was spent in fog. We're thinking this was a blessing since we had two nasty hills to climb that would have been quite miserable in full sun. As we got closer to San Simeon we found a bunch of elephant seals. Now, the quiz for the day is to see if you can figure out from the pictures below which the elephant seals are.





Then it was another ten miles or so before we hit a bed and breakfast in Cambria where we are now relaxing. We did about 75 miles today.

Location:Cambria

Day two

Believe it or not, we got up this morning and the legs still worked! Not bad for a couple of old guys. We started out at 7:45am bound for Big Sur. Since Watsonville is the artichoke capital of the world, we had to include a picture of what artichoke plants look like. We discovered that there were four or five fruit on each plant. Along the way we only got lost twice, ended up climbing a couple of monster hills and got pulled over by the police. The story we planned on sharing was that we got pulled over for speeding, but we cannot tell a lie. There are some parts of highway 1 that are more like a freeway and bikers are not allowed to ride on the highway. That was our first turn that we missed, so the policeman told us how to get off and carry on. We ate lunch at Seaside. The second turn we missed was in Monterrey (what a beautiful downtown area) so we ended up on part of the 17 mile loop. We were able to get off of that but the price to pay was a monster hill that kept on going up. We rode thru Carmel where both Scott/Shelley and Kirk/Carolyn spent our honeymoons.

From there it was mostly coastline riding, with quite a few hills along the way. But another beautiful day for riding - sun, slight wind at our backs and continual encouragement from Scott (even though I'm sure he was the one that got us lost). We passed point Sur along the way with a nice lighthouse. We arrived in Big Sur at about 3pm and immediately found some ice cream. What would a trip be without ice cream. Finally a picture to prove we are both on this trip together.

Location:Big Sur

Day one

Got on bikes at Half Moon bay at 10:45am.

What a perfect day with lots of sun, wind at our backs (yeah) and amazing ocean views. We kept each other entertained but arrived at the hotel glad to not see another hill today. We took two rest stops, one at Pigeon Point Lookout (and we did look out for the pigeons) where we met an older couple (since Scott and I are not older yet) from Germany where they started on a four week ride from Seattle to San Diego. We also got passed by a couple of hot shots but they weren't carrying anything with them, else they would never have passed us. Next we stopped in Davenport with a population of 200. The hardest part of the ride was going through Santa Cruz - home of the famous banana slug. Then the final leg got us here to Watsonville - artichoke capital of the world. Depending on how comfortable the beds are and how our young bodies recover, our next planned stop will be Big Sur. Here are a couple pictures from today.

Location:Watsonville

The real light bike

This is my bike. I have taken a minimalist approach and we will see which one works. I am looking forward to this adventure. T-minus 9 days!

The other grandpa.

The bike

This is a test to see if I can download a picture to the blog. The bike is really heavy, but I'm hoping it will endure our ride. I went with the bright yellow panniers on the back to be seen by upcoming motorists, a euro bar on the front for comfort, and Kevlar-belted tires to minimize flats along the way. I finally succumbed to a gel-padded seat since the new leather one was not breaking in fast enough.

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