Week 2 — A Bike Story

Leaving Big Sur we thought that the miles ahead of us would be bland and boring compared to the rugged coast that shot out of the crystal blue sea with winding roads cascading up and down the golden coastline. Luckily we were wrong. After a few short climbs, the hills receded into the distance allowing for the road to open and more importantly flatten. We cycled into the land of newspaper wealth with Hearst Castle nestled in the mountain to our left. The entry fee did not keep us away as much as our fear of having to ride up the hill to castle did. Cycling past we did stumble upon four Zebra grazing in the Hearst property. A few “when did we get to Africa” jokes later we kept moving south towards San Simeon.

Charles was celebrating his 31st birthday tomorrow and we had a huge surprise planned for him. His brother and a few of our friends were coming to surprise him in the town of Cayucos for three nights of rest, partying and resting from partying. We woke only 18 miles north of the town and had about 8 hours of stalling Charles to do before we could enter the Airbnb. We accomplished this with five entrees for breakfast, the purchase of tequila, a browse through a local bookstore and a few hours lounging on the beach. Once the property was ready, Hank and Evan surprised him with the Airbnb saving the news of his brother and friends joining for later. Our first order of business was to hang out wet tents to dry and line up for the shower. (We can not tell you enough how much we now appreciate normal towels compared to our thin quick dry ones. A real luxury on a bicycle tour.) Once everyone arrived, we hid them in the front room while Charles was outside. After lighting the candles of the cake and turning off the lights, we brought him inside with the temptation of more tequila. As he was making a drink everyone slowly came out from the darkness singing Happy Birthday. We could tell right away that it was a great surprise as he jumped in the air, his face lit with fear.

We spent most of our time in Cayucos relaxing, venturing the beach, playing dress up at the local thrift shop and most importantly spending time together before we officially said our farewells. It was a good rest for us and with everyone around it felt like we hadn’t left at all. This only lasted till we finally did say our goodbyes and split ways, returning to our cycling life. This time with our eyes were set on the goal of reaching Los Angles.

The first few days returning to the cycletourist grind were rough. Our legs felt as if it was day one all over again. Thankfully our first day on the road was only 10 miles to Morro Bay. Our next day though, was anything but easy. We had a 42 mile day to Lompoc which was littered with steep hills. Our road south to Lompoc split, giving us two options to the same town. Luckily our friend Jeff Chong provided us with a solution for such instances, three silver coins. Leaving the decision to the coin, we followed the direction in which it landed and we set off down Highway 1. We later found this to be the better option even though at the time we didn’t think that as we swore at the hills and the coin that forced us to ride up them.

Rolling into Lompoc near sunset we found that the tent camping was closed and the next camp spot was 23 miles south with a 1500 foot climb in between. With our only real options being a hotel or wild camping, we headed towards the hotel feeling a bit safer due to the amount of homeless we spotted in the town. This also turned out to be a good choice as we meet a cyclist in the morning at the hotel who had to end his trip early due to all of the panniers being stolen in town. On our way to the hotel we meet another cyclist riding in the direction of the closed campsite. Informing her of the closure, she decided to pitch in on a hotel room with us lowering the cost to 18 dollars a person.

Brittany has ridden from New York to Oregon and is now finishing her ride from Oregon to San Diego. Doing this tour as a solo female amazed and inspired us. We thoroughly enjoyed sharing stories, Domino’s pizza and beer with her.

We have meet many cyclists in these past weeks, all of whom are accomplishing great feats. Just today our friends Mitchell and Preston finished their tour from Fairbanks Alaska to Mexico! Every one of them we meet are legends and deeply inspire us. We can not wait to see who else we will run into further south!

Gotta get that perfect angle. - Posts California

We still Ginyu Force down! - Cayucos California