Week 3 — A Bike Story

Three weeks have passed in a flash but our first day on the Amtrak feels to be months ago. Our quote for the trip " in a short time, it will be a long time ago" feels ever so true. Our bodies have become more accustom to the long days in the saddle, our mental awareness more acute after long pushes up the roller coaster of hills that sprawl along the Californian coast. Our evening setup and morning pack ups have become muscle memory as we run through the routine of arriving and departing camp. Our legs are stronger but still far from the strength we would like to be. We are averaging 42 miles now but with our cycling ending near sunset each day we do not know how we can accomplish 60 miles a day without cycling faster. A task that still feels to be miles away.

Our morning at the Lotus hotel with Brittany in Lompoc was a slow start. We started the day with waffles and America's funniest videos in the breakfast area of the Inn. Though unsaid, we all agreed to take our time leaving as we had a 1500 foot climb waiting for us right after departure.

Brittany had arranged a Warm Showers in Santa Barbara and decided to leave before us. Our pace of leaving the hotel was a bit to slow for her to finish the 60 miles to Santa Barbara. Saying our goodbyes with photos, she set off to blaze the trail for us.

Once on the road we found that the 1500 feet of climbing was spread across 15 miles making it a very gradual climb. So soft of an incline we almost didn't feel it at all. We made short work of the hill and descended into Gaviota State Park. Brittany had warned us through text that on the down hill a car hood was blocking the whole shoulder of the road. Stopping right before the rest stop, we moved the car hood in case another cyclist was behind us and began to have lunch in the rest area.

Our ride today ended in El Capitan state park. Alone in the hiker biker we set up our tents cliff side, overlooking the ocean. Staring across the ocean at the best camping spot of this trip, we watch the sunset and counted the stars before nestling into our respective tents. Walking up we just had to unzip our tents to see the mornings pink light spread on the Pacific's surface. Right away we spotted dolphins near the shore, dipping in and out from the water making it a great start to the morning.

Our next rest stop was in Los Angeles, two days away. Our rides through Santa Barbara, Ventura and Malibu where a breeze. Our path led us through the USC Santa Barbara campus. This stretch of cycle path was amazing. We navigated the busy highway of hungover college students. We were amazed by the amount of bikes on the path, and tempted to just stay here. Most of the Ventura to Malibu stretch was on a cycle path as well, this time running along the coast line. The southern Californian coast has many bike paths connecting cities, something we wished the Oregon coastal towns would mimic.

If you ever find your self riding south in California, do your best to avoid riding through Malibu on a Thursday. We found this to be trash day, the day where every condo and house along the coast lines up their trash cans in the bike shoulder. We were forced to ride in the car lane, inches from the lines of Bentley's, Rolls Royce and Teslas. Being able to to see the Santa Monica pier as we road this stretch did help us place our fear behind our excitement.

We spent three nights in Los Angeles. Our first was at a hostel in Venice Beach, the next two at Evan's cousins in the Hollywood area. While staying in Venice Evan's family treated us to dinner while watching the opening Trail Blazer/ Lakers game. We tried to hold in our shouting and celebrating as the Blazers defeated Lebron James and his new team knowing that this was Laker territory. Our night in Venice ended at a underground hip hop show and a short night of sleep at the hostel.

Taking the train, and a few wrong ones, we made it to Evans cousin house in Hollywood. Our original plan was to only stay a night but we were agreeing to stay another night as we were walking inside and saw how amazing it was. A huge thank you to Jen for hosting our us for those nights!

It was Evan's first time in LA and he was freaking out. His neck turning left and right he would shout every time he saw something of LA fame, which was often. Spending most of our time in the Hollywood area was nice as we were able to see a lot of one district rather than a small amount of many.

Three days is not enough time to see LA but is enough to put a dent in our wallets. We knew we had to push on towards Mexico where prices should be much kinder. That and we knew we could easily visit here again in the future with a more open timetable. We spent our last day poolside cooking up hot dogs and trying to even out our tanlines. In the morning we said goodbye to Jen and her puppy Ivy, and road down Sunset to the train that will take us to Long Beach.

We are now only 3 days from the boarder to Mexico. We know many of our friends and family are worried about our time there. We want to let everyone know that we will be doing our best to look after each other and listen to locals about areas to avoid. We are not stubborn in needing to ride the whole way and will get on a bus as soon as we may feel unsafe. That said, we are very excited for our upcoming adventures in Mexico. Those we have spoken to that visit there often only have great recommendations for us and we hope to leave with great stories to share with you all.

Hammock setup number two! Evan is vowing to use his hammock 50 times - El Capitan State Park

Our first attempt at astrophotography - El Capitian State Park