We got a nice early start this morning. We were all up by around 7-7:30. Loic was doing his morning gym, lifting a pannier for his arm strength, and doing sit-ups and pull ups. I am glad that he can push himself to do that every morning. The cycling is enough for me, that's for sure. Like usual, I made some oatmeal while Joe packed up the tent. It was nice having another opportunity to ride as a group of 4. After about 2 miles, we started to climb again, this time only for about 2-3 miles. The boys were all waiting at the top again. After getting over the top, the sun came out! The downhill was pretty fast, but was really fun. We found ourselves out riding along the ocean in no time. It was breathtaking- I have really loved riding along the coast! It was flat for a few miles and then we had what I'm going to call "C" hills because we would go screaming downhill away from the water and then have a big turn at the bottom and have to climb back out towards the water. These happened ever few miles and made the ride so much fun. After a while though, they made me pretty tired because the climbs were kind of steep. I still can't get over how wonderful the scenery is; it just makes the miles fly by. The ride to Fort Bragg was pretty quick. We stopped at the bike shop there and Joey got us fixed up with a new set of brakes each and got the chains all cleaned while we were waiting for Loic's bike to be worked on. From there, we headed to Safeway to get some stuff for lunch and to re-stock since we wouldn't be seeing a "big" grocery store for a while. I of course got a box of muffins since I love them so much. Joe and I headed to the visitor center to make lunch since they had a nice table. We enjoyed some fresh Italian bread and a frozen three cheese pasta/veggie/chicken dinner. My favorite part was that we got a half gallon of ice cream too! It wasn't the hottest of days, but ice cream ALWAYS tastes good! While we were at the visitor center, we met the lady who was working inside. Turns out that she is originally from the Buffalo area, what a small world! Loic and Fred went out to a Mexican restaurant for burritos since they had been taking about them for a couple days. Unfortunately, they weren't the best and they were pretty disappointed. After our nice long lunch break, we continued down the road. We had a bunch more "c" hills as we meandered along the coast. At one point we passed by a wedding and the bride was just about to walk down the isle- such a pretty place to be married. The boys joked around saying "Don't do it!" which they all thought was pretty funny. Boys will be boys. About 40 miles into our ride, Fred decided that he was going to go ahead. Since his trip is so short, he wants to stay at a campground with a shower every night. The first campground was a little too close and the next was a little too far away. But he decided to go to the one that was far away, so he had to pick up the pace a little. We bid our farewells, with hope that we would run into him again before he got to San Francisco. I was getting pretty tired by the end of the day after trying to keep up with the guys all day. It is so nice that they didn't seem to mind too much that they had to wait for me at the top of the hills. Joe, Loic and I decided we would call it a day in the town of Elk. Almost right away, there was a church in the tiny little town. The best part- there were a couple cars there. I went in to ask if it would be possible to set up our tent there for the night and was relieved to find out they didn't mind at all. The people there were pretty interested in our travels, especially in Loic's since he had been to some really exciting places! When they showed us where we could set up, I was blown away- we had a 5 star camp spot. The view was incredible- right on the ocean with view of a giant rock with an arch in it! There was even a gazebo with chairs and a water spigot. It was perfect! Loic had never camped at a church before and seemed pretty excited that we had found such a great spot. We got the tents all set up and then enjoyed some dinner in the gazebo. Later on, Joey and Loic went for a walk to the local restaurant/pub for something to do. I stayed back and worked on trying to make another bicycle out of wire-which was much more of a challenge in the dark. When the boys came back, I found out that Joey, after having a beer, invited some guy that was riding bike, but was a little weird and drunk apparently, to camp with us at the church. The guy never showed up, so I guess it was good. After an awesome day of riding, our miles totaled 54.82.
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