We were visited by a couple raccoons last night, but we scared them away and they didn't return- our food was safe! It was pretty chilly this morning as we were packing up. The three of us headed back over to the picnic table where we had dinner last night and made our breakfast. We rode along the Russian River for a couple miles before crossing it and heading uphill. More beautiful seascapes to ride by. The fog was still around, but the sun was shining, making for some unforgettable views of the rocks in the water. At one point we stopped at a little grocery store and bought some grapes. They were pretty expensive, but very sweet and definitely worth it. We rode right next to the water for about 10 miles before the road cut inland and we were riding through very dry rolling plains. Once we were away from the nice breeze from the water, it got really hot. We had a few hills to climb as the sun was beating down on us. The last 12 or so miles before we stopped for lunch went by slowly for me. We stopped in the town of Tomales for lunch. There were a couple picnic tables right next to the post office where we found two other touring cyclists just getting ready to have some lunch. After talking to them for a while, we found out they were the same cyclists (Germans riding from NY to San Francisco) that had camped at the church in Gold Beach a few days/week before us. The touring cycling world is so small. We enjoyed hearing about their time going through the midwest, since that was the area we went through too. Joe and I made some mac and cheese and enjoyed our grapes. Fresh fruit is just so good. We thought about buying a loaf of bread from the bakery in the little town, but it ended up being closed. When the German couple found that out, they gave the three of us a hunk of their bread. It was so nice of them! Right after we left town, we found ourselves winding along a little river. For that little section we had a pretty good head wind that slowed us down a bit. Before long, we were riding next to Tomales Bay. Most of the way along the bay we had small rolling hills that made the ride fun. The afternoon ride went by very fast because we had a pretty strong tail wind. There was a little town called Point Reyes Station that came out of no where. It was quite a bit bigger than we had thought. As we were taking a little break there, the German couple rode by. They seemed to be going to campgrounds, so we ended up not seeing them again after that. Since all of us were really hoping for a shower, we asked around to see if there were any places where we could buy a shower. We found out that about 2 miles outside of town, in the direction we were heading, there was a privately owned campground that would allow us to do just that. It was perfect! On the way out of town, we saw a familiar face- it was Fred! He was riding an unloaded bike, with normal clothes, going in the wrong direction! Confused at first, we found out later that he was staying at the campground we were looking for and he was just riding back to town to hang out for a while. After we got "lost" a little thinking that we had rode by it, we found what we were looking for. The campground is in the town of Olema. At the office of the campground we asked how much it was for a shower. The lady said $5, which for us was definitely worth it since it had been about 5 really hot days since we've had one. We went to pay for 3 showers, and the lady said she would only charge us $5 for all three of us! It was great. That lady was really nice because even though it was mainly an RV park, she let Fred set up his tent free of charge! Joe and Loic took their showers first while I watched the bikes. When Joe came out he asked where Loic was. I replied with "he's still taking a shower." Joe told me that there wasn't anyone else in the men's room. That's when we figured out that Loic was in the ladies room!! We walked over to the door and yelled his name. He replied right away and all we could do was laugh. We told him that he was in the women's bathroom and he laughed- he had no clue. Later on we found out that in France they put WC (water closet I think) on the restrooms. Loic said he saw the W and didn't think anything of it. It wasn't a big deal at all since there weren't many people there and both bathrooms were the same. It was just really funny. I took a pretty long shower and ended up washing my hair twice since I felt so gross. We thought about camping at the church that was close to the campground, but there was a big event going on there, so we decided we would just have our dinner and ride down the road a little ways until we found a place to set up. Since there was a laundromat right next to the office for the campground and the table we made dinner at, we decided to put our clothes together to do a load. Showers and clean laundry, what a great day. As we were finishing our rice, and getting things put away, it was getting close to being dark. It made it a little more of a challenge finding a spot, but we didn't have to ride too far. We found a spot that would work in the field next to the cemetery. There were a few pricker bushes here and there and some small piles of goat/cow poop, but it was a comfy place over all. It reminded us a lot of how we used to camp on our first two bike tours- just outside of a town hidden in the woods. On this tour, we've changed our ways a bit. Now that we have our camp stove, that really opens doors on the places we can camp. We've learned to love camping right in a town. There is usually nice grass or flat cement to camp on instead of bumpy rocky areas. It's also nice to not have to push our bikes through the weeds or the woods, too. But either way, we found our home for the night. We were tired and excited for tomorrow, so we went to bed early. The ride from Jenner to where we camped in Olema was 49.52 miles.
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