Bart made us some really yummy pancakes this morning for breakfast. It's been so long since we've had them, so it was a wonderful treat. After we got all packed up, I took a shower this morning so that I could start clean. It will be a few days before we have another one, so I wanted to take advantage of it while we had one to use. Bart left at about 9:30 so he could go to the group ride. It was a bit sad to have to leave from there since we had such a great time. All set with maps for the different areas we were going to go through, including LA, we headed out as a group of 3 again. Within the first 3 miles of the ride, we saw another Safeway. We didn't need anything, but decided to stop anyway because we saw a few touring bikes outside. Sure enough- touring cyclists. The group of three was riding from Astoria, OR down to San Diego. We chatted for a bit and then parted ways. Chances are we will run into them again in the next couple days. We had some awesome back roads to follow for almost the entire morning. The road took us up a few hills in the beginning, past some really big houses, and then out into farm land. We passed by so many strawberry patches. The smell of strawberries wafted in the air- what a tease!!! After a while, the land flattened out quite a bit and we were able to move right along. Eventually we found ourselves back on rt. 1. Not a mile down the road, we also found a super awesome treat. A case of strawberries had fallen off a truck and there were still a couple of the plastic boxes full of berries that were pretty much completely in tact. Unfortunately the rest of the boxes of berries were spewed all alongside the road. We couldn't be happier- after being teased for so long by the strawberries, we got 2 boxes for free- can't get much better than that! Bart had told us about a place where we would see a lot of seals on a dock. Sure enough, right where he said they would be were over 100 seals lazing around. The three of us watched and listened to them for quite a while and then continued on. Bart also told us about a place we might see sea otters, but unfortunately we didn't see any- unless we looked in the wrong place. Before turning onto another side road, we stopped at this really great produce stand. They had everything. Lots of pumpkins for Halloween time, and all of the fruits and veggies you could ever want. According to the lady that worked there, almost everything was locally grown. They even had a fun little "picture wall" we could put our faces in. A nice man named Rafael was nice enough to snap a picture for us. Afterwards, he shook my hand and introduced himself. Then he proceeded to crack the end of each of my fingers on my right hand. He then introduced himself to Joe and did the same thing; likewise with Loic. It was pretty funny! Joe and I bought bag of apples and a couple bags of grapes to keep us going for the next couple days. As we were walking around there, we were happy to find a bag of tortilla chips and a sample of each of the different kinds of salsas they sell there. They sure were yummy- my favorite one was the mango salsa, definitely not a flavor combination you would expect, but it sure was good. As we were packing up, Rafael came over with a bag that had 2 cans of coke and a can of grape soda inside! More treats! That was so nice of him. As we were heading down the next side street, it was really flat. We could see for quite a ways across the farm fields. A little while later, we found the bike path we were looking for. That would take us all the way into Monterey. We stopped for a lunch break in the town of Marina. As we were rolling into town, we were so surprised to find a Wal-Mart there! Guess the town was bigger than we thought. We made a quick stop there, since I had to pee, and I decided to buy a loaf of hot fresh Italian bread, too. Not to far from there we found a little park with a table where we could eat. Since we were still pretty full from our great breakfast, we just snacked on bread and some of the fruit we had gotten. The library was nearby, so before heading out of town, we stopped there to see if we got any response emails from the Warm Shower's Host we contacted for a few days from now. Sure enough we did! It is always so nice to know that we will have a place to stay. The bike trail paralleled the highway pretty closely all the way to Monterey. When we got into Monterey, it got a little closer to the water which was very nice. The trail took us right through the main part of town, right near the Monterey Wharf. We took a quick break to walk to the end of the pier, but we were a little disappointed; we were hoping to see some more seals at the end like we did in Santa Cruz. It was nice however because for the majority of the day cars were not allowed out there- that made it more scenic and peaceful! Although we could have taken a shorter, more direct way, we decided to take the scenic route and stay right along the water. That was a very good choice because it was just beautiful! At one point we found a church and thought about camping there. It was perfect; there were woods all around so we wouldn't be seen and we would be out of the way. At that point though, we only had 47 miles and wanted to go a little further so that we would have less to do tomorrow. From where we were, we went around the corner and entered the "gated area" of the peninsula. That area is full of golf courses and really expensive homes and resorts. Since we were on bikes, we were allowed to just ride right through without having to pay anything. It was an incredible ride. Not only were the views of the ocean spectacular- but the houses, or should I say mansions, were amazing. Every time we went by one, the next one was even bigger and better. It was pretty mind boggling to think about really- these houses were just so massive and really pretty. We rode by "The Lone Cypress" tree that has been growing there perched on a rock for over 100 years. It was very picturesque with the position the sun was at. Shortly before we came out of the gated area, we rode through Pebble Beach. We saw a bunch of deer on the golf courses as we rode by. It wasn't too far to get into the town of Carmel. To our surprise, it was a pretty touristy town full of little shops and people walking around. We had a huge, steep hill to climb to get to the main area of town. We met a couple walking who had both lived in Buffalo for a couple years and had visited France a number of times, so they were able to relate to both Joey and I and Loic. When we asked about a grocery store, they told us one that was just a couple blocks away. We headed in that direction so that Loic could get a couple 'quick dinner' things so that he wouldn't have to cook since it was already dark. With our lights on, we headed up the rest of the really long steep hill to get to rt. 1. That section happened to be a little busier which made me a little scared. Joe and Loic were ahead a little bit, but like always would be waiting for me once there was a safe place to pull over. On the downhill section of the 1 that we rode on (from the grocery store we only did probably 1 or 2 miles of riding in the dark) there wasn't too much room, and there was no real shoulder because there was a big hill right next to the road. As I was riding down, I saw who I thought was Loic oj the other side of the road heading back up hill. I had just gone through an intersection with a light and thought maybe we missed a turn or something. Loic waved at me and so I figured I needed to turn around. I was a little frustrated at that point because this section of the road had a small cement barrier down the middle of it. When the traffic was clear, I bounced my bike over the bump and started up the other side. I had to walk since I was still in a "downhill" gear. When I got closer to the stoplight, which wasn't too far away from where I first saw Loic, I realized that it wasn't Loic after all. The cyclist had just kept riding. When I first saw the cyclist, I thought for sure it was Loic- he had a head light on just like him and he had the same panniers (reflectors were showing). As if I wasn't already frustrated from turning around, I re-turned around and went down the hill. Sure enough, Joe and Loic were waiting at the stop light at the bottom. The boys thought it was pretty funny that I ended up turning around like that- they were wondering what was taking me so long to go downhill. Right after coming down the hill, we were all surprised to see a Safeway! The couple we met didn't mention there was a big grocery store like that in town. They also said that the only place to camp would be back in Monterey, but us touring cyclists always find somewhere to set up our tent. So, we decided to try something new tonight. Lenson, our host in Los Altos, said that a few times on his trip across the country they would camp behind a Wal-Mart or grocery store and had quite a bit of success with that. We figured it wouldn't hurt to give that a try, especially since none of us wanted to ride in the dark anymore. It turned out to be perfect. There was a nice wooded area right behind the store where we would be out of the way and no one would see us. We decided to lay our tarp out and have dinner before setting up the tent. I ran around into the store and picked up a half gallon of milk so we could have the cereal we got yesterday (we got two boxes since Loic was coming, but since we had pancakes, we didn't need it this morning!). Being so close to the store will work out nicely for breakfast tomorrow too! We rode 60.73 miles today.
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