It was really cold when we woke up this morning, so much so that I had to bust out the cycling pants-luckily it's been a while since those have been needed! For a change, we woke up nice and early today. While Joe worked on putting away the tent, I walked over to the grocery store which was right across the street so we could have some cereal and milk for breakfast. On the way through the church parking lot, I met the priest for the church. He was really nice and said that his seminary students had mentioned that they saw our tents back there and that he figured we needed the sleep, so he didn't want to bother us. He was however, pretty interested in our travels and was really glad that we had a safe place to sleep for the night. It's really amazing because going to churches to camp always makes us feel safer. On top of that, when there is no one there to ask and we meet someone in the morning that is so nice like that, it really makes it even better. After enjoying our breakfast, we headed out of town. On top of being really cold, it was also pretty foggy. A few miles into the ride we started climbing. Nothing too steep, but it was still a bit slow as it is with any climbing. Part way up the climb, the boys caught up to another cyclist, Adam. He is doing a tour from San Francisco to his home in San Diego. For a while up the hill we played "leap frog;" one of us would pass him, then one of us would stop, and so on. A few miles later though, we were able to ride as a group and hear a little more about his trip and what his life back home is like. It turns out he is getting married in about a month and is super excited. This little trip is kind of a last little thing to do before getting married. The good news though is that his soon to be wife will most likely join him on a few short bicycle tours in the future. As we meandered through the dry, barren hills, the fog went away and the sun came out in full force. It got really hot! Eventually we had a nice long 2 mile down hill and then shortly after found ourselves back riding along the ocean. There was quite a bit of traffic on that section of road, but the shoulder was great, so it was not a big deal. The four of us stopped at a state park to have lunch. We found a few picnic tables right next to the ocean, it was perfect. Joey and I had another "Americanized Loic sub" and snacked on the rest of our tomato and a few grapes. From there, we didn't have too long before we would reach the town we would be staying in for the night, Goleta. A little while after getting into town, we said our goodbyes to Adam with hopes to meet up with him in San Diego when we get there. We found a McDonald's with internet to double check where our host, Mike, lived. From there, we headed over towards the direction of his house. At first we missed the turn for the road he lived on, but that ended up working out ok because we found the library and a grocery store. We had a little snack break (muffins) before heading over to the library for a little while. Closer to the time that Mike would get home from work we went to find his house. We didn't have any trouble finding it on the second attempt. Mike and his roommates have a great garden and chicken coop in their yard. It was nice to be able to put our bikes in the garage so that they would be safe. Almost immediately after arriving, we were greeted by their old skinny kitty named Sunny. He was pretty cute!! Mike's roommate was nice enough to show us around a bit before Mike got home. We had full run of the living room and spent a while relaxing until Mike got home. When he did, we talked for a while and then the boys went on a mozzarella cheese, french bread run to the grocery store. I stayed back and cooked up some of the pasta and sauce we had gotten the other day. After a tasty dinner, we all took hot showers and got our sleeping bags all laid out for the night. The boys were nice enough to let me sleep on the couch and they took the floor- I feel spoiled! We keep having so many great days on the road... Somehow we ended up with 51.94 miles today, we must have done a little more riding around town than we thought.
|
|