Day Thirteen

Mileage: 56.8 miles
Total: 729.4 miles

Lucky day thirteen! This morning Kelly and I woke up to clear skies in San Simeon. After several days of wearing all of our layers it was nice to be warm. By our first stop (about 20 minutes into our ride) we were able to lose our leg warmers.

One thing I keep forgetting to do is thank all the people that we have met our who have helped us over the last couple of days. First, I want to thank the cyclist in Capitola who let us follow him to his house where he gave us some grease. This was after we asked if there was a bike shop around, which apparently there was not. He also gave us a restaurant recommendation for Big Sur, but unfortunately they weren't open when we passed by. The past two days we also ran into two groups of guys biking various distances from San Francisco to San Luis Obispo or Santa Barbara. One group of five guys has been doing the ride for years, or at least since one guy's daughter was an undergrad at Cal Poly, and now she is 57. According to him, yesterday's conditions were the worst of all his rides through Big Sur.

More current thanks need to be extended to my friend Tricia, who is currently putting us up in Arroyo Grande. We were greeted with a phenomenal dinner of veggie tacos, followed by a delicious homemade cake! Its great to be in the realm of southern (california) hospitality.

This mention of food will now be the focus of the next portion of this post. I know one reader was worried that we were only eating brocolli and salt. I assure you this is not the case. So let me walk you through an example eating. A typical day starts with breakfast in camp, which is usually two packets of oatmeal and a breakfast bar. After about 20 miles of pedaling its usually snack time. If there is a store I grab a snickers and maybe a coke (shocking!). If there isn't a store, I eat another bar. Then a bit later, between 12pm and 1pm I stop for lunch, which includes peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or bread and hummus. Again if there is a store I get snacks to go with it. Dinner at camp is either pasta, indian, or cous cous, followed by a desert of dark chocolate. Today was a phenomenal eating day, it started with eggs, hashbrowns, an english muffin, and two pieces of french toast. Morning snack was a snickers. Lunch was peanut butter and jelly. Afternoon snack was chocolate cake. Dinner was the lovely meal Tricia prepared, followed by more cake! In other words bike touring is awesome, you can eat as much cake as you want!

The riding today was nice and mellow after a couple of more challenging days. We had a great picnic in Morro Bay, followed by nice riding through San Luis Obispo and Pismo Beach. I am looking forward to the next couple of days as we ride towards Santa Barbara! Also, before I forget I want to introduce our handlebar friends. I also have to give them credit for always smiling, even when the riding conditions have been tough!

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