Water on the Right

Coming to you all the way from the library at the University of California - Santa Barbara. The sun is shining brightly again, as it has been for the past couple days. The mighty north winds are at are back, and by the end of the day we will have about 200 miles left!

After our time spent in San Francisco, we had fresh and fast legs, which allowed us to bike 125 miles the following day! Brian and I both agreed that would be the biggest day of our trip. There weren't too many places we wanted to stop, so the miles flew by; but as we are now getting further south, we will be taking more of a look around. The toughest part of this day came right at the beginning when we learned that Highway 1 was closed due to a mudslide (that happens out here in California, you know). A friend of one of Susie's residents told us a "shortcut" to get through the mudslidden (is that even a word?) area. Though it did save us many extra miles, the narrow broken pavement/hiking trail did not prove to be ideal road bike conditions. We survived with no flat tires, and no blood was shed. An added bonus was that Brian saw a bobcat cross the path, as he was the first one up, so we can add that to our list of extreme wildlife seen so far. Other great things that happened this day were seeing the first sign for Los Angeles, a mere 338 miles away, and getting Slurpee's at a 7-Eleven in Santa Cruz.

The next day, Thursday (Day 16), was one of the most beautiful days yet. We were riding through the Big Sur area of California. Along Highway 1, that is the most consistently beautiful stretch of land that there is. Looking down the road and seeing picture-perfect rolling green mountains on the left side, and amazing coastline on the right made me feel like I was riding my bike in the middle of Narnia. It seriously looked just like scenes from the movie. Phenomenal. It is also important to mention that with the water being on the right side of the road, we know that we are heading the right way. That has been a big help for us, because once we cover those miles, there ain't no turning back. Even as we were training for this trip, we enjoyed our rides back from places like Grand Haven, MI, because we were getting used to that feeling of water being on the right. How sweet it is.

Small bumps in the road (figuratively speaking of course) came when I got two flat tires, one at the beginning of the day and one at the end of the day. I must say that I had quite a view while I was fixing them on the side of the road, so it was just fine. Also, on a positive note, my bike acheived a milestone today when the odometer passed the 2000 mile mark. Brian's did this on Wednesday, by the way.

Something else that I enjoyed today was meeting a man named Joe, a Marine, who served from 1961-1964. It was at one of the waysides that we stopped at to take pictures. Joe shared with me how much he enjoyed his time serving in the Marine Corps, and told me about the key things that he learned like perserverance, character, and LOYALTY. He really emphasized that one. There is no question that Joe and I shared a moment that day, as he was almost brought to tears when remembering and talking about some of these things with me; and he reminded me that I need to take good care of my men since I'm an officer. Thanks, Joe.