Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Peeps in da club

Stephanie and Ashley (bookends in the pic), who rode down the coast and ended in San Fran, Brad and Mary, headed to San Diego, and Scott and Sarah, who are headed to South America.
 Every tour must have its own unique qualities that set it apart from other rides. Our Canada tour was littered with random kindness from strangers at every turn. Although we have definitely had many blessings of kindness this trip, the thing that is standing out about this route is the social interaction, especially with other bike tourists. The west coast bike route is probably the most popular tour among cyclists in the entire U.S. Consequently, we see other cyclists making their way along different stretches of coast line most every day. Often, we see the same cyclists several times throughout the trip. We have befriended folks from Germany, locals from California checking off their bucket lists, college students out for an adventure, and hard core travelers who are headed to the tip of south America, making this section just a tiny drop in their bucket of miles. We end up making it to the same campsites every night, where we can swap stories about hills, headwinds, and hangry episodes (which is being so hungry you are angry, hence, HANGRY).  Many of these pictures are with a group of 6 that we have been trouping with, which makes the often stressful rides through big cities a little more bearable (we all rode to San Francisco together, and thus had safety in numbers, as well as photographers in numbers for the big bridge crossing!), as well as provides safety from the nightly raccoon assaults we have at each camp.
Leo has many fans along the route, and often he gets all the greetings and attention wherever we go. He gets his picture taken daily by amazed motorists and cyclists alike, who cannot believe a baby is on such a big tour.
For those who are concerned, our fears about riding through California have been abated. There is a surprising amount of bike paths, keeping us off the busy roads, and lots of quiet back roads as well. And bonus- no more logging trucks! We must have left them in Oregon. Wahoo!
We have seen a live and dead bobcat this week, which is a first for us!

lots of winding, coastal roads that make it hard to put down the camera

The Fellers, from Half Moon Bay, who took us in for the night after church. Awesome family!

Harvesting the strawberry fields south of Santa Cruz- I think these are for Driscoll

Leo's new friend Ophelia, who we stayed with in Monterey
our troop making it up a hill on the way to San Fran

We finally found the bridge! Now what?

so excited its clear!
Well, we are off to Big Sur tomorrow, hopefully it lives up to it's hype. Until then, may the winds ever be in your favor!

2 comments:

  1. You will absolutely love Big Sur! Just taking in the view on the long descents will make you never want to leave there!

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  2. Just noticed you had a SPOT.. but it doesn't seem to be working. Didn't know if you knew or not.

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