When I wake up in the morning, everybody's already gone. Sleeping in a tent is kind of rough without a sleeping mat, so I want to be well rested for today's ride. I pack my tent and things onto the bike and bike away.
In Redwoods everything seems small, let alone my tent.
The road goes up and down, right and left through the hills. There aren't many towns or villages on the way.
I'd like to check my mail, but whatever village I run into is just too small to have a library, let alone an internet cafe.
Finally, the road goes through Laytonville. What is Laytonville famous for? Besides being a seemingly quite progressive little town in Northern California, Laytonville was the place where Lookout records started in late 80's. So I am quite curious to see what Laytonville looks like.
Laytonville, the former home of Lookout records.
There's lots of road work going on, so everything is quite messy, but looking for some food I see a store called The Good Food. Quite curious to find out what it's about, I get in, and well - there's the best selection of vegetarian/vegan friendly food I've ever seen. I get myself 2 fancy veggie sandwiches and an acai juice, but once I'm done I come back for more. I stack my panniers with food and drinks (and one of my favorite European chocolates with hazelnuts!) and bike away. If you're ever in the area, don't miss this store. It's simply amazing.
I'm biking for hours but no town that may be big enough for a library. In Laytonville I asked if they had a library and they told me: "There's a bus that brings books into town once a week." Well, it's just that I'm not looking for reading material but for a computer connected to internet.
Finally, I'm in Willits. Willits is quite a cute town and I find a library there, thanks to directions I got from Kerstin the night before. It's past 6 pm, but it seems it's my lucky day cos the library is open until 8, something quite unheard of in the United States.
An interesting building in Willits, across the street from the Skunk Train station.
I check my mail and decide to bike some more to Ukiah. It's a bigger town and may have more sleeping options. I bike through the night and get there sometime after 10 pm. I find myself a cheap motel, possibly the cheapest in town, but my credit card works (I often had problems using my prepaid credit card in motels and mom and pop run businesses) and the Asian lady at the front desk is nice so I stay there. They even let me take my bike into the room.
I take a shower then call my friend Pero who I'll be staying with when I get to Los Angeles and go to bed early.
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