Last night, when hopping on the bike I tore my shorts, so I get my spare pair of shorts and throw the torn ones into the garbage. Neither these ones are in the greatest shape, but I hope they can last the next two weeks until my flight home.
My little campsite for the night.
I get my stuff one the bike and get back on Highway 1. Today I'm supposed to be in San Luis Obispo and that's some 140 kilometers from here.
I start quite early for my own standards. Before 10 am. I get to the next "town" (we're talking here of places with 15-20 inhabitants at most) quite soon and stop to get some food.
The first supermarket has no prices exposed. Does it mean everything is free? No, it means depending on how stupid you look the owner can rip you off as he pleases.
Indeed, I ask for prices for drinks and everything is super expensive. I get a bottle of juice and check out the next shop. This one does have the prices so at least you can see everything is outrageously expensive.
I still have some fake chicken nuggets so I have those. Next to me there's a group of a zillion Italians from somewhere in Tuscany who have been travelling the States for a month and are returning home from LA tomorrow. LA is only about 5 hours from here. To me, it translates 5 days.
Anyway, back on the road I notice the hills are less steep than those yesterday. In fact, a couple of hours down the road the hills disappear and the terrain becomes flat.
Sometimes the road just seems neverending.
To my right there's the Pacific Ocean. I see sea lions sunbathing on the beach. There are dozens of them. Of course, there's also dozens of tourists taking photos of them. Typical.
I pass by the town called San Simeon. Up the hill there's the famous Hearst Castle. I have to be in San Luis Obispo by the evening and going up the hill to the castle would take me at least an hour. This means going there, visiting the castle and going back would take me about 3 hours. Hmmm, I don't feel like it. Especially since the battery on my camera has died just some 20 minutes ago while I was taking photos of some kite surfers next to the beach.
In the distance I see a bike along the road. I don't see any panniers on the side, so it may just be some local biker. Anyhow, I decide to speed up to see if I can get any closer.
Apparently, I'm much faster than the bike before me, so I get closer easily and see that in fact there are no panniers but there is a little trailer behind the bike. So, it is a long ride biker like me.
I reach him in 20 minutes or so. His name is Brant. He's been travelling from Missoula, Montana (a nice place in the middle of mountains where my band played a show several years ago) with the final destination San Luis Obispo.
We decide to bike together. After all, when you are on your own on the road, it's always nice to be able to chat with someone. The time goes way, way quicker.
The next town we hit is Cayucos. It's a decent sized town with several shops, restaurants and gas stations, so we decide to stop to get some water. I feel like getting some energy for the trip so we get back to a nice little cafè we saw down the road. A couple of muffins and a hot chocolate later we're on the road again.
The next is Morro Bay. It is peculiar for the Morro Rock, a dark rock in the middle of the bay that has volcanic origins. I manage to squeeze the very last photo out of my camera and then the battery dies definitely.
We turn inland towards San Luis Obispo. Brant studies there and works in a cafè called Linnaea's. I have a couch again through CouchSurfing and right before we hit the town I get a message from my host, Deidre, that she'll be at a birthday party and I should get directly there.
Brant and I ride to the address she gave me and then split ways. I meet Diedre and join the party.
I feel a little awkward because I haven't showered for a couple of days and I can tell my clothes is getting stinky, but nobody seems to care.
It's an interesting group of people. There are about 15 people at the party and I immediately meet everyone. They all want to hear about my trip so I get swamped with questions and food.
When the rhythm slows down a bit I sit down with Deidre and Dov and we have a long and interesting conversation for quite a while.
I really enjoy this group of people because they just make you feel at home, I'm not even sure how. But I have an awesome time and by the time Deidre and I get to her place I feel sorry I don't meet people like this more often.
I finally have the shower I longed for and I hit the bed, or rather the couch.
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