Wow. We are a week away from finishing this trip. To be totally honest, we've been looking forward to this for awhile. Around San Francisco Rusti and I began feeling a little antsy in our pantsies. You have a lot of time to think on a bicycle tour, time to come up with brilliant ideas (dryer sheets in your panniers help keep your clothes from smelling like a big moldy mess!), time to ponder your existence, time to make personal decisions, but you don't have a lot of time to actually implement your ideas. Rusti has been feeling motivated to stay in one place and develop a skill. Farming has been an interest for the past few years, but there hasn't been a chance to actually spend time at a farm, you know, farming. Throughout this trip the inspiration to work with a farm in a bicycle friendly town blossomed and grew and California began presenting itself as a great place to follow that idea into the rabbit hole to see where it takes us. As we sat in San Francisco, mentally and physically tired, we debated what to do. Five hundred miles to Los Angeles felt like a lifetime, and train tickets from San Francisco directly to Denver beckoned. Rusti signed into the WWOOFing (World-Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) website and set up an account so that he could contact farms in California for volunteer work. He found a farm near Big Sur that looked interesting, and I had heard great things about that area, so we decided to make it the 150 miles to Big Sur and then reevaluate.
In San Francisco we stayed with our friend Miles at his brother's apartment - conveniently located in the middle of the city right in Nob Hill. Miles was a great host, plus we got to meet some more of his friends who he had met on other travels. The next day he rode us out of the city through beautiful Golden Gate Park. And may I say Thank You San Francisco for being the easiest, most painless city to exit. On the way out we were stopped by a taxi driver who wrote out a series of directions that would take us on a shortcut of sorts. This shortcut was surely not shorter but most definitely more beautiful than riding along the highway the whole time. We ended up on an old road that climbed into the hills above the fog and received our first and only glimpse at sunshine that day. It was truly beautiful.
We continued down the coast and were able to stay with another friend in Santa Cruz, Michael. We showed up with a stalk of brussels sprouts (yes, they grow on stalks, it's weird) and Michael treated us like kings - we cooked dinner at his place and he even bought us beer! He knows how to make lifelong friends out of Team Krusti. The next day we were treated to Michael riding us out on his Death Machine aka fixed gear bike with no brake. He is a master of this mode of transportation and definitely made me consider getting a "fixie" to improve my riding, although mine would most definitely have a brake.The countryside was beautiful and we snacked on strawberries that grew by the rowful in the fields scenting the air like jam. Thanks, Michael, you rekindled the last spark in our hearts for continuing our trip and we steamed on down to Monterey.
Through Monterey and the beginning of Big Sur we had some very rainy days. Thankfully we were able to stay with the sister of Vaughn, the woman who we stayed with in Hopland two or three weeks previously. Nancy lived with her dog Charlie in the neatest house I've seen on this trip. It was an old trailer perched on the cliff of she had bought 20 years previously and had fixed up to be the perfect nook. Add a "banana express" - Big Surian for tropical storm - blowing through and a giant bottle of Jack Daniels that her friends brought by and it was the coziest place we've been for a long time. Much better than the tent in that weather. We braved the storm the next morning only to fight 30 mile headwinds and make 15 miles in 3 hours. Needless to say we holed up in the bar that day to wait for the weather to move on. The next day we woke up to pristine skies and perfect riding conditions - namely, tailwinds. We rode 70 miles the rest of the way through Big Sur - which is a region, not a town - and had a wonderfully beautiful day. One of the top 3 of the whole trip.
After Big Sur we continued on down on highway 1 until finally we reached Pismo Beach and PALM TREES! The next few days were beautiful. We stayed in a campsite that looked straight out of a resort, and even better met people there who had a whole cooler of beer they were trying to get rid of. Looks like a task for Team Krusti! Finally we made it to a close enough distance to LA where we could call my dear friend Rachel who lives in LA to come pick us up and take us to her abode.
So, even though we didn't know if we would even make it past Big Sur, the adventure has continued. Now we are only a little over 100 miles from San Diego, the end of our trip. First, though, we have to ride through LA...**shudder**
