All Good Things Must Come to an End

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**

Beers & bikes will save the world! (part 2)

So there we were cycling into Santa Rosa to meet Ken - a nice man with a banana we had met roadside in Southern Oregon. He warned us it was a big hill up his driveway, but we didn't realize his princely abode resided atop a hill overlooking all of Russian River valley! Even better, he had a huge garden where we picked fruits of all kinds. We were very kindly put up in the guest house Murphy bed - a first for both of us.

The next day was time for Russian River! To me, this was the holy grail of breweries - the one I'd been looking forward to the whole trip. The beer was delicious. Unfortunately this was marred by the sub par service. It wasn't busy or understaffed and yet the very nice man who even bought us a round had a difficult time ordering. Strongly worded letter in progress.

From Russian River it was on to Fairfax, birthplace of the mountain bike and home of Biketoberfest. We spent some time here exploring and were able to stay with Sarah and her son Ari who we hooked up with from couchsurfing. They were very gracious hosts. Saturday we volunteered at biketoberfest where we met some of our cycling heroes and drank many a delicious beer. This was the end of our brewery tour - it was finally time to keep heading southward into San Francisco!

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Coastal Vibes

The pacific coast just gets better as we continue our ride south. In Oregon it was filled with beautiful coastal vistas, fellow cyclists and rainforest. As we head into California the road is lined with the giant coastal Redwoods - a sight that is totally indescribable. The scale of these beastly trees is so unreal that it takes actually standing directly beneath one to even begin to comprehend its huge mass. These trees are thousands of years old and give one a feeling of peacefulness in their midst. We were able to camp beneath the Redwoods one night and it was a wonderful feeling to be protected by these huge, ancient trees. The 101 also winds near the coast and through farmland, so it offers pretty much anything desirable. Cycling down the Avenue of the Giants in particular was a fun experience since it is an off-route from the highway. Overall, the California coast has treated us well so far. Now it's into wine country and then San Francisco!

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Support Team Krusti! ------->

Cycle touring is expensive! Way more than you think it would be. It turns out our plan to fill a pannier with Kashi and use it as a feedbag didn't work out since after you've been cycling all day all willpower where food is concerned goes completely out the window. And don't get me started on beer prices in Canada (cheapest 6-pack? TEN DOLLARS! 12 pack of Bud Light (not that I would drink that anyway) TWENTY-FIVE! Plus 20% tax. Crazy.) And food in the middle of nowhere in Alaska is not only sparse but incredibly pricey.

Which brings me to my next point. Now that we're back in civilization it's been easier to keep to our budget, but Alaska and Canada took a big bite out of what we had to begin with. Several people along the way have been more than kind enough to buy us a meal or a beer, or let us stay the night in their house. We thought we'd like to extend the opportunity to support Team Krusti to our, albeit small, online community.

I'll break it down for anyone interested:

A luxurious breakfast consisting of more than instant oatmeal: $25

A meal at a restaurant with hot food we didn't have to prepare over our camp stove: $35

A couple of celebratory brewskies, or a taster tray at a wonderful brewery: $10

As you can see, we don't spend much, but it does add up over time, and there's always those unexpected expenses, like the $100 we spent on new tires for Rusti's steed, or $40 for replacement chains after the first 3000 miles, or $35 for new kicks when the old ones wear out.

In sum, we have had a wonderful time on this trip, being inspired and bestowing inspiration, and we'd like to keep it up. If you would like to see us continue our trip, feel free to add a little (and I mean .50 cents to $50) to the pot by clicking on the paypal button. It will take you to a very easy to use and secure paypal site and all the money goes directly to us and then toward our shrinking waistlines.

 Thank you, thank you, and above all, Thank You!!!!!