It's The People

The last few days have been all about friendly faces. We began riding down a sunny stretch of coastal highway when a dark grey fog bank loomed ahead. It felt like we would enter the mist and ride 100 years back in time. More realistically, we rode to a town called Davenport and got pastries and a coffee for my Dad.

Next major milestone was riding through Santa Cruz, Aptos, and finally through rolling apple orchards to Watsonville. My childhood friend Mike Haney and his girlfriend Amanda were kind enough to drive down from Mountain View to join us for a Mexican food dinner. They had just taken a weekend away on the northern California coast. They stayed near Gualala in a lodge with Russian architecture - we took photos of it for the blog only a few days prior. We told tales about the trip, and then moved on to Yogurtland to swap more stories over dessert. It was great to see them and especially nice of them to drive to meet our route.

With all the socializing we didn't even turn on the TV once in the Motel 6 we called home. We'd stayed specifically in Watsonville because this morning we visited Ballenger Spars to see the shop and the man who has built a new mast and rig for us. For those who may not know: on a sailing trip last year something broke and our mast and sails came down. We let the rig loose and everything sunk to the bottom of the Pacific.

Buzz was very friendly and showed us around the operation and also showed us our gear which is all now complete. His border collie Jessie was very barky at first but calmed down once we had made friends a bit. We brought some bagels to say thanks and the final step is to get the mast trucked down to Los Angeles to make the boat whole once more.

Strawberry and artichoke fields stretched in front of us and people worked much harder than we ever do picking in the fields. We mostly paralleled Highway 1 and were waved over by a man in a green VW van. Paul is what he calls a "trail angel", lives nearby, and is 81 years old. He did many bike tours in years past but these days goes out every Tuesday to give out Power Bars, free homemade chocolate chip cookies, and offer travel or mechanical assistance to any touring cyclist that might need it. Paul wore a small, circular pin on his shirt that read like a gauge. It said "Fun Meter" and was set to "Max." What a nice guy. We chatted for a few minutes and continued on our way.

Next up was riding along a bike path with sand dunes and low plants in vivid shades of red and orange. We had a little trouble finding an REI but managed to get my Dad a replacement sleeping pad after his gave up a couple days ago. With the various errands and stop-offs today it was the afternoon before we knew it so we stopped at a campground in Monterey after following a beautiful path that wound past volleyball courts on the sand, sailboats gleaming in the sunlight, and a pier jutting out into the bay.

There is much climbing tomorrow but we'd like to make around 50 miles. We'll see. Thanks for reading.

Outside Buzz's mast shop, our new rig is inside

2 Mikes, Paul, and a van called Kermie

Thanks to Paul!

The long and winding bike path