DAY 5 - STANDISH HICKEY TO FORT BRAGG

After saying goodbye to happy Dave, we set off on the shoreline highway. Lots of ups and downs and twists and turns.

The most eventful part of this day five was what happened at the very end.

We pulled into our campground at Mackerricher Park at a decent hour. Being November the campsite had limited sites available with only one main bathroom area available. We circled around for a bit, realizing our only option for the night was near a couple of questionable looking people.

While pondering our predicament, Phil popped out of nowhere. Phil was riding his bike through the campsite on his nightly ride. We clearly looked puzzled and Phil told us to follow him, as there was another "secret" area he knew about...but he wasn't sure if those bathrooms were open, which would mean no running water. It was a lovely campsite indeed, right on the beach! Right before I went to go check on the bathrooms, Phil said, "If the bathrooms aren't open, you're more than welcome to camp out in my backyard." Be careful what you wish for, Phil...

Well, that sounded pretty good to us, plus we'd have access to a real live bathroom! As it turns out, the bathrooms were not open, so we hopped on our bikes and followed Phil along the water back to his humble abode. Phil is a high school teacher in Fort Bragg and an all around really great person. He also makes the best hummus I've ever tasted (he adds kalamata olive juice to it).

He let us into his home and we set up camp and showered (it felt so good). After some drinks, peanuts, hummus and chicken legs, we decided we were taking Phil out for fish and chips at the wharf. How we girls (actually, only me, I had already eaten all of Phil's food) managed to polish off a plate of fish and chips is astounding. On top of it all we went for ice cream. Full indulgence.
We hit the sleeping bags with full tummies and happy hearts.

In the morning we were ravenous as per usual and the oatmeal and peanut butter combo was admittedly getting a bit old. I hopped in the car with Phil while the girls did some bike maintenance, and headed to the supermarket. We loaded up on bacon, eggs, bread, yogurt, granola and fruit. We had a grand breakfast and we are so thankful once again to lovely Phil. Thank you, Phil! You made our time in Fort Bragg fun and memorable.