90 mile day, my longest so far.
While yesterday was tough mentally, today was extremely difficult physically.
The day started out at 7.30 from Oceano. I cycled to Guadalupe for breakfast knowing the town was small and primarily Spanish speaking. Well, upon arrival I felt I was in Mexico, wonderful little community consisting of one street only. I settled on a place called Romo's Deli for breakkie. When I walked in, there were sullen men sitting at long plastic tables eating beef tongue soup in silence. I went to the back where the kitchen was and told the cook I wanted something without meat, but with eggs. He smiled and said OK and got to work. Five minutes later I was handed a giant burrito loaded with what seemed like ten eggs, rice, cheese and salsa. I managed to eat the whole darn thing then left the sullen men with their soup and continued on.
I had two big hills before Lompoc one of which was up road then when I arrived to it said "No Access" and was roped off. I took my chances, also because it was my only option. I was feeling a bit unsure until I saw three cyclists zooming down the hill who said it was fine for me to be there, just that there were firetrucks at the top. I reached the peak of the long hill (so damn hot) to see firefighters still putting water on the charred ground. One of them asked me if I saw the sign at the bottom. I apologized profusely and kept pedalling. I descended into Lompoc sprawling suburbia (and meth apparently) did not appeal so I kept on trucking. Then things got pretty lonely. I had to do the next 13 mile climb with Turkey vultures circling and the odd car passing. This was a slog.
I then came to the 101 which was no fun either. The ocean finally reappeared covered in an oil slick. There were helicopters and cleanup crews along the highway. This was pretty sad to see.
I got within one mile of the Santa Barbara exit when bam, got a flat tire. I changed it by myself at a rest stop exit with cars not even registering what was going on. No one stopped, I wasn't impressed, but once I was about to start filling the tire with air, a cyclist came and held my bike for me which was much appreciated. After this whole incident I had a layer of black grease in strips all over my body from wiping the grease off my fingers over a layer of the worst, whitest and chunkiest sunscreen ever. I looked like a zebra.
From there I still had a good while to my Warmshowers host's house, a beautiful bungalow at the top of a hill. I arrived and had the best shower of my life then me and David, my host, went into downtown Santa Barbara and met up with Sarah and her bro Dave, who had spent the day frolicking on the Santa Barbara county beaches.
Thank you so so much to David, Dave and Sarah for being such a wonderful support team.
We had a great evening in beautiful Santa Barbara and I'm looking forward to rolling into LA!
While yesterday was tough mentally, today was extremely difficult physically.
The day started out at 7.30 from Oceano. I cycled to Guadalupe for breakfast knowing the town was small and primarily Spanish speaking. Well, upon arrival I felt I was in Mexico, wonderful little community consisting of one street only. I settled on a place called Romo's Deli for breakkie. When I walked in, there were sullen men sitting at long plastic tables eating beef tongue soup in silence. I went to the back where the kitchen was and told the cook I wanted something without meat, but with eggs. He smiled and said OK and got to work. Five minutes later I was handed a giant burrito loaded with what seemed like ten eggs, rice, cheese and salsa. I managed to eat the whole darn thing then left the sullen men with their soup and continued on.
I had two big hills before Lompoc one of which was up road then when I arrived to it said "No Access" and was roped off. I took my chances, also because it was my only option. I was feeling a bit unsure until I saw three cyclists zooming down the hill who said it was fine for me to be there, just that there were firetrucks at the top. I reached the peak of the long hill (so damn hot) to see firefighters still putting water on the charred ground. One of them asked me if I saw the sign at the bottom. I apologized profusely and kept pedalling. I descended into Lompoc sprawling suburbia (and meth apparently) did not appeal so I kept on trucking. Then things got pretty lonely. I had to do the next 13 mile climb with Turkey vultures circling and the odd car passing. This was a slog.
I then came to the 101 which was no fun either. The ocean finally reappeared covered in an oil slick. There were helicopters and cleanup crews along the highway. This was pretty sad to see.
I got within one mile of the Santa Barbara exit when bam, got a flat tire. I changed it by myself at a rest stop exit with cars not even registering what was going on. No one stopped, I wasn't impressed, but once I was about to start filling the tire with air, a cyclist came and held my bike for me which was much appreciated. After this whole incident I had a layer of black grease in strips all over my body from wiping the grease off my fingers over a layer of the worst, whitest and chunkiest sunscreen ever. I looked like a zebra.
From there I still had a good while to my Warmshowers host's house, a beautiful bungalow at the top of a hill. I arrived and had the best shower of my life then me and David, my host, went into downtown Santa Barbara and met up with Sarah and her bro Dave, who had spent the day frolicking on the Santa Barbara county beaches.
Thank you so so much to David, Dave and Sarah for being such a wonderful support team.
We had a great evening in beautiful Santa Barbara and I'm looking forward to rolling into LA!
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