Day 51 Westport to Van Damme Park: Where has the sun gone?

August 23, 2017

We woke up, having had the best sleep, to our breakfast being delivered to our room. Fresh decaf coffee, juice and warm sweet rolls with fruit – what? Can we stay here a little longer???

you don't get breakfast like this when you're camping, that's for sure!

Nope, of course not. We reluctantly packed up the gear, loaded the bikes and headed out into the fog. The plan today was to get to Van Damme Park, which was about 30 miles away (48km). As I said, we knew this stretch of road would have some challenges, so we weren't too surprised to be hit with some short, sharp hills right out of Westport. I was thankful for the good night’s sleep, as I can’t imagine doing these hills yesterday! I admire all those cyclists out there who to this stretch in one day! It’s a doozy!!! Along the way we saw some more of these cool flowers that I can't identify.

does anyone know what this is called? Sure is pretty!

We love these pretty pink flowers. Jim thought for sure they were fakes, but nope, they're real. They just look fake because they don't have any leaves - weird!

We also ran into a group of wild turkeys. Yes, that's right, wild turkeys!

who knew they had wild turkeys in California?

About 16 miles in, we reached Fort Bragg, a nice little town and a perfect spot to have second breakfast and more coffee. After all that foggy riding, we needed to warm up! We pulled up to a coffee shop with outdoor seating just as the sun began to come out, a welcome sight!

ok, so what's up with the Skunk Train? Anyone know?

As we sat drinking our coffee, 3 young people stopped to ask where in Canada we were from. When we told them Vancouver Island they asked where. When they heard we had started in Parksville, they told us they were from Courtney, a city just up the road from where we started! We exchanged stories, them telling us they had driven down to see the eclipse and now were on their way to San Francisco before heading back home. Without even thinking, I said “Wow, you're driving all the way back up? That’s a long drive!”. Everyone then burst out laughing at what a funny thing that was, coming from someone who had ridden their bike all that way! Oh well, I guess its all in how you look at it!

We said goodbye to our Canadian friends and were soon joined by Keith, who is from Los Angeles. He was curious about our trip and offered his phone number in case we changed our minds about bypassing LA and needed a place to stay – thanks, Keith!

our buddy, Keith, from LA - great talking to you! If we ever are in LA and need a pedicab, you're the guy!

A larger group of cyclists also stopped by for coffee, many wearing a bike jersey with S.O.B. on them – we think it means Seniors On Bikes – funny! They were a lively group out for their daily ride and we enjoyed chatting with several of them.

We finally pulled ourselves away from the group and headed out back into the fog! It was so weird – as we were sitting at the café, you could see the fog on both sides of the city! Oh well, at least we got a little sun.

a nice view before heading up the hill to Mendicino

Heading towards our location for the day, we pulled off to explore the little town of Mendocino. We found it to be a pretty hip little town with lots of cafes and shops to look into.

now this guy knows how to arrive at the game in style!!!!

However, we were on a mission to first eat some lunch and second, find some wifi. Lunch wasn’t hard – we stopped at a great little place for a bowl of chili for me and falafel for Jim – yum!

a nice little place for lunch in Mendicino

Wifi was a little harder to find, which was surprising as this is such a upscale place. We finally managed to connect and found some disturbing news. My daughter and a friend both passed along news that the government had issued travel a travel advisory for all of the places in Mexico that we were planning to visit. While these warnings have been out before, these were disturbing for us and we weren't sure what to do.

Lunch and Internetting done, we headed back out into the cold fog a short distance to our destination, Van Damme Park (not sure if it was names after Claude Van Damme but its funny to think so!). We were a little surprised to find the hiker/biker price here was $10 each – what? However, still cheaper than a hotel, so we booked in and found our spot – looks like we would be alone at this hiker/biker site tonight a this isn’t on the route stops for most bikers we’ve talked to.

We put up the tent and headed off to the beach to enjoy a little time there despite the cool weather. Talking to a couple later on at the camp site, we found out this is a popular spot for abalone diving. Ah! Maybe that explains the expense? However, we didn’t have our dive gear with us on this trip, so no abalone for us (we don't dive and have never had abalone, so I guess we don’t know what we’re missing).

an interesting rock formation we saw at the beach. If I were teaching geology this year, I would use this!

Dinner and early to bed as it was pretty cold. Tomorrow we head up first thing in the morning and more climbs to come – should be a fun and challenging day. We just hope the sun makes an appearance so we can warm up and enjoy the view!

Today's ride: 48 km (30 miles)
Total: 1,812 km (1,125 miles)

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