December 8, 2024 to December 10, 2024
To San Luis Obispo
My headache is still with me unfortunately, which puts a damper on life in general and makes me pretty sad company for poor Rachael. With Rachael’s excellent hike to remember though, the first pathetically few biking miles of the winter to record, visits with friends to be remembered and two new birds to be reported, it’s obviously time for a post.
But first, a little more about my health. Overall it’s gradually getting better, but just not as quickly as I would like. As one measure of that, about ten days ago I was just getting by on four 400mg doses of ibuprofen per day; and now I’m down to two and the pain itself is significantly less, more of just a dull ache that fades into the background when I’m distracted by something. So that feels hopeful.
And actually, the headache isn’t my most annoying symptom - it’s my eyes. I’ve developed something of an eye infection, presumably as a spinoff from my sinuses. I’m taking eyedrops now and it’s improving pretty quickly, but I’ve had sporadic episodes of blurry vision and watering. It was especially frustrating on the third day of this report when I took the new camera out to Laguna Lake. It was a bright, blue sky day; and besides the light sensitivity I had trouble using the camera because my eyes would film up almost as soon as I tried to focus on a bird. I’m sure this is the reason that some of the photos are out of focus.
Enough about me. What else is there to say about the last two days?
Sunday, Dec 8
It’s quite foggy when we start up, giving me a chance to score the only bird photo of the day from the comfort of our motel room:
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It’s a four hour drive to our stop for the night, Palo Alto. The first two hours are an attractive drive through the redwoods on 101 the whole way, but they’re not attractive enough to compel me to stop the car and get off the highway for a landscape shot. Maybe I could have suggested to Rachael that she test out the camera on her new phone, but in my headache-fog it didn’t occur to me.
The last two hours are a different story though once we approach the Bay Area and the freeway is suddenly a crush of high-speed bumper-to-bumper traffic that persists until we cross the Holden Gate Bridge and look wistfully at cyclists zipping across in the bike lane. It reminds us of our lone tandem experience maybe twenty years ago, when we rented a two-seater and biked across the bridge to Sausalito and back. Never again, unless that becomes the only way we can bike together some day.
We’ve stopped for the night in Palo Alto because that’s where our friend Lynn lives now. She moved down from Eugene several months ago to be nearer to her son, so this is our first chance to see her in her new quarters. We have an excellent visit, arriving early enough in the afternoon so there’s a few hours to chat before we head off to a nearby Italian restaurant she’s picked for us. We sit around her living room catching up on each other’s lives and reminiscing about the many adventures we’d share over the years - with me sitting comfortably on the hardwood floor because she’s still getting settled in and has some furnishing to do - and then she takes us for a walk around her new neighborhood. She’s really landed in an excellent spot, but I will miss the wild turkeys we’d see roaming through her old neighborhood in Eugene.
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Monday, Dec 9
Do we have any photos at all from this day when we drove to San Luis Obispo where we’re staying in an Airbnb for the next six nights? We do not - not even of our home for the next six nights, a comfortable but small one bedroom place which we cluttered up immediately before we could take a clean shot of it. And there are not even any food photos from our excellent lunch/dinner at Lure, a new fish restaurant in town that’s close enough for be an easy walk.
Oh, wait. There’s other news to report. When we arrived in town we went straight to the shopping mall so Rachael could pick up the new phone to replace mine (actually, her old one) because it’s getting more tempermental, difficult to charge, and less reliable. While she’s doing that I ransack REI with three items on my list. I’d like a new pair of walking shorts, but don’t like any they have to offer. And I’d like a new pair of sandals, but don’t like any they have to offer. But I do find a new bicycle pump, an essential since I spaced out and packed mine away for the winter with the Bike Friday. Afterwards we stopped at the grocery store so Rachael could stock us up for our stay. So there’s some news.
Tuesday, Dec 10
For our first full day in town we choose local activities for ourselves that won’t put us at risk of being late for our plans for the evening. I head off to Laguna Lake on the bike, after first pumping up the tires which have both gone almost totally flat over the last ten months. It’s a very short ride, barely three miles one way, but it’s a chance to test out the bike that I haven’t ridden in so long. The ride isn’t really a success though. For one thing, I need a mirror. Like with the pump, I foolishly packed the mirror away with the Bike Friday, forgetting that I just share one between my two bikes. So that’s another trip to the LBS that needs to happen before I go much further than this.
The other issue though is that I’m a little unsteady and really not quite rideworthy. One thing is readjusting to the larger bike - the handling is different, and I need to work on lifting my leg high enough to clear the saddle when I mount or dismount. The other though is my vision, with my eyes bothered this morning by the bright sun. This condition will have to improve before I bike further.
The main point of the outing though is to test out the new camera. Like I said earlier, it’s frustrating today because my eyes keep watering up when I stare through the viewfinder. Other than that though, I’m quite pleased with the Canon. It’s obvious how much more identification will be possible with it. It’s much easier than I expected to find birds in the viewfinder and zoom in on them, and I come away with two new birds and better images than I’d have expected from using it just hand-held. One thing that really helps is its burst mode, which I use pretty much all of the time now. Even if I’m having trouble keeping a bird within the frame, my chances of a useable shot from a burst of three or four is much better.
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I’ve been out wandering around the lakeside and open space when I get a call from Rachael. She’s descending toward the lake from her hike up Cerro San Luis Obispo and she’s calling to say that she’s found herself stuck on the wrong side of the long fence that borders the north end of the park. We talk it over a bit, but then I decide to bike over her direction to see if I can be of help.
A few minutes later she calls again to say she came to a locked gate that she was able to climb over, and a minute later I zoom in and see her walking my direction.
Other than the fence episode though she’s had an excellent hike and comes home with this slide show to remember it by.
The real highlight of the day though is the evening when we drive across town to visit Liz and George, our airbnb hosts from last winter. They’re both serious bicyclists themselves and were in Europe this summer pedaling their way from Caen to Montpelier by way of the Seine, Paris, the Saone and Rhone, so time goes quickly as we catch up, share stories from the road and compare ‘interesting’ experiences with the French train system. I’m pretty sure Liz and George will become a regular stop on future trips up and down the coast.
Today's ride: 9 miles (14 km)
Total: 9 miles (14 km)
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Sharing gear among multiple bikes has never worked out well for me either. Eventually I wind up buying that extra pump or toolkit anyway. I just consider it a win if I remember to pack my bike shoes and helmet.
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