Day 37: - Meetings On The Road - Aimless

July 26, 2013

Day 37: - Meetings On The Road

I had a leisurely start today. And why shouldn't I, with my fancy shmancy room? It was warm and dry, unlike outside, and I made a mug of coffee and watched the seagulls on the beach from my hotel window.

But alas, all good things must come to an end and my $60 hotel was no exception.

Once on the road the day could be summed up in ~~three~~, I mean, four words--Meetings On The Road. This route oozes touring cyclists. By that I mean, there are a lot of them.

And it's a good thing too because the day wasn't good for photos. So I concentrated on pictures of touring cyclists. And really, I only got a fraction of the ones I met, for reasons such as stupidity--sometimes I forgot to pull out my camera. Still, I did get quite a few.

One group was from Argentina and traveling home from Alaska.

I didn't get to meet the legally blind twosome on a tandem that everyone was talking about. That would have been a kick in the pants. The story has it they were traveling north and hadn't crashed yet.

I also stopped at Fort Ross, which was a fort built and occupied by the Russians in the 1800's. Of course The Russians don't own it now. They were forced to leave after the United States hockey team beat the Russian hockey team at the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics, in one of the greatest sports upsets of all time.

Okay, that's not true. They gave up the fort long before that. But the hockey game makes for a better story, in my opinion.

Anywho. It was kind of a cool thing to see, when you consider the history of California and all the influences down through the years.

Aside from that, it was mostly just riding in overcast skies. The ocean was a dead calm, no wind at all, and it looked like a lake. That was kind of pretty, and interesting, in it's own way, but not nearly as interesting as the other times I have come through with strong north winds, blue skies and big waves.

Still, I was a little surprised because it seemed that I moaned the least about the weather. Most of the other cyclists I met were groaning and whining about it much more than me. Maybe I have finally matured? Or maybe not?

Either way I am happy to report that Chris was at the hiker-biker campground in Bodega Bay.

"What happened to you last night?" he asked.

I told him about the $60 hotel with the fireplace and hot tub. He laughed and added, "...for $60 I would have done the same."