Day 18 - Monday 9/28 - 10 miles North of Half Moon Bay to Seaside ++

After a great rest day at Lautz's, reality set in as we arrived at our motel in Santa Cruz yesterday afternoon.  All checked in, then a walk down the pier for dinner.  Sunset was beautiful, but no view of the lunar eclipse.  Tracy was the lucky one - he spied a whale right off the pier.

Today was a day of riders taking different routes from different starting points - but this time it was planned.  Tracy started right from the hotel in Santa Cruz, heading south along the Adventure Cycling route.  Tom and Jerry and I loaded our car, stopped at Denny's for breakfast (could be the slowest Denny's in the state) then headed back north on Hwy 1 to the drop off point - 10 miles south of Half Moon Bay - 35 miles.

A cool, foggy morning - or as many would say, the marine layer was present.  Great scenery, amazing beaches.

We re-convened in Santa Cruz - then headed to our lunch spot - the town of Capitola.  Found a spot right on the beach - the sun came out.

Kathi had gone ahead and found an amazing motel for the evening in Seaside,  Met up with Kathi & Tracy, who had just finished the ride for the day.  Jerry & Tom decided to ride to Tracy's stopping point - making it the longest day yet.  Here is where I picked them up.

Any golfers in the group may recognize this road :)

The end of another successful day.  We are sitting outside enjoying a beer and glass of wine with some chips and guacamole - home made by Kathi from the avocados she picked up along the way.

Cycling Notes:

Jerry's Notes:

Today was pretty goofy, in that we overestimated how far we traveled the day before yesterday and as a result had a significant backtrack to start our riding day.  It is a little discouraging to ride 46 miles before lunch and end up 5 miles down the road from where we woke up in the morning.  Of course our location for lunch couldn't have been better, Patty got the best parking spot right on the beach at Capitola, complete with benches and restrooms and the sun came out for us!

The ride was very tame by what we have experienced so far. Riding through the fields of artichoke, califlower, strawberries etc  was fun at first, but  it was incredibly slow because the route was so indirect - going around all the mile square fields as compared with riding on hwy 1. Of course Tom wanted to make sure that tomorrows ride (which might be our hardest), was doable, so after pulling into the motel in Seaside after 84 miles, he decided it would be good to ride some more to where Tracy stopped.  No problem except that it was at the top of the highest hill in Monterey.  Ugh, another 15% hill..

Tom's Notes:

Nothing like a 15% hill in mile 89 of a 90 mile day--talk about taking the wind out of your sails.  I'm sure the Beatles were on our route a least once--Strawberry Fields Forever.  The smell of ripe strawberries was enjoyable for a long time.

Stats aren't too impressive, except for the total distance of 90.6 miles--the longest of this trip.  It took us 6 hours and 25 minutes, we averaged 14.1, and we climbed 4000 feet.  Tomorrow looks to be a tough one, but we are planning to spend the night at Kathi and Tracy's house in Cambria tomorrow so we don't have to search for a motel for tomorrow night.