antimattr

a lot can happen in a year and half

2011-10-05T01:56:00.000-07:00

1 year, 5 months, and 8 days ago (or 75 weeks ago, if you prefer) i wrote to you from my brother's rainy apartment in nagoya, japan, where i was cooling my heels after living outside for a year and riding approximately seven thousand kilometres around north american on my bicycle. more recently, i have a fixed address and it has become common for me to have milk on the left shoulders of my tee shirts. i would like to walk you through the intervening time and space, if i might.

if you had then polled our family and friends regarding what would become of us, we seemingly indefatigable nomadic cyclists, this (tba), perhaps, would have been the least likely to succeed. so, let's make this life worth living by examining it; perhaps we can discover something about the trajectories of lives, or maybe we'll just reaffirm that it's usually more noise than signal, and beautiful all the same.

for new friends, a historical note about my content generation and it's evolution with technology (skip this protracted paragraph if you don't care to hear about my website and want to get on with hearing about my life): i have been blogging since before that term was common. the internet archive way back machine has a comical snapshot of my site, antimattr.com, with an entry dated march, 2003, though i think i had something up a couple years earlier. i began with domain name registration and hosting freely given to me by a family friend who was involved in the emergent world of internet business and shortly thereafter transferred ownership to an account of my own and began paying for same. after a relatively slow start on the interweb, i began detailing my life and making it freely available to the public, probably because (1) it was technologically novel, (2) i liked attention, (3) i thought i had something to say or worthy art to share and i enjoyed the act of composing and digitally framing these, and (4) i knew that i couldn't trust my brain to remember the events of my life, possibly owing to having already abandoned mental effort to electronic devices with more reliable recall (being an early adopter of personal digital assistants), or THC, or maybe due to some preexisting cognitive weakness. whereas i used to write my website code manually, i eventually, in 2008, opted to let a free service, blogger.com, take the helm so that i could focus on content instead of style, having satisfied my autodidactic self in learning HTML and CSS and deciding it better not to spend so much money to host this collection of memories. this served me reasonably well, though i have backlogs of hand-coded antimattr.com content (from august 2004 to october 2008) that i've always intended to republish in this new arena, but have neglected to. i digress; the point was to give context to my current return to this website (blogger), where i intend to renew my auto-documentary efforts. blogger coders have really outdone themselves of late and the newly available templates exceed anything in my ken and so i have further relinquished control and am now using a minimally customized stock template. up until now, i had lapsed into the convenient world of brief google buzz and facebook status updates, which, i think, detracted from goals (3) and (4) and eroded the joy that i got from more thorough compositions. readers arriving from facebook notes, i'd ask that you click through to my site to get the visual full monty; aside from being better for readability, the new dynamic views give you a nifty and quick visual guide to the bloggered events preceding this post (i.e., my and vicki/my bicycle touring travels; the mosaic view is particularly visually striking). [update: i didn't like the way facebook imported the the RSS feed from this site, so i've pulled it and just linked here from facebook...not sure if this will hurt my chances of being read, but that's how i played my cards]

so, with that out of the way...and with my photographs thankfully guiding me, may i present to you, my life. i apologize for the length, but if i am anything, i am exacting in what i do.

arrival and establishment

upon returning to vancouver, victoria quickly put her advanced craigslist skills to use and secured us a sublet in kensington-cedar cottage area of vancouver with a delightful man with a great name (matthew) who immediately and memorably took us out to bowen island for our first area hike. matthew made us very welcome, at several times gifted us his home-brewed beer, and even left us to our own devices for a large portion of our stay there, while he worked as a fishing guide about the queen charlotte islands. the rental also came with an adorable and super-affectionate cat named hobbes, who vicki commonly devoted large chunks of time and camera SD card space to.

hobbes starts a print job, huzzah!

the conversion from nomads to squatters in this western province saw large attendant changes in our lives. for example, this marked the beginning of our accumulating stuff, advancing from the contents of four bicycle panniers to regular apartment contents in an epically thrifty manner. anyone who has followed my stream of photographs on facebook will know that my posts are peppered with photos of cast iron pans, consumer electronics, and random objets d'art gleaned from the loot at local thrift stores, but it really is exceptional treasure hunting here in vancouver, probably owing to the population density and the relative wealth of the citizenry. although originally motivated by necessity, it became common for me to visit several thrift stores for pleasure after work, and this remains my custom, when time allows.

i would be remiss if i didn't mention the awesome spectacle that is the basement "as-is" section of the salvation army on 12th; because of the quantity of donations and the spatial constraints of the location, this bargain nook is a like a living slurry of one-man's-trash-another-man's-treasure with a cast of ravenous combatants vying to secure the best of the new goods that the volunteers throw onto the tables, which have just been cleared of the leftovers from an earlier cycle of this dance. seriously, i think it would be awesome if sir david attenborough narrated a filming here: "oh, and the burly male uses his size advantage to jostle the smaller folk out of his path as he gleefully lifts a box of discarded a/v cables and broken ceramic christmas ornaments with a deep look of satisfaction just visible behind his formidable beard." i'm not sure if the regulars are hoarders or resellers with eBay stores, but i am intrigued. if you live in vancouver and want to do some thift store shopping, check this out.

joking aside, i am quite happy in my new-found thriftiness; i am not so wasteful of resources nor of my own money as i once was, and i apply myself to mending things, which necessarily involves learning how they work, both giving me great pleasure. this habit of fixing things is, in part, the product of the DIY spirit that bicycle touring requires and nurtures. on that note, here are two videos that resonate with me and i deem as worth checking out: the story of stuff; and, the lightbulb conspiracy.

having a home and a kitchen was also a great change from camp-stove one-pot meals and vicki and i both took full advantage of it. i even dabbled in making bread, though i eventually decided that i'd leave that one to specialists; i've since limited my baking to cookies. i'm not going to ramble on about my culinary exploits except to say (1) that i've come to love cast iron over other materials and recommend that you look into this cookware. my schoolmate-turn-workmate brad once extolled the virtues of cast iron, but it fell on deaf ears at the time, and robbie and jessica dragged a cast iron skillet across the country by bicycle, so i thank these folks for turning me onto cast iron. secondly, (2) i derive an inordinate amount of pleasure from making pancakes, which i think i've almost perfected (with a tip of the hat to chris-downstairs of kyle's now-dissolved two-chris homestead for the recipe and inspiration). future blog entries may involve food, since i do tend to view it as one of the better aspects of existence.

work: brains and coffee

this transition also saw victoria and i return to gainful employment. vicki is qualified to teach and had worked as a education coordinator at a learning centre. she also had been interested for a long time in brain plasticity and cognitive neuroscience and had even eyed up the arrowsmith school (video) when we were in ontario. well, as fortune would have it, the pacific northwest eventually provided vicki with her dream job, where she continues to work now, at the eaton cognitive improvement centre. her work really is fascinating and the gains that the students see are inspiring. incidentally, she has diagnosed my own cognitive weaknesses and i have only to motivate myself to take her up on her instruction to to improve them. this certainly won't come as a shock to people who know me well, but i have problems with my memory for information and instruction, although i am not as severe as the examples given on the linked page and i have developed many compensations such that my inability to retain chunks of info. rarely impacts my day-to-day.

a rosetta (getting ahead of myself, this was in may, 2011)

as for my own return to work, i am educated, trained, qualified, and experienced in engineering and am particularly and potentially exceedingly lucratively employable as a forensic engineer and fire investigator; so, naturally, i decided to work at a coffee shop. my good friend kyle straw, who i know from school and who also holds a degree in biological engineering, was the manager of caffè artigiano on hornby street (i.e., hornby) and hired me with a view toward becoming a barista. originally, i probably saw this as a stopgap solution to funemployment with aspirations to figure out 'what to do with my life', but i quickly became quite engrossed in the world of coffee and obsessive about my new trade.

because i was available for it, i became an opener, totally changing my daily rhythm, since i used to be a night owl. opening entailed rising at 4:30 a.m. and riding my bicycle downtown while the sun crested the mountains, passing all of the prostitutes on the kingsway with my high-reflectivity clothing and flashing lights. being a commuter cyclist in vancouver kept me very fit, very wet, and very much imperiled by insane motorists. despite having ridden across this country and down to san diego, california, i continue to believe that the most dangerous cycling i've done is here in this city, with all it's glorious cycling infrastructure, while following the rules of the road; i will save this rant for another day though.

you work your way up at a cafe, so for a good long time i was 'floor', meaning that i collected dishes, washed dishes, prepared jugs of milk for the baristas, etc. i rejoined the workforce full of good energy, faith in humanity (things that work invariably seems to erode), and loved that i could occupy myself in this bustling new environment and then leave work entirely at the door (unlike my old work, which consumed me...of course, that job paid well). eventually i moved to floor and grill, where i grilled sandwiches and ran them out to customers. then, i did a very long stint of till (cashier), where i prepared the drip coffee and interacted with 'the humans' (i.e., customers). i also reaffirmed the atrocious state of my brain with respect to retail math (again, vicki can help me fix this if i choose to strengthen the supplementary motor area of my brain).

while on the subject, please note that this is how to order coffee for maximal accuracy and minimal frustration:

it's not a race. speak clearly, loudly (if it's a noisy shop), and slow down! you may be impressed with yourself for you incredible ability to spit out your misguided starbucks-informed twenty syllable order; however, chances are, the cashier isn't;
first, specify the base drink, from the menu (i.e., latte, cappuccino, americano, etc.); and,
secondly, specify the size, whether it is for here or to go, and then add all your modifiers (half-sweet, extra-hot, no cocoa, whatever). when you order a "triple shot, long (you don't know what you're talking about), extra hot, two-thirds full, low-fat, mocha" i am waiting for the word mocha so i can start pressing buttons, and your list of modifiers may exceed my mental buffer, plus, you're already ordering some other drink by the time i get a chance to punch in the first one, and you won't actually be listening when i repeat your order, so there may be a problem down the road; and,
less importantly, but worth mentioning, don't say that you're ordering two (or more) drinks that are exactly the same and then say, "oh, and make that one low fat" at the end...they're two different entities on a till system (at least on ours), and everything needs to be reentered, so it's easier just to specify your drinks individually if they differ whatsoever. my suggestion here was a 'same but different' severing or duplicating feature, but i don't think that came about (take note till system designers).

one other till observation: people that dress in expensive clothes and plonk their coach purses down in front of you, riffling through them for the payment method that should have been readied while waiting in line, or men with fancy metal billfolds, are less apt to tip then "regular" humans.

after several months, i don't recall exactly when, i finally went on bar, meaning that i started physically working as a barista, having learned the ins and outs of the other facets of the cafe. i don't think many people know what it takes to make a good latte or work at a busy cafe, so i'm going to have to go ahead and tell you, apologies in advance.

kyle takes coffee very seriously, as evidenced by him placing 7^th in the world in the world barista championships, 2010, and i'm very lucky to have learned coffee under someone so knowledgeable and demanding. at hornby, before you even touched a grinder or portafilter, you had to know about the science of espresso extraction and you also had to become fluent in a language written in milk jug handles (yes, you read that correctly). it is so busy at hornby that there are three people working on bar at a time, which is unusual: the grinder, the steamer, and the pourer. in terms of training, you work your way up through these positions in this order, and you get kicked off of bar in a demoralizing, spirit-crushing way when things start going awry, several times, before you can survive a rush at a given station.

when orders print out from the till (which is continuously), the pourer takes a copy (i.e., a chit), prepares saucers, spoons, and adds syrups or sauces to cups for drinks requiring them. meanwhile, the steamer assesses the orders from their copy of the chit, combines drinks that can be created simultaneously for efficiency, and pulls up the requisite milk jugs (3.25% [homo], 1% [low fat → luffa], or soy) from the fridge below, placing them on the counter with their handles pointing in particular ways to indicate how many shots of what type of espresso (reg. or decaf) will be extracted into what vessel (e.g., decaf shots into jiggers, two sets of shots into tall cups for here, etc.). now, the grinder will follow these instructions and provide the espresso while the steamer will steam the milk and these two components will be given to the pourer to finish building the beverage and, depending on the drink, create latte art. but there is a whole lot to that last sentence...

the grinder is in charge of the quality of the espresso and must make adjustments as necessary. at hornby, quality was incredibly important. taste is paramount and a complex subject that i won't get into, but there are some other metrics you can use when you're setting up your espresso (commonly referred to as 'dialing it in'). in the morning, you would pull some shots of espresso by grinding a quantity of beans, distributing them into a portafilter basket, grooming the surface by hand, tamping the grounds, then engaging the portafilter and initiating extraction by pressing a button and stopping extraction by pressing another. you would time this process manually (digital timers separate from the machine itself). at the cafe, we pulled triple ristrettos (brew ratios for espresso), meaning that we used a lot of coffee and that our espressos weighed about as much as the grounds used to make them. you would also get a feel for the correct drop time, which is when fluid starts to flow from the spouts after you've started the process. at first, you'd see if you were in the right ballpark with the closer's grind setting and make some gross adjustments to the amount (i.e., mass) of coffee by changing a digital timer that controlled how long the grinder would run when turned on (note that we ground each shot to order). the process is incredibly sensitive to various factors; for example, changing the grinder timer by 0.03 seconds was significant in terms of the resultant mass and its affect on the espresso produced therefrom. by varying the mass of the coffee (using the grinder timer) and weighing the grounds and the espresso, you would try to get the correct brewing ratio and taste the espresso. if it tasted good, you were in luck, otherwise, you would perhaps add a little more or try a little less mass or a second more or less of extraction time. if you couldn't get it tasting right, you'd have to change the grind setting (i.e., the particle size), then repeat the process.

now, this may sound difficult, which is good, because i wanted to convey that it wasn't as easy process, but please add to this the fact that the resulting espresso would change over time because of atmospheric conditions, the temperature of the grinder because of use, the amount of beans in the grinder hopper, etc. moreover, each and every bag of espresso might have a different setting that best suits it. now add twenty drinks printing out for a film crew across the street, the manual espresso grinder demanding a grind change (invariably when things starting getting busy), and one of the swift (semi-automatic) grinders failing and you have an idea of what that station on bar is like.

intelligentsia isn't my favourite roaster (49th parallel is!), but this is quite a good video showing espresso extraction in a no-stress (i.e, opposite hornby) environment: espresso

steaming milk is no cakewalk either. you must introduce the right quantity of air (making it neither to thin nor too foamy) and then properly integrate this air by creating a vortex that spins the milk in the jug. you must then stop at the right time to achieve the desired temperature. at first you just make a bloody mess. the best is when you lower the jug with the steam still on and send milk flying everywhere, or drop the jug entirely to the floor, though these are only funny if the milk isn't scalding hot yet. different types of milk steam differently, as do jugs at different starting temperatures or of different sizes, or if they've been filled to an improper or inconsistent level. learning to steam is difficult not only because of the physical act, but because, at hornby, you have yet to learn to pour, so you are not yet fully able to discern what perfectly textured milk is. further, you have to worry about setting up the line of milk jugs and controlling the flow of the three person bar team, which is mentally taxing, while plying yourself at a new skill.

finally there is pouring. here, you are making latte art in every drink where it's possible while setting up and being an entertainer, verbally engaging the customers and calling out drinks. classic pouring fun: people always say, "is this my drink?"...and who are you? we don't know what your drink is, that's your job! to be honest, i dropped good (fake) customer service in favour of speed most of the time, but, when i got more comfortable and faster, i did enjoy sharing coffee knowledge with happy tourists and sincere coffee enthusiasts. since i had already shirked conversation with many regulars because i was focused on developing new skills, it felt odd to spontaneously become chatty, which i guess was a mental hangup for me.

latte art is hard business and it takes a long time to produce even passable hearts or rosettas (checking my facebook page, i note that the first drink i ever served to a customer on november 24, 2010!). another aspect of good pouring is conserving the quality of the milk if you're waiting on the espresso and properly sharing the milk between drinks to achieve the desired consistency for each. eventually though, i became quite happy with my abilities and favoured this position because i liked making the art. here's a sample from may, 2011, before i retired

throughout my employment i much enjoyed developing my palette and learning about coffee. although i grew to like espresso a lot, and would drink more than a healthy amount each shift, i think making slower coffee is tastier and more fun (and the only option at home, without access to professional equipment). future blog posts may include discussions of home brew methods; currently, i am making clevers and have access to the most fantastic coffee tool in any toolbox: kyle's brain.

i really loved working at hornby. the rushes were so intense and exhilarating. i know that this may sound stupidly romantic, but when you develop a rhythm with your team and sync up, it is like juggling and dance mixed together. economy and accuracy of motion became incredibly important. people were free to observe our rapid efforts while they awaited their soy chai lattes, but i don't think many customers appreciated how difficult the job was, nor did people understand how attentive we were to quality, despite our speed. someone made a video about the speedy setup at hornby (which we all laugh at: "6 syrups!" note: i am not in this video, it predates me): Caffe Artigiano: Operations Overview.

it's funny, working as a barista at hornby was a very hard job and training clearly took a very long time, but the remuneration was low, compared to other jobs requiring the same amount of skill, ability, and training, and i think employee retention suffered for that same reason (probably across cafes, not being specific here). by contrast, it is commonly whispered amongst baristas that australia is the land of milk and honey, where skilled practitioners of the art can make a proper living off of it; perhaps it's true, its not in the cards for me though.

working at hornby will have lasting influence on me in a number of ways. for example, i will say "behind" when i walk behind someone in close proximity, especially in a kitchen, and i may add modifiers like "knife" or "hot", depending on what i'm holding ("homo behind" was popular in the cafe, for floor people bringing whole fat milk into the baristas' fridge); i will seem to be frenetic in the kitchen, despite that i'm just used to moving quickly and am quite at ease; i will grab dishes and wash them immediately; i will empathize more with food service folks (whom i have always respected for their efforts, but doubly so now); and, i will be unable to enjoy a bad cup of coffee (i.e., i am now a coffee snob).

socially, hornby was host to an amazing group of people (the staff i mean...though there were a few good customers too, hi steve, if you're reading this), many of whom i have formed lasting friendships with and all of whom i thank for putting up with my obsessive compulsive behaviours. we had a lot of fun and were all pretty compatibly messed up in the head (e.g., human centipede conversations, gifting each other invisible kittens, etc.). i must press on though and won't bother everyone with more inside jokes, but i do want to restate that i am honoured to have worked with such great people. i humbly request that hornbies and ex-hornbies (as we are called) post comments of funny stories involving yours truly (it saves me writing more and will give a different perspective).

other events during our sublet

the man who replaced me at my old work (impossible!), ryan, visited. i shot several videos of him wherein he says, "is this a video?";
my cousin crystal and her man and baby boy visited (she was the first cousin to have a baby...);

i juggled a three ball cascade for the first time, with three tennis balls in the backyard and without any instruction (brute force, lots of ball dropping). this ignited in me a passion for juggling that continues unabated and was fostered by vicki's wonderfully thoughtful gift of proper juggling bean bags when my interest was first sparked; currently, i am trying to learn the four ball mills mess and juggle a five ball cascade. my progression as a juggler and barista were complimentary, as both were very much about muscle memory. future posts will include more recent videos highlighting my current juggling skills;
kyle and i hiked the north coast trail. this was an amazing adventure that i hope to repeat. in lieu of contributing another chapter to this hemorrhaging blog post, here is the complete photographic and video record of the occasion; and,
while attending a dinner party at robbie and jessica's (my cross-canada cycling tourist friends who also dwell in vancouver now), we randomly met up with erica again, who we met while riding south along the west coast and traded maps with; it's a small world. she would end up crashing at our sublet and again at our new place while exploring north america by automobile and is a good person whose company we much enjoyed. one day we will visit her in sweden

a change of scenery

in september, after much renewed craigslist toil on victoria's part, and after looking at a few places, one of which i was too tall to enter, we moved into our new place at main street at 33rd, in our favourite vancouver neighbourhood (thanks to kyle for exposing us to the main street area while we crashed on his couch). we're really beautifully situated, with queen elizabeth park and the olympic-grade aquatic centre next door and every shop or restaurant we might want to attend within walking distance.

i should mention that our friend kevin was around for the move and i thank him kindly for helping transport some large items in his truck.

shortly after our arrival, several discussions, and my unwavering position that would absolutely not being getting any pet, let alone a rabbit, we got a rabbit. crema is a flemish giant and despite that she ate our couch, destroyed several baseboards, and prevents us from having any exposed power cords (i have soldered three or four cords thus far and it is astonishingly fortuitous that she never ate an exposed 120 V cord before we wised up) or storing anything cellulosic at or near floor level, i love her, and vicki and i lavish her with an absurd amount of affection and attention (every other photo from then on is of victoria lying on the floor hugging the bunny).

populating the apartment was piecemeal and involved a lot of free furniture, including a memorably drunken hauling of a couch after karaoke (thank wes!). sorry house guests, i know that i habitually point to everything and indicate which laneway it was retrieved from or how little was paid for it.

it got cold and grey and wet and the photographic record peters out in october. furthermore, getting the internet here was a month long struggle and ontario-family/friend-communication-blackout that culminated in a new service drop and cable installation along the exterior of the house; the process aggravated this technophile immensely but may, comically and cosmically, have been contributory to something extraordinary (and i didn't put this one together until composing this post and studying my photographs, google calendar, and facebook status updates).

november found me in ontario again, sadly biding farewell to my grandmother (my mother's mother). i regret that we didn't know our news yet but am so happy that my brother and i were able to visit with her before she passed away.

finally, the big news, and the progress

you're going to be a daddy in july!

mind = blown. in nine months, i was going to have a child and i would be a father. moreover, i was going to become a stay at home dad, which, believe it or not, i had always wanted to be. i don't really know how to express the enormity of this, so i won't try, i'll just keep on typing.

vicki and i had seemingly planned it perfectly so that our child would be born right after she would go on summer break, if the expected delivery date could be relied upon.

what a crazy secret it is to know that you're going to have a baby and then to continue on as if everything weren't changed forever. it's so very surreal. and rolling out the news had to be careful business in this age of easy and swift (mis)communication.

kyle was the first to know, on december 13^th, which was so liberating; we had a co-conspirator. his response was really cute...he was laying on the floor petting crema and first asked if we were trying to put one over on him (but with more cussing).

on december 21^st, we heard our baby's heartbeat, which was incredible and made everything seem more real. i never did get a recording of this, but i managed to mimic it well.

that day we broke the news to my dad via skype, and he was characteristically hilarious. in response to the news that he would be a grandpa, he said, "what!? you found a baby!?" other good quotes (in jest, of course) include, "this is a bigger step than getting a rabbit, you know that?" and, "i'm shocked, i'm still in shock, i don't remember the wedding."

my mom arrived in vancouver for her visit that same night to a chauffeur-style sign that read "grandma sue". her response: "oh, grandma sue, ha ha, is that from the bunny?" nope. "it's not from the bunny?...it's from you!?" hugs, smiles, hugs, disbelief, not-kidding confirmation, joyful tears.

then vicki was off to ontario for christmas and to break the news to her family and our friends...though i was involved in the friendly news sharing, by way of skype to a drunken party in a colder province, during which i mimicked the doppler heartbeat noise in a guessing game that was quickly won by meredith and had everyone screaming excitedly (it makes for compelling viewing and luckily we have it on video).

vicki-less, my mom and i toured around vancouver and were graciously hosted by the vanhaus (kyle's household) for a boxing day christmas dinner, complete with olde english crackers.

on january 5^th, we got to see our baby, which made everything more real yet.

time marched forward and vicki and i were both occupied with our work; the aforementioned acquiring of furniture and goods for stocking the apartment; plenty of crema cuddling; and, optimistic discussions about our new baby-centric future.

on february 8^th, i posted news of our pregnancy to the world at large, via facebook, by posting an ultrasound image and the following text (by this time, i had already told hornby and given notice that i would be leaving work at the end of june):

had you not already known, the following responses are in order:

1) you betcha;
2) early july; and,
2) nope, don't know, and don't think we'll find out.

vicki's birthday rolled around and i got her a mouthpiece for the clarinet that she had retrieved from ontario, and which i'd never actually heard her play, owing to the mouthpiece. for some reason, i still haven't gotten a tune out of her, but i think we'll be learning some lullabies soon...stay tuned for our conversion to a family band...i think we'll follow radiohead's lead and use digital distribution for our albums, but perhaps i'm getting ahead of myself.

in late february, we got more pictures of our substantially bigger and more well-formed baby. at this time, we had the option to determine our baby's sex, but we elected not to. at that time, we were given an envelope containing a print out of some ultrasounded baby genitalia, but we stood to our guns and didn't open it. by now, baby's existence also became detectable from the exterior, without the need for expensive medical equipment.

the gunslinger

the boxer

around this time, our ontarian friend mark, returning from overseas work with engineers without boarders in ghana, came to BC and took up residence in our living room, with crema (i think she only jumped on his head a dozen times or so in the night, and bit his ass but once). the first order of business for our new vancouverite was to get him a bicycle. without much effort we found a nice nishiki apache (mountain bike) at ride on and took it over to our community bikes (OCB) to install some used fenders and to look for a rack (which we ended up having to get new from MEC, along with some lights).

i love bicycles and OCB is a fantastic project that seeks to spread bicycle love. it's also an amazing place to hang out and witness how anarchy works in practice, in a microcosm, since they're non-hierarchical in structure (how it works). if there is a community bicycle project in your town and you have a bicycle in your shed that needs some work, i'd recommend taking it on over and learning how these simple and powerful machines work, while lending your own hand to fixing them, which is gratifying and empowering. i'd also recommend that you do some research online first, especially considering the availability of some excellent and informative video tutorials, so that you can just ask to be sure on certain points while at such a shop (like if a particular assembly is left-hand threaded and if you're about to destroy it), instead of constantly having to track down one of the oftentimes frazzled and always scarce volunteer bicycle mechanics, all of whom are lovely mind you.

if you live in vancouver, make plans with me to tune up your bike, i kid you not, i enjoy working on bikes with friends immensely.

in march we got a box of baby presents from victoria's childhood and lifelong friend, angela, marking the beginnings of a spurt of baby-instigated generosity that has astounded vicki and i and left us with little to buy for our little one and many thank-you cards to compose.

how many dalmatians?

my birthday also came about, putting me at 30 (my dad's age when i was born, incidentally). vicki got me the amazing glow in the dark juggling balls that were shown in a previous video.

birthday work story: at hornby, kyle had instituted a policy whereby we would replace people's drinks if they wandered in with a competitor's paper cup. after talking a tim horton's double-double drinker into an exchange, i somehow managed to forget there was still fluid in the offending cup and, when i went to toss it out in a flourish, i ended up ejecting the contents into space...space that ended up being occupied by kyle, who was in the process of rounding the corner to initiate an ice-cream-cake-distributing and happy-birthday-singing sneak attack on me; better physical comedy could not have been choreographed.

mark and i determine our wingspans on the other side of the bridge

march also found us on the capilano suspension bridge, doing reconnaissance for mark's upcoming interview with them for a tour guide position that he ended up securing, but was hired on as a construction worker beforehand. this job eventually saw a commuting-frustrated mark abandon vancouver for the north shore; it also produced a stream of free passes that would come in quite handy as family rolled in to meet our little one (thanks mark!).

over these expecting months, i started absorbing pregnancy and parenting books and listening to audiobooks, etc. one of my favourites is the baby owner's manual. more serious and interesting recommended reading for expectant parents and already parents is brain rules for baby.

Introduction to Brain Rules for Baby from Pear Press on Vimeo.

in april i got to see another friend from engineering, robin, who is a truly good man. robin in on his way to becoming a doctor through studies in australia and found himself in BC because his ladyfriend, jessica, hails from here. this is confusing because it brings my list of befriended couples named rob and jess up to two (so, these are doctors rob and jess).

victoria's older sister lisa and her man craig also joined us and we toured around vancouver. vicki and i then had the pleasure of being witnesses to their civil union, administered by a nice lady out of her home in kitsalano. despite her catching the bouquet and my near-daily proposals, vicki has yet to assent to our own matrimony. don't worry, i'll keep at it and wear her down eventually. we did file our taxes together though, so we're married insofar as the gov't is concerned.

lisa and craig also got us out of town and up to whistler, where we went up a gondola for the peak-to-peak experience, but were denied the more lateral portion of the endeavour and had to descend from whence we came due to inclement weather.

i took crema out into the backyard in mid april, just after lisa and craig had returned home. she overwhelmed and adorably sought refuge on my lap. she has since come to enjoy tearing around in the yard and digging holes behind the shrubs along the perimeter.

check out the bump; hey look, a baby in a belly:

April 22^nd

may is when i really started nesting. the photographic record shows me experimentally setting up the jolly jumper and reconfiguring our room with the new change table, both graciously gifted to us, along with several toys, by our upstairs neighbours (thanks heather and kin!); posing with the (thrift) old school snugli filled with soft bear (my teddy bear, see below); assembling the (craigslist) crib; acquiring a (thrift) stroller and swing (a second thrifty swing was also gifted to us by kyle, thanks buddy); getting a whole whack of dinnerware (sun series, which i also had some of in ontario, also from thrift); and, rearranging our chest of drawers with new drawers for baby outfits, of which we already had about seven million, all gifted. based on my facebook updates, it would appear that may is also when i discovered one the best video on the internet.

at this point, the anticipation was really building. even crema couldn't wait for the baby to arrive.

perhaps it involved a tinge of angst, but this is also when i set in motion to get a new tattoo that celebrated my love for victoria. when we first met, in first year university (before she rejected my attempts to woo her and sent our lives on different and completely disconnected paths, only to be reunited several years later when we both sought to contact one another, on the same day), we climbed a tree in the courtyard of maritime residence hall together. i found someone living/working in the residence on the UoG website and asked them if they wouldn't mind helping me by sending me some photographs of the tree in question, which they kindly did. i got the work done by bryan at darkday studios, right near our place; upon entering the shop and discussing the idea, he immediately inspired my confidence and i gave him leave to do as he would, from the photograph, resulting in a faithfully detailed rendering that i'm very happy with.

june saw me wrapping up employment at the cafe. kyle was also leaving artigiano (for 49th parallel, though only victoria and i knew that at the time) and his last day was actually the day before my last shift. a joint celebration was held and i managed to avoid any pranking, which was fantastic because kyle had set a precedent for cruel and unusual farewells with our friend jason, who got a pie in the face and had his civilian clothing milked and frozen to commemorate his faithful service. kyle was only silly stringed, which isn't that bad at all. luckily, the silly string was not ignited (a note of caution). mark and i also went to some museums and other tourist attractions that month, but it appears that june was mostly spent watching vicki's belly and waiting.

on the morning of july 2^nd, vicki started having contractions; after timing them for several hours, we determined that it was time to get to the hospital. kyle was kind enough to drive us there and we were admitted at 3:55 in the afternoon.

my softbear came to the hospital too.

i'm not sure if the whole pregnancy thing had really sunk in yet, but i was getting fairly used to the idea, and here it was, about to be over!

initially, we were taken to a nice new ward where you get to room-in with your baby after delivery. this is where vicki fought the good fight. she rejected drugs and interventions until, after 3 hours of pushing without progress (even after submitting to some oxytocin in the end), trying to overcome the fact that our baby was sunny-side up, an obstetrician said it was time to get to the operating room and have a trial of forceps before possibly doing a cesarean section.

so, to the OR we went, packing up and leaving our luxury suite. i found this on the floor of the OR, by the bye.

this was pretty stressful and vicki was already pained and exhausted beyond anything i'll ever experience. she promptly got an epidural and as soon as it was in effect the doctor attempted to deliver using forceps (salad tongs). finally, he gave up and ordered everyone to prepare for cesarean section but then said he would check the position one last time...

...and, apparently our baby was ready for the world. 9 hours and 18 minutes after being admitted to the hospital, at 1:13 a.m. on july 3^rd, "it's-a-boy" wood-tool left the womb and started breathing air, weighing 9 lbs. 7 oz., most of which can be assumed to be made of my pancakes, at the molecular level.

seeing my baby in the flesh was the oddest thing in the world. i know that i've used this word already, but it was surreal. i felt like i was walking on the moon as i disbelievingly approached my son and filmed him as he calmed to my voice and gripped my finger for the first time ever. me and my arrow. i was transfixed, which was all well and good, because the doctors were repairing vicki and staring lovingly, contentedly, and stupidly at my progeny was a far better option than fainting at the other available sights.

by way of explanation, vicki and i met a boy named aero during our travels and liked the sound of the name very much. it was tabled early in the pregnancy as a boy name option and remained a strong contender throughout. in the days leading up to the delivery, there were several signs pointing to the primacy of this name choice and the document on the floor in the OR sealed that deal, thus arrow wood-tool's name.

my little guy has been kicking around for 3 months now and i have much to say about that, but i think that this is a good spot to leave off for now, deferring discussion of my transition into fatherhood to another post.

hopefully you have enjoyed being brought up to speed. thanks for stopping by.

river mouth

2010-10-09T22:17:00.001-07:00

so, i am trying to commit to some sort of schedule to promote my creative self. here is what i hope to be the first of a weekly series of artworks. this is an india ink painting with pen detailing on orang-ish card stock, scanned and saturated with picasa.

cheers,

-matt

a synopsis of our/my adventures from last (real) post to date

2010-04-26T21:01:00.010-07:00

where in the world?

i'm sitting in my brother's new apartment in nagoya, japan. i helped him move here from takaoaka yesterday. looking southeast out from his 4th storey balcony, the city is grey and soaked from this morning's rain. i'm feeling a bit under the weather (figuratively, as well as literally), and so i've decided to do some documenting while adrian goes out exploring.

note: if you've followed along with google buzz and our picasa photographs, you likely know most of what follows.

well, we have a lot of ground to cover here and i'm as likely to get bored of typing up a drawn out account as you are to tire of reading it; accordingly, a list, starting in san diego, :

february 22: vicki found us a craigslist ride to los angeles.
stayed at the downtown stay hostel/hotel again.
put the bikes into storage near union station (LA).
stayed at a couchsurfing host's house (nice folks).
flew to hawaii.
first night, stayed at hostel/hotel right beside the airport, matt researched camping.
second day, bussed to waikiki, stopped in honolulu and reserved camping for entire month , excepting wednesdays and thursdays, when all campgrounds close.
stayed at really scummy hostel on lemon road in waikiki (the westmost of the three there)
went to first campsite on sand island, near the airport.
woke up to tsunami siren...looked outside, noted locals still barbequeing and not in any panic, went back to sleep. woke up again to locals telling us we had to leave quickly...they had all packed up and were ready to go, but graciously waited for 15 min. while we frantically packed and then gave us a ride to the nearest bus stop (some 3 miles away). these were the folks that the lady at the camping reservation place had cautioned us to avoid and even said not to leave our tent at night!
hung out at mcdonald's, using their free internet to investigate the matter (chile, offshore earthquake).
headed to higher ground by bus, watched for a couple of hours as nothing (thankfully/anticlimactically) came of the tsunami warning. a nice american couple drove us back to waikiki by way of the coast around diamondhead and we stopped and saw sea turtles.
we attempted to return to sand island over the next two days but were turned away and just gave up (this was no easy feat, considering i was hucking all our gear in our gigantic backpack). having a week until our next campsite booking, we elected to save our money and joined the homeless that dwell in kapiolani park. concealing our technology (the only visible sign of our relative wealth, as you know how we dress). the laws relating to the dispossessed in waikiki are essentially designed to make homelessness inconvenient and to keep the homeless out of the way of the tourists by forcing them into a nocturnal state of affairs. we slept by day in our tent in the park, took the dinners offered by the various charitable (mostly church) groups every evening, and, by law, broke camp at 10 p.m. and vacated the park between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m., when we would wander miserably around waikiki and drink coffee and play cards at 24 hour joints. sleeping by night on the sidewalk was a legal (broken paddle law) option, but we only tried that once and didn't sleep well at all. this was, to say the least, an interesting chapter of our journey and definitely an englightening one. although there was certainly a percentage of the homeless population in that park that were afflicted by either alcohol or drug addiction, many of the folks there were just living as they were, seemingly, by choice. during this time, i couldn't swim yet, because of my tattoo, which sucked, since waikiki beach was steps away and beautiful always.
then began our camping life along the windward side of the island. with a new birthday ukelele (thanks baby!) life became a relatively even mix of eating (sometimes found coconuts, which i became expert at opening), swimming, reading, strumming, and lazing in the sun. there's really not much to tell. we were living the easy life (which can actually be hard, as paradise can be quite tedious after a while...i know that may sound silly).
we visited the north shore where we saw the famous surf breaks, though we never surfed.
we camped inland, vicki was sick, and i hiked around barefoot in the mud for four days.
march 30th: we flew to las vegas.
we saw some shows, lost big money (approximately 10 USD), drank cheap drinks and wandered around on "the strip", where droves of folks clacked cards together and attempted to force them into your hands...the cards were for escorts and had naked women on them with little stars or lens flare effects over the interesting bits. vicki collected these and, in vancouver, we later distributed them as party favours and momentos of our time in vegas.
we took the bus back to los angeles. busses suck. they really really suck.
in los angeles we reconnected with our friend lillie, who, once again, graciously hosted us. we went for a hike in the palisades and photo shoot in the huntington botanical gardens
we collected our bikes, stayed at "stay" again, and got on the greyhound headed for vancouver. we almost killed each other when we were trying to box our bikes and didn't have the right tools or sufficient mechanical advantage to take off the pedals (despite that this was one of the first things i learned about, from nathan, in owen sound all those moons ago). in the end, we just left the pedals on and deformed the boxes by pushing the bikes in as such. the (four in all, i think) busses were horrible. sleeping pills (tylenol pm, gifted by lillie, many thanks) and foam ear plugs only marginally lessened the hell that is long distance bus travel. for the first part of the ride, the woman in front of us yelled ridiculously loudly into her (reportedly broken) mobile phone every once in a while, just to ensure that we couldn't sleep. at one point we broke down and changed busses.
arriving in vancouver (april 9th, 2010, first time on canadian soil since october 23rd, 2009 for a total of 24 weeks outside of the land of maple syrup) we were greeted by (world-class barista) kyle and we witnessed some violence between drunk belligerant racist skateboarders and transit security
we hung out for a couple of weeks in vancouver with kyle and the vanhaus folks (chris upstairs, chris downstairs, and miriam). during this time vicki was doing life planning and i was simply bidding my time until my flight to japan to visit my brother, who has been there (here) for three years teaching english.
i flew to japan, leaving vicki to fly, bus, rideshare, or hitchhike (she not being sure, and me not being comfortable with the last two) back to ontario to sort out her affairs.
i watched three movies on the flight and attempted to learn enough japanese from my phrase book (purchased that same day) to get me to my brother, who had thankfully booked my bus to takaoaka, leaving me to sort out only my brief train ride to tokyo station from narita airport. aside from some last minute worrying about which bus was mine and then getting my legs crushed by the person in front of me while on the bus, everything went swimmingly and i soon found myself in a car with my brother and his friends tuan (from utah) and queenie (from australia) en route to a tennis tournament that adrian and tuan were participating in. that night, runnning on very very very little sleep in the past long long long time, i attended a farewell party of english teachers held for my brother and mony, another departing teacher. there was drinking and (too little) food and dancing followed by sleep, beautiful, wonderful, incredibly necessary sleep. since then i've been hanging out with my brother in takaoaka while he finished up there and then we packed up and headed to nagoya, where he is continuing on with his company but will now be teaching middle/high school children, which he is very excited about.

i'm going to write more about japan soon, but i just needed to get the ball rolling again, so that's my life to date, in a nutshell.

on may 16th i'll be headed back to vancouver, where the plan is to rent an apartment with vicki while she pursues meaningful career-relevant employment and i work part time simply to generate a little income and occupy myself while i continue to ponder what it is that i want to "do" (suggestions?).

microblogging via google buzz

2010-02-28T10:04:00.005-08:00

hello everyone. we'll were in hawaii, on oahu, and trying to figure out which technology is best for letting you know (more precisely) where we are and what we're up to.

so, for the time being, here's a new spot to follow vicki and i on the web in a more convenient 'status update' style:

google buzz

cheers,

mexico, birthdays, ink, and phone bills

2010-02-20T12:42:00.017-08:00

hello again.

despite ourselves, we're back at the OBI hostel...our de facto home away from home, it would seem.

three days ago we set out for mexico, paying $5 each to take the bus to old town and then the trolley from there to san ysidro, california (the border town).

from there we wandered into tijuana, mexico...there was a turnstile and that was it...we were in another country...no passports needed to be presented, no forms filled out...quite interesting.

we were greeted by moderately aggressive pedlars, beggars, and taxi cab drivers as we wandered to a money exchange and from there to the ABC bus station to get transported to ensenada, a town that we'd heard was less touristy and more enjoyable.

so, for $24 total (we only used pesos in mexico, but i'll name prices for this post in USD for convenience...you can probably get by just using USD in mexico, bye the bye) we hopped aboard a bus down the baja. on the bus i alternately studied the coastal geography and buildings and tried to avoid watching the marine 2, which was being shown dubbed in spanish with english subtitles.

we arrived in ensenada and were pleased not to be accosted by anyone. it was already getting dark so we wandered toward the shore and the main drag but veered off into the cheaper hotel district before going too far. there, vicki got us booked in to our hotel room for a total of $18 for the night (cheaper than going to the $15/person hostel we had info. for).

we then wandered around town, walking along the main drag and seeing many white folks about since there was a cruise ship docked at the port. vicki figured we'd best wander off the beaten path a bit, so we strolled past several booming discos and strip clubs, then past local bars and pools halls, and then to a hole-in-the-wall style restaurant that consisted of a nice lady with a stove and some shelves and a counter with seats on the sidewalk where we could dine. it went swimmingly with vicki's spanish...the only confusion was that vegetarianism seemed foreign to the lady, which wasn't a language barrier thing, just a cultural one. after some back and forth over what constituted meat (she figured fish and chicken weren't meat) we had two big veggie sandwiches and cucumber slices for under $5.

figuring we'd done well, we walked back to the main drag and had a few beers at a bar where americans were yelling at a televised sporting event that i didn't even bother to identify. here, vicki's spanish was immediately greeted with english (this happened often and frustrated vicki some, but both interlocutors simply wanted to practice the other language).

we retired to the hotel planning to explore on foot the following day.

setting out to do just that, we almost immediately ran into davog, who'd left the hostel 3 days before us.

we did breakfast and then walked with davog to his couch surfing hosts' place, on the northeast edge of town.

at the house, we met los adultos: elisabeth, alejandro, and edgar; los niños: padme and vader (yes, after the starwars characters); and, the pets: rami (perro) and boni (gato).

elisabeth is a puplished poet and alejandro is a tattoo artist. after chatting with these fine folks and dropping off davog's backpack (adding it to the collection: there were, absent at the time, two other travelers staying there also, one from iceland and one from new zealand) we went wandering around the city together.

here's the massive flag in town:

in the evening we returned to the couch surfing abode and were assured that it wasn't a problem for us to stay there also. vicki retired early and i had some wine with the traveling boys and we shared traveling stories.

in the morning vicki was a year older, happy birthday!

this was also the morning where i learned about toilets in mexico. now, i'd heard somewhere that you couldn't flush toilet paper, but figured that this must have been outdated info. after somehow luckily avoiding tragedy flushing paper at the hotel. at the house, i had no such luck...some frantic toilet brush work avoided spillover, which was a relief, but i had to jaunt to the local store for a plunger to rectify my wrong doing and feel a little less stupid. so, if you go to mexico, take note: you wipe and then discard your paper into the wastebasket that is inevitably beside the toilet (and should have clued me in).

after some dice rolling and tarot card reading, i decided to just take the plunge and permanently ink my body...when in rome. i choose the japanese kanji for tree, a symbol that i've always loved to draw, before i knew it was kanji or that it also could be pressed into service to symbolize my last name.

and, today, as i post this, from the hostel:

and for this, alejandro said the shop min. was $40 but that i need only give him a tip. i insisted that he take my remaining american dollars: $35.

after getting tattooed we got an escort from davog almost to the bus terminal and then rode the bus to the tijuana terminal, missing the stop we should have gotten off at to walk to the border and incurring an $18 cab fare back to the border.

coming back into the states, a border agent told us that we'd "be fine" to overstay our six months, since we weren't doing anything wrong and they basically had no way to track things (sweet!...so, we'll see how long we stay in hawaii and what we decide to do thereafter).

back at the hostel we celebrated vicki's birthday first with dinner at the famous hodad's, where vicki ate for free, and secondly with our duty-free tequila, shared with hostel-friends, culminating in watching the movie snatch and falling asleep somewhere around the half way mark. party animals!

today we were set to ride out but realized that, yet again, we hadn't done enough planning and so i paid up for one more day to get ourselves sorted.

one of my first stops online was my bank, which i hadn't been keeping track of...here i learned that i've unwittingly paid a ridiculous amount for the last three phone bills and nauseating phone calls with telus have not eased this pain...although i'm now on the plan that i should have been on the whole time...grrrrrrr...very expensive lesson learned.

presently, vicki is beside me at one of the public hostel computers (insert dollar bills here) and she's sorted out some transit to LA and bike storage solutions...i don't think we're going to ride there any longer, given the distance, weather reports, etc. blogging has mostly erased the stress of my phone situation and i'm ready to go stretch in the sunshine.

there you have it, a little update from us southbounded northerners.

cheers, to love, luck, and laughter.

ttys,

hostel life, broken netbooks, new picasaweb albums

2010-02-15T12:08:00.004-08:00

hello folks.

so, hostel life is interesting indeed. it's a lot like being in a university residence all over again, except that i have no classes to attend and no responsibilities...i.e., it's great, for a time...motivating one's self to learn/grow seems the more difficult aspect of hostel living. for example, i've probably spent less than 1% of my time here attempting learn spanish, which is basically the only thing on my to-do list at present.

the OBI hostel has a work exchange type program where you can assist in cleaning the hostel for 3 hours a day and stay for free. we put our names on the list for this immediately but the crew has been full up until yesterday, when only one of us (vicki, as it were) worked. today we weren't needed either. many people in this hostel are long term folks that are on the cleaning crew or otherwise entwined in the operations here. it's a motley crew of people from different corners of the world.

there's also a lot of free food to be had: free breakfast every morning if you can manage to get up in time; free rice in the kitchen; a spaghetti night and a burger night (both with veggie options). deborah is the cook and she's awesome, as long as you don't do anything to upset her (e.g., fail to use the tongs to pick food up, neglect to immediately discard a bag that you've emptied of its contents, or step behind the line and into her kitchen when she's working). her raucous laughter is usually what wakes us up and gets us down to the kitchen (since we're situated directly above the kitchen and the kitchen window is open to a small space between the hostel and the adjacent building, bouncing the sound up and into our window).

from the foregoing, you may infer that one could live quite cheaply here for an indefinite period of time. if you're bored of the cold, i'd say just fly here and give this a try. you should probably take up surfing while you're at it...it's a 2 minute walk to the beach and there are pro surfers here.

it's a party here...constantly. for example, there is a recurring beer pong night where the house buys the first 30 tins.

we've made many friends here and had a lot of fun, but we're both ready to go to hawaii and start that adventure. perhaps vicki is more ready than i am...haha.

random news items:

we went to balboa park and went to the science centre. we watched a relatively weak imax film, checked out the fun interactive though not terribly informative exhibits, then strolled around;
there's a young canadian buck here named stephen who is a riot. his nickname is minky and his exploits generally include some mixture of intoxicants and public nudity;
davog, my new irish friend, and i rode out to the end of point loma, but forwent the $5 expense of actually entering the park at the point. contrary to the impression robbie gave me regarding the irish in general, davog isn't terribly loquacious ;)
the netbook crapped out and i had to get a replacement; consequently, i've started a new picasa web album for pics from this year: 2010;
i bought a new shirt; and,
vicki got dolled up by ashley, a student of cosmetology (check out the pics!).

mmhmm, just a little update. hope everyone is doing well.

thanks for voting, we totally ignored you!

2010-02-04T14:53:00.003-08:00

so, we didn't go with the popular vote (train to austin, TX, then ride north).

vicki and i just bought tickets to hawaii (oahu) and will be flying there on the 23rd and working on an organic farm through the wwoofing network.

we have to be out the US by April 23rd (we think...), so we'll spend about two months in hawaii then jet back to LA and then either bus north to vancouver then ride to ontario; or, bus south to who-knows-where...vicki and i have to discuss what will follow hawaii next ;)

robots.

M&V: Day 101

2010-02-01T11:39:00.011-08:00

well, we missed the free breakfast and instead wandered to the nearby java jungle for some caffeine and bagels.

we spent the day exploring marinas, first heading north and then riding to shelter island.

while returning from the north (mission bay) run, vicki took the nishiki off a sweet jump!

also, we saw a bridge monster:

near shelter island, we met a man named hamilton in another example of small-worldism. hamilton shows his curly-coated retriever marty in ontario and he actually designed the green maple leaf logo for liberty energy out of hamilton (ontario, canada).

we left our contact info. with various marina managers and chatted with various folks along our path, getting more and varied opinions about how to get on a boat.

we decided to return to the OBI and hit our 2000 mi mark while doing so!

sailing down point loma ave. to the ocean, here was our 2k mi view:

so, there you have it, we cycled down the west coast of the united states. as you can see if you're viewing this on antimattr.com, we're currently experiencing life planning difficulties and appealing to the general public for recommendations. please vote.

we've seen beautiful things and met wonderful people and learned much along the way. we've had arguments and we've been exasperated with one another in ways that we wouldn't previously have thought possible, but spending every waking moment with your partner and riding bikes through cold and wet climates has consequences. nonetheless, here we are, in love and happy and ready to keep adventuring, if a little confounded by the range of options available to us as.

for the time being, it looks like we may hang out at this hostel and stay in exchange for 3 hours of maintenance a day instead of $17 and just explore san diego before committing to any other plan.

also, post #101 seems a fitting place to stop daily blogging, since it's the number of the highway that we've followed. we're going to try just blogging when something particularly interesting happens, which will probably be more enjoyable for you as a reader as well ;)

if you want to keep current, your best bet will be to follow us just through our photographs, which i'll continue to post to the picasa web album, 2010 touring pics (if we stop touring, i'll make a new album and direct you to it from the blog). a surefire way to keep on top of us would be to subscribe to the RSS feed for the album.

thanks to everyone for reading and thanks to all the folks that were so generous to us along our southward meanderings. peace and grooviness to everyone everywhere.

ttys,

-M&V

M&V: Day 100

2010-01-29T21:01:00.005-08:00

.

did some blogging in the morning, then some research about crewing/sailing.

as soon as we set out we met charlie and jenna on the street and charlie offered up their place for crashing while we got sorted.

we then went to the pier and met up with laurel for coffees and french fries. after that, laurel was off and vicki and i wandered around and were going over to check out the banana bungalow hostel when, in the laneway, we met nick.

nick is a surf instructor (extraordinaire) and student of linguistics and he toured down the coat with his surf board at his side in about a third the time it took vicki and i. he was in the process of meeting his neighbours and we hung out in the alley and they put beers in our hands. nick also offered to let us crash at his place(!).

we then headed south to ocean beach, stopping at a marina where we learned that we wanted the ones further south to discuss crewing.

next we came upon the ocean beach international hostel, where we chatted with a sailor named rick on the street. while i was chatting with him, vicki went into the hostel to inquire about rates and, when she went to the restroom, she found a man passed out on the floor and put him into the recovery position and brought him around with some light slaps to the face then confirmed that he was just drunk and not in some more dire state of ill health.

rick recommended a quieter hostel a little inland and so we cycled there, only to find that they had no beds. so, we cycled back to the OBI and checked in. it's $17/person and again we have our own room! it's the couples room, which accommodates four couples in two large bunks (actually four linked bunks).

laurel rolled over to the hostel to do dinner and drinks with us for her last night in town before heading down the baja with some warm showers contacts. we went out for pizza and californian beers. i got a nifty pic of the pier by night:

laurel came back to the hostel to do some internetting and then we said farewells (waking vicki up for that, haha). good luck and good times laurel, you rock, and we expect to see you in canada one day!

M&V: Day 99

2010-01-28T21:01:00.013-08:00

.

after receiving two unasked-for breakfast recommendations for pipes cafe, i knew it was a must. we wandered over and i ordered way too much food, since i didn't realize that the egg dish i got came with potatoes and an english muffin. everything was delicious and, if you're in the area, definitely stop here.

while we were packing up we chatted with a couple on bikes, wayne and sally. they offered us a place to stay in mission beach.

heading south, we rode up the steeper state park road through torrey pines. it was quite a climb, with much huffing and puffing (but no walking/pushing).

at the top, we checked out the lodge, where we learned about the local plants, beasties, and geology.

flora in the courtyard:

the lodge:

nifty framed section without plaster, showing the adobe bricks:

our friend bob:

we rode out along a road that was paved in 1915! apparently the road was so steep here (the main route between LA and san diego) that the model t's had to climb it in reverse because the fuel was gravity-fed!

shortly after that information placard, we passed the farmers insurance open at the torrey pines golf course.

next we had some navigational difficulties and ended up riding not along the coast but through the university and then along a bike path that paralleled the I-5. along said bike path we met a couple of gents when we stopped to eat some PB sandwiches.

one of them was off-the-back-jack (google knows you), who vicki primarily chatted with. jack had come around in his truck to clear the bike path of mud, but we told him that there was someone else back there that beat him to it.

i mostly chatted with name-escapes-me; he was living in the nearby RV park and riding a nifty folding bike that had a combination of external cassette and internal gearing on the back, to make a 21 speed with no front derailleur. apparently the bike fits in a suitcase that can go on an airplane and the suitcase doubles as a trailer. even cooler, he'd toured with it!

nearing mission beach, we stopped at mcdonalds, since david gave us the heads up that they have free wifi, and did some research there about local hostels. checking the phone, we found a message from wayne and so we decided to take them up on their offer and got directions to their place.

when we arrived at their beautiful vacation rental home we sat and chatted in the living room for a while then headed out for dinner and, walking home, another pay-by-weight frozen yogurt adventure.

we really enjoyed hanging out with W&S; they're awesome folks and inveterate world travellers with many great stories to share.

we tried to go dutch on dinner/dessert but they insisted on a pay-it-forward type of affair, where we'd have to take in and host a couple of cycling tourists when we were their age. this was an easy promise to make, since we both can't wait to return the generosity that we've received and plan to be warm showers hosts when we're able to.

they had to leave early in the morning and insisted that we could sleep in and need not rush out, so we did farewells in the evening and i blogged while vicki fell immediately asleep.

thank you so much wayne and sally!

M&V: Day 98

2010-01-27T21:01:00.000-08:00

nishi was jealous of brodie's new brakes, so we adjusted hers and, at the same time, discovered that the front tire was flat. patched that up and our ocean-side RV'ing neighbours, ryan and melissa graciously offered us their site, since they had to depart early. melissa also gave us a citrus feast of lemons and satsumas from their own trees: they were absolutely delicious. thanks guys, we hope you had fun at the sundance!

the new site:

watching all the surfers i decided that i wanted to swim...instead of swimming i dunked in the cold water and ran back in.

vicki, according to the photographic record, found coral:

we did showers and hit up the library for the afternoon.

in the evening we had a fire with wood that R&M left for us and ate a ridiculously stomach-upsetting meal of bread, corn chips, and alfredo sauce.

i had a mild freak out over my lost cycling gloves.

our motorcyling neighbour kevin visited us and told us an amusing story about a house he is set to build for a family friend that keeps getting bigger in proportion and which he thinks may never actually materialize...it's planned to have a 15 car garage and there is a wing just for the client's good friend.

M&V: Day 97

2010-01-26T21:01:00.008-08:00

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in the morning we rode by a nuclear power plant and then through the pembleton naval base, where i figured we'd get hassled but a quick glance at our driver's linceces satisfied the guard.

here's a tank crossing sign...something we don't see too often:

when we rode into oceanside, i got my spoke replaced and wheel trued at alan's bike shop. there, we also dried our things and ate some mexican food that the ladies picked up while i managed the drying.

in encinitas we enjoyed some delicious frozen yogurt at a self serve joint, the likes of which i'd never seen: you did it up your way then got charged by weight.

we checked the maps out and decided to stay at the campground in town (san elijo) and said farewell to laurel with plans to see her again shortly in san diego.

vicki and i stopped at the ace hardware in town and they didn't have any of the things that i wanted: (1) seam grip to reinforce/re-waterproof the foot portion of the tent, (2) yellow safety glasses (mine might be at david's?), or (3) good multi-tools (since i realized that we don't have anything to cut cables with and perhaps i should have a nice multi-tool, why not?).

at the campground i replaced all of my brake pads and then we rolled to von's supermarket at sunset and then back to starbucks to do some internetting and sneak some dinner in at the same time.

M&V: Day 96

2010-01-25T21:01:00.014-08:00

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i begrudgingly got up at about 8 a.m. and we ate some doughnuts that survived the night, owing to the abundance of pizza.

we did coffee and i quickly cleared up some antimattr.com business (i'd tried to setup blogger's external domain name stuff but everything got messed up and broken, so i'm just going with my registrar's free redirect and leaving it at that).

david and jeff decided to escort us out of town. in the alley behind their place, laurel collected some oranges (huzzah for citrus!).

together, we rode to newport beach, where jeff bought us (deservedly) famous lemonade and david bought us tacos and burritos for lunch at sharkeez (thanks kindly guys, you're gentlemen and scholars).

a story about jeff that enraged both vicki and i: he got expelled for a year from college for skateboarding on campus. we both advised him to hire a lawyer and sue the school for lost income.

the obligatory group shot:

we said farewell and got underway.

the bike route through san clemente was notably hilly with awesome dips and sprints to the tops of the next rises.

while we were deliberating where to go when the route was putting us on the I-5, vicki realized that i'd earlier misread the time and we had less daylight left than we'd thought. it was about this time that i discovered yet another broken spoke, argh!!!

so, i disconnected the rear brake and we carried on, electing to ride to the nearby san mateo campground.

it rained on us and so we cooked under the overhang of the restroom building before retiring, us to our tent and laurel to her new bivy sack.

we fell asleep to the noises of what sounded like detonations from the nearby military base.

M&V: Day 95

2010-01-24T21:01:00.011-08:00

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breakfast was included in the hostel stay, so we did some yummy cinnamon raisin toast with peanut butter and jam.

leaving the hostel, the bike path took us through a parking garage...nifty:

shortly after said parking lot, we stopped for directions and had about five cyclists around us with differing opinions. one gentleman let me photograph his map, which was very useful.

the ride through LA was a mix of legitimate cycling paths and treacherous stretches of the pacific coast highway (PCH, aka, hwy 1).

getting close to our target, huntington beach, where laurel had a warm showers contact, we saw some kite boarders (which i had never even heard of before):

after some confusion, we found david waiting for us on his bike and he escorted us to his home:

there, we met his housemates, jeff and tammy, and we all got acquainted. david told us all about his tour, which was much much quicker than mine and vicki's :)

we attempted to assuage tammy's doubts about the oddity of inviting strangers into your home based on the tenuous fact that they're also cycling tourists.

then we were off to the grocery store (fresh and easy, which had some stellar deals) and we acquired supplies for making pizza and killing brain cells.

we setup shop in the kitchen and dining room and after grating all of the cheese i lost track of pizza-making (which may have had something to do with the fact that david and i started down the path of many beers), which vicki and laurel completed with expertise.

i think that everyone got a little tipsy, with the exception of laurel.

laurel slept on the couch and vicki and i on the floor. there was a little comedy when, moments after we'd laid down and the lights went out, tammy and her friend returned home and i scared them half to death when, from the pitch black through which they were tip-toeing, i said, "it's okay, we just went to bed and aren't asleep."

good times with good folks.

M&V: Day 94

2010-01-23T21:01:00.030-08:00

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wonderful and delicious pancakes for breakfast; vicki has the recipe if anyone is interested. i slept in, although i'd intended to be part of the pancaking process...i stayed up late blogging again.

after that, we loaded the bikes up and said farewell to lillie :(

we sailed down the canyon and guess who rolled up behind us moments later: it was laurel, whom we met in oxnard!

we rode together to santa monica pier and bid her farewell with the possibility of meeting up later; she was off to REI to purchase either a tent or a bivy.

after parting ways, vicki and i rolled a very short distance and she went to a sunglasses vendor and got some badass terminator style glasses (vicki: "hey, they fit and don't make the world too dark!").

as we continued along the beach route we rode distractedly and soaked in the interesting beach culture while trying not to take a spill on the sand-covered bike path resulting from the recent storms that we thankfully didn't have to weather (we saw a couple of folks that weren't as careful as us).

another point of interest is that, as we slowly weaved around pedestrians, other cyclists, usually on beach cruisers (which continue to amuse us, despite their now recognized utility) would come alongside us and chat us up.

jay was one such character (not on a beach cruiser) who told us of his adventures chasing lunar eclipses around the world...fun earth exploring criteria, methinks.

we stopped in at marina del rey to learn about sailing prospects, as we have discussed this possibility. there, a nice lady (shoot, name forgotten), told us about the courses that we might take, but also that we might simply crew a boat without experience and ought to hit other marinas (as in san diego) and see if anyone should need us.

arriving at hermosa beach with the light failing, i went and asked a cop where there was cheap lodging and he said, "right there." and pointed to the nearby surf city hostel. the dragon, the bar next door, was comically brimming with sunglass-at-night, too-cool-for-school drunk folks and the entire block was shaking from the bass that the building was putting out.

a gentleman named fab greeted us at the door and helped us to check in (he even carried my bike up for me).

we got a private room at no added expense and paid $25 each.

t'was a room with a view:

the hostel had a really welcoming vibe and was filled with friendly folks.

we got in touch with laurel by phone and she was nearby and so made her way over to join us at the hostel.

i waited outside for laurel and watched the fanfare of drunk stumblers. i also helplessly witnessed a one-sided "fight" that opened with a punch to the back of the head and ended with several vicious blows to a man down. the recipient got up after, which was a relief. i have no idea what the whole ordeal was about.

shortly thereafter, laurel arrived and we had a communal dinner with laurel, fab, michelle, and another woman whose name escapes me. fab and michelle made a killer asparagus pie with wine sauce. we made a stir fry with quinoa, starring laurel's floppy carrots.

fab kept our wine glasses full and good times were had by all.

by right, i should have passed out, but insomnia prevailed and i played some guitar with a dude who i'm pretty sure isn't really named kawasaki but is so called and then chatted with the night staff dude and we exchanged some reggae tunes with one another.

M&V: Day 93

2010-01-22T21:01:00.004-08:00

so, the weather was fair and we'd decided to roll out, but then i figured maybe we'd be leaving too late and wanted to hang out with lillie some more as well, so lillie and i convinced vicki to accept another sheltered night and fun-filled day.

pondering the options, we decided to hit the nearby meditation gardens. this was a beautiful spot to take a stroll. interestingly, some of ghandi's ashes are enshrined here.

random pic of vicki thereabouts:

here are some zen turtles:

and more dutch windmills (they're following us):

the gardens included a melange of idols and quotations from different religions.

some grocery shopping followed and vicki made the most kickass lasagna ever for dinner!

we spent the evening playing jenga and texas rules dominoes and had a blast:

good times.

M&V: Day 92

2010-01-21T21:01:00.007-08:00

this morning lillie and i took my wheel back to ted and he fixed it in seconds...interestingly, he said that it had taken two people to remove my freewheel and chided that it need not be that tight; in fact, he tightened it with a wrench (but no vice or anything) on his bench and passed it back to me, "ready to go".

we then went back to helens and returned the handlebar tape and bought a tandem length cable.

returning home i quickly installed the cable and the wheel and the bike was right as rain.

vicki made us a yummy lunch:

after that, i helped lillie with some MS Excel stuff while her and vicki did some spanish learning; vicki is helping lillie by making some flash card style pieces of paper to learn common verbs.

in the afternoon i finally came through on my promise and helped build a website for lillie. we decided to try some free website tools before going with portfoliositez.com or livebooks.com and i ended up going with google products, surprise surprise. after playing around with google sites, i figured embedding picasa web albums for different galleries was easiest and pretty slick to boot. now, to update the gallery contents, lillie need only upload more images to her web albums or otherwise edit the album contents online. anyway, without further adieu, may i present: lillie grossman photography.

after that excitement, i spent the night blogging while the house slept.

:)

M&V: Day 91

2010-01-20T21:01:00.011-08:00

despite the fact that lillie and i were content to play on the computers and vicki was happy to have a kitchen with a gas range at her disposal to make delicious food, we figured we ought to explore and lillie had the perfect venue in mind: the getty.

on the way to the getty, we dropped my rear wheel off at ted's. also, i had managed to break my rear derailleur shifter cable last night and so ted gave me one of those to install.

we got to the underground parking lot ($15 to park, free admission though) for the getty and then made our way up to the small train that conveys you to the center.

up near the center we picked up umbrellas from a bin and then wherever we entered a building (you must walk outdoors between the various buildings to explore the different exhibits) we would deposit the umbrellas. i thought this was fun and danced around in the rain accordingly.

we spent most of our time at the drawings by rembrandt and his pupils exhibit, which was incredibly interesting and caused me to reminisce over my sketching and indian ink painting, which i haven't played at for too long a time.

we also looked at some paintings and snagged a pic of me with some haystacks:

we picked up my wheel and more groceries on the way home.

working on the bike, i managed to slide the new gear cable through the handlebar cable housing, but only after much toil did i discover that the cable was too short!

moreover, while working on the bike, i broke my shifter entirely...this all stemming from the broken black housing from day 52 of my "solo" trip.

lillie said it wasn't a problem and drove us to santa monica where we went to helens and i picked up some new dura ace shifters. i made sure to ask if the cable would be long enough and they assured me that i would have extra footage to cut off, once installed. i also bought some bar tape, thinking i'd have to take off the existing tape.

i should point out, here, that once again i lucked out in that all of my mechanical issues have occurred when or where i can easily deal with them. in this case lillie had a bike stand, tools, and lubes for all of my bicycle maintenance needs...providence again!

at 'home' i got the older shifter off and new shifter on quite easily but found that the supplied cable housings were too short and so i used the existing ones, which was fine. i got the cable installed and pulling it through, found that it was also too short (i was really really displeased with this).

to make mattes worse, as i went to install my rear wheel, thinking that i'd just ride without rear derailleur capabilities to the next bike shop and pick up a longer cable (i require a tandem length cable, i have learned, from measuring and doing some internetting) whenever we departed from lillie's, i discovered that the two smallest cogs hadn't been installed correctly and so i couldn't install the wheel. this was frustrating.

nonetheless, a great day and only a few more steps would make my bicycle road worthy again.

M&V: Day 90

2010-01-19T21:01:00.006-08:00

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we woke up early (6:30 a.m.-ish) to meet up with lillie at her house in the pacific palisades for 10-10:30 a.m.

riding there, we stopped for groceries and i discovered that i had a broken spoke (on the rear wheel, cassette side, of course). sigh...

nonetheless, with groceries in tow (not wanting to show up empty handed), we rode up the canyon and arrived at lillie's place on time. considering the weather, lillie had cancelled her appointments to hang out with us.

:)

we spent the day chatting, making food, and computering (she had a mac in the kitchen that became our primary hang out spot, so i learned some things about how to use a mac), the weather outside continually reminding us that we were blessed to be sheltered.

M&V: Day 89

2010-01-18T21:01:00.005-08:00

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we left the holiday motel planning to ride all day. we made it 3 miles before it started pouring and we ducked into a hostel.

we went for a walk and bought a little combo lock for the lockers at the hostel and picked up an acer aspire one netbook (it was time).

vicki read hey nostradamus! while i setup the computer and used google to track lillie down, huzzah for the interweb!

tonight i stayed up a little late perhaps and got all of the backlogged photographs up to picasa web albums. it was incredibly easy using the new sync feature: i simply imported all of the pics, captioned and geotagged them, and then put them in a new folder that i setup to synchronize with a new web album (brilliant!).

M&V: Day 88

2010-01-17T21:01:00.009-08:00

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[due to unceasing rain, this is a no-photo day]

we checked out of the campsite early, electing not to pay $25 for a patch of mud.

we then rode through malibu, stopping at a grocery store for breakfast and some no-cook-lunches-because-it's-raining-supplies.

we chatted with some nice vagabonds in front of the store while eating yogurts and baked goods.

the houses in malibu were comically large and incredibly beautiful; the lawns and gardens were, everywhere, immaculately maintained. i'm sure that everything would have looked even more resplendent if it weren't pouring rain on us and if the shoulder weren't covered in an inch of running water through this hilly section of our ride.

at one point i got shaky tired as my body informed me it was time to eat half a loaf of bread and brick of cheese under the partial shelter of a roadside palm tree...mmm, soggy bread and cheese.

eventually we made it into santa monica and took the beach path for a while, stopping for directions from a verizon employee who was pumping out a laneway to access some wiring.

his name was julius and he was really friendly and helpful. he also had a nishiki international (vicki's bicycle)!

on his directions, we headed to the pier off colorado and there obtained a map. at this point the sun decided to make an appearance, which was very welcome.

.

nonetheless, lacking campgrounds and being drenched, we found a motel and enjoyed beer, pizza, and tv, while (of course) turning the room into a gear drying facility.

M&V: Day 87

2010-01-16T21:01:00.011-08:00

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we packed up before the dawn's early light and hit the road. along the path we spied something that we thought might be wild grape, but we had not our identification pamphlet to investigate with.

riding to breakfast:

we found a parkette in summerland and made a breakfast of oatmeal and fruit there. i spotted a magic outlet in the garden and charged some electronics also.

we road the bike path to seacliff, partially along the busy hwy 101, with the waves crashing to our right and cars roaring to our left.

at some point, vicki noticed an orchid farm with a public outlet and she explored and photographed the beautiful plants:

as i write this, we're lunching under a bridge wondering when rain will start to fall.

...

the rain did indeed fall. new jacket lesson: the collars at the ends of the sleeves soak through, so i have to pull my shirt and fleece sleeves up, otherwise the moisture wicks through the collars and soaks the undergarments.

riding into oxnard, we were flagged down by laurel and kenji. laurel is a cycling tourist from oregon who started heading south in san luis obispo with a friend who subsequently decided to abandon their trip and leave laurel searching for baja cycling partners (hence flagging down two crazy cannucks riding through oxnard in the pouring rain).

we chatted with them under the awning of a strip mall for a while and declined an offer of lodging from kenji, laurel's current friend-of-a-friend host, hoping to put some more miles behind us for the day but to nonetheless hit a motel, since we were thoroughly soaked.

...but a motel eluded us. we rode out of oxnard and into agricultural fields that yielded to the santa monica mountains. we stopped at one park (where i plunged into a pot hole in a puddle and, i later gathered, broke a spoke) and vicki was told that there were two motels "just around the corner".

we rode on and the light failed but no motel materialized. so, we stopped at another campground and setup in the rain and i read some of our new read-to-each-other book, angels and demons, to vicki; i did this mostly to take my mind off of my acute distress and disappointment at our situation...i'd really pinned my hopes on a warm dry space and a comfy bed (and maybe some beer and television to boot). i think vicki caught the first couple of paragraphs of the three chapters i read to her before i noticed her snoring.

and so it was that i was reminded not to make plans or have grand and lofty expectations of dryness and beds ;)

M&V: Day 86

2010-01-15T21:01:00.007-08:00

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we woke to an alarm we'd set for 6:30 a.m. and a second search of the rest area garbage bins didn't turn up any of our missing goods.

we downed some more of the gifted energy drinks and rolled out, stopping when we came to a decommissioned bridge that looked like a nice picnic spot for breakfast.

while breakfast was being prepared tony-o showed up again with aki, his pomerainian (who was absolutely adorable). he joined us for breakfast and gave us his phone number for connections in santa barbara. he urged us to stay in the area for winter, extolling the virtues and beauty of the area.

tony-0 then drove on ahead and we rode on to a eucalyptus grove where some monarchs were hanging out. we chatted for another while then said farewell and tony-o departed, leaving vicki and i there, where we played left-handed (neural-network-opening) catch with a roadside tennis ball we'd found earlier.

we cruised along the coast as more and more palm trees appeared.

vicki found an onion on the side of the road; she has an uncanny ability to detect discarded food and and similarly phenomenal desire to eat it.

we decided to ride on instead of camping at the state park that would have made for a really short riding day.

in goleta we got food supplies and picnicked in front of a chilli's restaurant. there were lemon trees in the gardens around the mall and some were on the ground, so we figured fair game and ate some of those too.

we flew through santa barbara along the bike path and into montecito, where we stopped at a DOT parking lot and made a dinner of curry rice with tomato soup from our care package (lesson learned: cook instant rice first before adding other ingredients, it's doesn't cook as quickly as it says it does).

a while later we somehow lost the bike path then, figuring that our straying was telling us to camp, we spotted a patch of grass that we figured wouldn't mind a tent on it.

M&V: Day 85

2010-01-14T21:01:00.016-08:00

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we did cereal beside the US post office on "O" street then bought a tube at the cyclery on ocean, nearby. after that we hit up a bakery, just west on ocean, on the north side, and devoured doughnuts and coffee.

after refuelling, we rode through the mountains. it was pretty, though hard riding.

we were quite happy when we came upon this sign:

finally, we descended through the gaviota pass and ended up at a rest area, where we hung all of our things up to dry:

a woman named lillie spotted our obvious cycling tourist status and came over to chat with us; she graciously offered us a place to stay in LA and, after she'd headed out, vicki and i agreed that we'd take her up on her offer since we really enjoyed chatting with her and it seemed that i might be able to help her out with website-making.

at dusk, we ducked into the little forested area adjacent to the restrooms and setup our tent, locked up the bikes, etc. when we returned to enjoy the dinner we'd stashed under a picnic table along with vicki's soggy, just-washed cycling shorts and our books to read, we found all of these things gone. this included the american history book, the edible wild plants book, and the mushroom ident. book.

:(

we suspect that these items were lifted by one of the other homeless that sleep at the rest area.

i say other because while we were setting up we met a really awesome man named tony-o, who sleeps in his car at the rest area, commuting, as it were, from santa barbara, where he has a van. he has a pomeranian named aki who is a good guard dog and a complete suck once he gets to know you. tony-o is a cancer survivor and his outlook and attitude were inspirational; he is a peaceable and generous man [searching the web for him, i find other blogging cycling tourists have also encountered tony-o].

tony-o works at a food bank and, like a saint, brought us a vegetarian care package of canned goods and energy drinks to replace our disappeared dinner. we both drank energy drinks and were bummed out about our lost books and hopeful that we could still find lillie based on my remembering her full name, since her card was left in the history textbook as the bookmark.

[jan. 28th update: interesting times...so, we ended up staying with lillie, as you will learn, and as i typed up this blog entry here in encinitas, lillie emailed me to say that a man had called her about the above-mentioned items, saying that he'd picked them up thinking they'd been left behind, and offering to ship them wherever we were. we're going to pass on the offer since lillie gifted new cycling shorts to vicki and we found the history textbook online as a pdf. we'll have to pick up another mushroom book for whatever area we settle in.]

M&V: Day 84

2010-01-13T21:01:00.000-08:00

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this morning we rode through another agricultural area and vicki picked some celery from an already-harvested field.

at one point i was a little concerned about the passing trucks and pulled off the road, only to sink about half a foot into the mud...i was not happy, but glad that i didn't fall right over because that would have seriously ruined my day.

muddy and disgruntled, we rode to gaudalupe where a small community park answered all of our needs: the sun dried our gear, a spigot (at the perfect height and with good pressure) allowed me to fully wash my bike, and vicki cooked up some of the new 10 grain cereal on the picnic tables.

while we were working away another cycling tourist rolled up. enter andres, a northbounder, 50 years of age, born in mexico and raised variously there and in spain and now LA resident. he was a really nice man and we enjoyed chatting with him; he reminded me a lot of oliver, mostly because he was really calm and told us that he meditated.

after that we had a picnic at the outset of the purisima pass then went up and up and up and up and up and up and up...then down.

we decided we'd better do something educational and headed to la purisima mission state historic park.

there, we met a really nice ranger named anne and explored the exhibits in the modern museum building before briefly exploring the reconstructed mission buildings in the light of the setting sun.

leaving there, we headed for the community river park but spotted an orchard along the way and decided to ask...

the farmer graciously told us to go ahead and pitch our tents, so legitimate free camping was had.

we ate burritos and read american history before bed.

M&V: Day 83

2010-01-12T21:01:00.007-08:00

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it rained all night but was only dripping when we woke.

after packing up our wet gear the sun started shining and we started riding.

we went a short distance to the avila hot springs and were drawn in by the rising steam and the sulfur scent.

we decided to check it out. it was actually cheap, but we elected not to partake.

instead, we had breakfast at the cafe there, where vicki set down some thoughts on the establishment:

drilling for oil they hit an artesian hot spring in 1907 then destroyed the local ecosystem by creating pools and pumping water to private hotels.

in case you didn't pick up on it, she's not a fan.

when we got down to the water again, vicki got a flat tire. while she dealt with that, i hung everything out to dry and repacked it.

after that we hit pismo beach and went out on the pier, watched some surfers, watched some pelicans, ate some chocolate, then ate a giant pickle, apparently now a tradition, since vicki and megan did the same during their time here.

riding out of town, we came across another butterfly grove, where we hung around for an informative talk by one of the docents. vicki shot some butterfly porn there too:

at nightfall we made camp in a eucalyptus grove and then rode back up a hill (vicki hated me) to get mexican food for dinner. we really should have stopped there first, not only for the wasted energy, but because two separate people offered up their homes to us while we were there.

M&V: Day 82

2010-01-11T21:01:00.008-08:00

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we reluctantly gave noah some of our horrible instant coffee and saw him off in the morning.

we rode to san luis obispo (SLO) and vicki chatted with adolf-from-austria while i did the grocery shopping (restocking the pantry, as the food bag is called).

adolf directed us to a nearby hiking/outdoors store where we bought some coleman fuel for $12.

then we hit a thrift store to get some new reading material; vicki had just finished ember from the sun, which we found in a food locker at the pfeiffer big sur campground. vicki says it was a good book. 25 cents bought us the history of the american people, published 1920!

we rode along the path suggested by the owner (i think) of the equipment store and stopped at an army surplus store where we got vicki a handlebar bag (i.e., glovebox) for about $7.

i also picked up a gerber knife sharpener, which is a funny item, since i sharpened the knife with it and probably won't need it for another age, but it's not too heavy, and perhaps i can offer to sharpen the knives of other cycling tourists we hang out with.

our ride brought us alongside some mountains and onto ontario rd. (ontario being the name of our province), a sure sign that we ought to make camp. accordingly, we stopped at an energy education centre with a parking lot that appeared to be used as a park-n-ride.

we made dinner at their picnic tables and setup in their bushes when it got dark. perfect.

M&V: Day 81

2010-01-10T21:01:00.003-08:00

a lazy camp day. we showered, washed clothes (hung dry), read our books, and in the evening chatted with noah, a san diegoan touring cyclist that was by far the most lightly loaded we've ever met: handle bar bag (small), sleeping roll on rear rack, one pannier!

we chatted by a small fire that barely lifted the heavy fog that surrounded us.

M&V: Day 80

2010-01-09T21:01:00.007-08:00

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well, our ploy didn't work...the sites here cost $25, but we paid $10 and wrote "hiker/biker discount" anyway, to see what would happen. the hosts had left a note saying, essentially, no such luck.

we spent the morning hiking valencia peak, packing up and leaving our gear on at the hosts' site. t'was a good hike, and the views were amazing. the view of morro rock persisted:

neat sedimentary rock that had been thrust up:

the ocean view:

enjoying the summit:

our timing, as per usual, was impeccable: after we enjoyed a picnic lunch at the summit, the fog rolled in:

after that we rolled back to the morro bay campground. we setup in the exact same spot then wandered into town. while exploring, we found out that sherlock holmes was playing at the theatre! so, pizza, beer and billiards preceded what i thought was an excellent movie and what vicki perceived to be an excellent opportunity to nap.

when we walked home, a tree on the other side of the street fell over; quite random.

M&V: Day 79

2010-01-08T21:01:00.021-08:00

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we packed up and said goodbye to our neighbours from wisconsin then set pedal for the nearby montaña de oro state park.

during our ride we were passed by a tonne of cyclists. later, i caught up with some of them and asked them what they were up to. turns out, they're college students from mount vernon nazarene college doing the tour as part of a psychology course. some googling turned up a paper resulting from these tours, and it seems pretty darned interesting:

Temporal Adjustments in the Evaluation of Events: The “Rosy View”*1, , *2, , *3
Terence R. MitchellaLeigh ThompsonbErika PetersoncRandy Cronkd

a School of Business Administration, University of Washington
b Northwestern University
c George Washington University
d Mount Vernon Nazarene College

Abstract:

In a series of three investigations we examined people's anticipation of, actual experiences in, and subsequent recollection of meaningful life events: a trip to Europe, a Thanksgiving vacation, and a 3-week bicycle trip in California. The results of all three studies supported the hypothesis that people's expectations of personal events are more positive than their actual experience during the event itself, and their subsequent recollection of that event is more positive than the actual experience. The “rosy view” phenomenon is associated with an increase in the number of negative thoughts during the event which seem to be caused by distractions, disappointment, and a less positive view of the self. However, these effects are short-lived; within days after the event, people have much more positive evaluations of the event. We discuss alternative interpretations for our findings and implications for group and organizational settings.

Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
Volume 33, Issue 4, July 1997, Pages 421-448

truth be told, this blog is already a distorted and rosy view, i can only imagine how much grander my memory of this trip will be as time goes by. intriguing...

during my chat, vicki was checking out some info. on the kangaroo rat, for our large complement of wildlife ecology friends.

we stopped in los osos and i bought a new (lighter and less voluminous) cycling rain jacket. accordingly, we then went to the post office and filled a box with things we didn't want to carry anymore (including my old jacket) and sent it off to bond head to join my other worldly possessions.

we then found lunch at the taco roco, where we chatted with a man from the tallbikeposse.

there was also some texting and talking on the phone with ricky and julie to try to arrange a meet up, but it turned out that we weren't actually going to be in the same area, as julie thought we may be :(

the climb up to the campground was incredibly hilly, as one would expect from the name. here's looking back at morro bay:

and our patch of grass home for the evening:

deciding it was too late to hit the trails we wandered over to the nearby beach and checked out the beautiful stones, taking a couple of samples for future jewelery creation.

here's a nifty little...well, not sure what it is:

in the evening we hung out with our neighbours, tony and tammy and pet (canine) max. they were nice folks and it was fun hanging out with them (thanks for having us over).

M&V: Day 78

2010-01-07T21:01:00.008-08:00

in the morning we walked over to the estuary again.

my back has been hurty lately and vicki caught me with my pants down, applying a topical pain relief cream that we picked up in monterey. luckily it over exposed in all the right places:

next we walked over to the natural history museum, which is free to guests at the campground.

here's another view of morro bay, taken from the hill that the natural history museum hides behind:

outside of the museum, we took some texture shots; vicki liked this tree and i liked some lichens:

we spent a good chunk of time exploring the museum exhibits, which related to the local flora, fauna, and geography.

the museum shop had the waterford press edible wild plants laminated field guide, so i picked that up to further our eat-the-world campaign.

we then walked into town, where i got a haircut. we picnicked in front of the library then attempted to do some internetting, but were frustrated by the speed of the computers.

we picked up some groceries and walked back to camp. a nice relaxing no-cycle day in a nice town with fair weather.

M&V: Day 77

2010-01-06T21:01:00.012-08:00

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we slept in, one of the benefits of not stealth camping.

to prevent further chain/spoke interactions i adjusted the "L" screw on my rear derailleur. i also had to lube the shifter cable, which has been seizing up, probably due to the ingress of water through the broken shifter. checking the brakes, i also noticed a wonk in the rear wheel and trued that. then, to finish things off, i gave the brooks saddle some oil, since it seemed thristy. vicki managed the drying of our things and read during this episode.

shortly after rolling out, we stopped for some mexican food and ate on the patio in the beautiful warmth and sunlight that we've been seeking for so long.

approaching morro bay, we finally got mobile phone service (big sur isn't cell phone friendly): i'm sure everyone thought we were dead. reading my text messages, i got some very exciting news: vicki's sister lisa is getting married!

here's me telling vicki that i knew something she didn't:

and the view from our get-updated-on-family and update-family-re-our-status-as-living-still location:

from there we rode to the morro bay state park, where they had hiker/biker sites and rates. we setup, went for a walk, then returned and read the news by a small campfire.

a shot for our walk along the estuary, which they were in the process of dredging, showing morro rock:

M&V: Day 76

2010-01-05T21:01:00.023-08:00

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we had a super fun morning hike up the river, which was more of a hybrid of hiking and rock climbing (rocky scrambling?)...i think that we might have to take up rock climbing since we have a great time of it together.

storage tanks for the drinking water fountain, we think, maybe...there were pipes leading along the river but we never figured out how they terminated.

after everything going so swimmingly, something was bound to go wrong: as soon as we set out i gnashed my rear derailleur into the spokes...nothing seemed to be broken though. then, climbing the hill out, my chain went into the spokes...[the bike-mechanically-inclined reader may infer what happened here...i don't know why it took me twenty days to figure it out; probably denial: "what, there's nothing wrong with my bike, this is my mobile home!". anyway, you'll see, stay tuned].

we then rode to lunch at ragged point: delicious grilled cheeses and fries. i also raided the condiments and restocked our supplies of salt, pepper, ketchup packets, and honey in little packets (new to us).

some random riding images:

later, we saw the elephant seals that we'd heard about. we thought it odd that no one was around to look at them...

...but soon realized that the main attraction was a rookery a little down the way (the piedras blancas rookery). the beach was packed with elephant seals and the overlooking bluffs with people, including docents, who both provided information and protected the seals from stupid humans. it turned out that we rolled in at the exact right time to see everything, just our luck (i.e., males, females, babies, and alpha-male competition).

here's the odd one out:

also, in other bunny news, a man in the parking lot was taking advantage of the crowds by busking: lonnie cambell.

next we had to decide whether or not to go to the famed hearst castle...it's distance from the road discouraged us, as well as the admission fee, which vicki learned, over the phone, was $25/each.

this is as close as we got to it:

next we found ourselves in historic san simeon with beautiful old spanish architecture. the little general store there had surprisingly reasonably priced non perishable foodstuffs.

here's what appears to be an old school house beside the general store:

after that we rode through new san simeon, which appeared to consist entirely of hotels and restaurants.

now, i guess since i type things on the blog here that vicki would prefer i didn't, i should make a sacrifice and relay information that i'd rather not about myself. so, on the next leg of the journey i had to take an emergency poop, running behind some roadside reeds in the ditch. this reminds me, i don't think i mentioned this previously, but i once had to take a EP when i was travelling with robbie and jessica and after rushing madly into the forest i had to scour the area to retrieve my sunglasses, which were lost at some point in the dash. there you go, more information than you needed ;)

reaching the san simeon campground we had something fun to celebrate:

that's right, 1.5 thousand miles, huzzah!

at the campground we met up with a trio of cycling tourists with an average age of 69. we joined mike, elly, and larry at their picnic table for some conversation and larry offfered us a place to stay in santa monica [as things happened, we didn't end up taking him up on the offer, but we appreciate it greatly, cheers!].

M&V: Day 75

2010-01-04T21:01:00.010-08:00

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again, the rugged big sur coastline continues to inspire our awe. here's the julia pfeiffer burns state park beach waterfall.

we stopped in the "town" (village doesn't even work, it's literally just the shop) of lucia and split a veggie sandwich and french fries for lunch, it being the only semi-affordable thing on the menu. in the store attached to the restaurant they were selling oatmeal for approximately 300% markup on grocery store prices. to their credit, the sandwich and fries were delicious.

at some point during the day we watched some sea lions [that's what the journal says, but my memory is blank and there are no photos of same].

we stopped at sand dollar beach, stashed the bikes, and walked down to the sand. i ran around in the surf, enjoying the warmth and the salty water on my feet immensely.

we resumed our trend today and made 33.7 miles, finding a semi-hidden path off the road and into a redwood grove in a canyon (memorializing one mr. owings).

in equipment news, my front handlebar bag (i.e., the "glove box") zipper is busted, although still semi-functional. how does one go about making warranty claims while on tour?

M&V: Day 74

2010-01-03T21:01:00.004-08:00

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we loaded the bikes up and set out to shower and do some laundry in the park. showering was wonderful (25 cents for 3 minutes of bliss).

i made lunch while we did the laundry.

the nearby hosts' dog made friends with vicki, who continued to read her big sur book.

this business took all morning, so we made 12.3 miles today. here's a forward-facing view from some point during the day's journey:

it was a gorgeous riding day with a fun descent after much climbing.

near dusk, we stopped where there was a slight rise and some brush to shelter us from view on the side of the highway. while sitting and gazing out at the ocean after setting up camp we saw whales!!! unfortunately, this involved seeing where there were sprays from their blowholes, so, no photos for you, except for these of our view and our setup.

M&V: Day 73

2010-01-02T21:01:00.002-08:00

we don't have a mirror. so, for your amusement, here's me using the camera to check out my mega-zit:

we slept in and our friends had departed by the time we were up and at it (although i'd retrieved the mushroom book during a pee run).

we decided to hang around the campground today and set out for a hike, stopping for a while at the nature centre to absorb some information.

here's the view from the summit of the first trail we walked:

a hill along the way down:

some flowers thereabouts:

cool bitter bolete:

the second leg of the hike brought us to a waterfall...a little underwhelming...but a fair enough lunch spot. there was an irish family there and it reminded me of robbie.

for dinner, we walked back up the hill to the redwood grill where we enjoyed some nachos, fries, and fish (on my part).

returning to the campground we discovered the lounge area, where we were free to do just that. we read books and recharged batteries in the relative warmth and comfort before bed.

here's our friend, who was waiting for us at our campsite, but thankfully not trying to get at any of our stuff:

M&V: Day 72

2010-01-01T21:01:00.000-08:00

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we really outdid ourselves here...3.4 miles?

in the morning we hiked out to the mouth of the river and the tide was extremely high, so we couldn't adventure out onto the beach. there were a couple of surfers out there though, which was neat to see.

so, we set out on the epic 3.4 mi ride, which did in fact consist of a big uphill, and stopped at the top at a restaurant/bar/general store where we met two other cycling tourists, mike (vancouver to baja) and roland (northbound, shoot, i forget the details of his adventures now...). both were staying at the nearby pfeiffer big sur campground at the hiker biker site, so we decided to go there too. we left the gents chillin' on the patio and made camp.

it's funny, when you start looking for mushrooms, you see them everywhere! here's one at the hiker/biker site(s).

after making camp, we set out on the buzzard's roost trail, which was on the ocean-side of the highway and consisted of many many switchbacks. along the way we played the mushroom identification game:

check out the white spores under this cluster:

a fun little red guy:

witch butter:

vicki also shot some flowers...i'm not sure what they are (i only to identify things that i might eat...):

here's the inland view from the summit:

and the ocean-facing view:

we timed the hike perfectly and got "home" at nightfall.

vicki went to tent and read the big sur book that david gifted us and i hung out with mike and roland for a little bit before bed, loaning roland the mushroom book for the night (mushroooming is fun!).

M&V: Day 71

2009-12-31T21:01:00.004-08:00

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[book recommendation written in the journal from our new friends: miles from nowhere]

so, we packed up and were just about to roll out when i noticed that my rear tire was flat, sigh.

getting the tire off i figured out the mystery of my recent flats...the tire patch (note: not tube patch) that i installed has been rubbing and ruining my tubes. i had applied the patch to the inside of the tire after noticing what i thought might be a significant puncture while we were in the sea ranch area and i cut it to make it fit. so, (a) i probably should never have bothered installing it given the (now i realize) small nature of the puncture and (b) i should never have cut the patch because it exposed sharp edges that probably accelerated the abrasion [time of blogging note: i haven't had any flats since i removed this tire patch].

our friends left before us and we never (surprise) caught up with them.

as i wrote the above in the journal, we had paused by the side of the road and vicki was admiring the sea otters, once thought to be entirely extinct.

the rest of the day was composed of beautiful mountain, canyon, and coastal views that we had to earn with much climbing. there were also a couple of pretty bridges along the way.

here we are approaching the point sur lighthouse.

said lighthouse:

along the way, we also saw some wildlife (if insects can be counted as such) and sat down to identify some mushrooms, which turned out, sadly, to be part of the lose your lunch bunch.

keeping with our new reduced mileage campaign, we ended up at the andrew molera state park where we camped in the "primitive campground" as they styled it...which had running water and flush toilets...so, i guess primitive means that you have to walk there instead of driving right in and you can't shower, which really isn't problematic for us (robbie: the human body is self-cleaning).

M&V: Day 70

2009-12-30T21:01:00.004-08:00

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in the morning i got up and, while vicki was sleeping in (perhaps she didn't sleep in yesterday and i was wrong in that entry...), i went and met up with david and teresa and (with great thanks) drank their delicious coffee. they're avid outdoorspersons and dave gave us pointers on which campgrounds to check out.

while wandering around i picked a random mushroom and brought it to the hike/bike picnic table.

later, our mushrooming friends returned from their morning adventures and we identified my mushroom as an edible, a slippery jack. they had found a big cauliflower mushroom and gave us some of it...although it had some maggots/worms in it that weren't good for my psyche, i know they're just added protein.

here's eric's other cool find:

i was quite excited about this new activity and when eric offered us the book i insisted and bought it off of him for $10 (lex also had a copy, and the author is in their locale, so i'm guessing he can restock easily).

if you're reading, it was fun to hang out with you guys, and we wish you the best.

here's an overview of the park, shot as we were departing:

so, here we were at the outset of our foray into the famed and notably unpopulated big sur area and we'd pinned our cooking fuel hopes on the carmel safeway, the only store where we've ever found quarts of coleman fuel. well, they didn't have any, so we got gasoline for the msr whisperlite, which isn't recommended, but which cost us 50 cents versus 12 dollars (overall assessment after using it all up: it clearly burned less cleanly, but it worked fine).

after our (brief, owing to a late start and long grocery stop) day's ride, we ended up stopping on the side of the road in the garrapata state park area. t'was pretty there:

the hills were covered in sage:

we setup and were surprised when we were joined by two other couples on a tour together...so random.

and so jen & eric (GenEric) and larry & elizabeth joined us for our new year's party. jen and eric are planning an india tour, sounds fun.

larry had a pop (well, heineken actually) can stove, so cool (i'm going to have to make one one day)!

here's 2009's last sunset for us:

we had a good time joking around and eric either had similar sense of humour or was humouring me (haha, a pun) and encouraged my matt-ness (as majoros would style it).

unfortunately, we drank a little too much celebratory wine and passed out before midnight, woops (victoria would certainly object to my use of the term "we" here, but i think this is accurate).

M&V: Day 69

2009-12-29T21:01:00.002-08:00

apparently i underpaid our $10 fee by $1, which was enough for the ranger to get us up in the morning, ugh.

gordon and i finished our game of chess while vicki slept or read in the tent.

also, walking about, i met dave and teresa, fellow campers and fine folks.

later, vicki and i went into town again, this time on our bikes, and hit the library, again getting some blogging done.

after that we did coffee and mexican food for lunch before returning to the library to utilize the rest of our daily time limit.

we picked up some groceries and found californian wine for $2.99...i thought i was misreading the label...

so, we went home, drank cheap wine, played chess (vicki must have been drinking, since she never plays chess with me), sang cat stevens songs, and later met our new hiker neighbours, frank (and his dog eire) and lex. this duo, we found out, were avid mushroom hunters and loaned us a wicked-awesome book: all that the rain promises and more...

at some point we also hiked up the hill a bit and, before getting into the tent, shot the moon.

M&V: Day 68

2009-12-28T21:01:00.003-08:00

short and sweet no-photo daily summary:

met our biker neighbour, gordon;
rode into town;
went to the library, did a little blogging;
went to the maritime museum, which was actually closing its doors indefinitely (well, the website paints a brighter picture, but the staff member we spoke with seemed skeptical, considering the current economic climate) that night, so we were lucky to have made it;
- vicki really enjoyed the information about the macon;
- i really enjoyed the big ol' lighthouse fresnel lens;
we bought bread, cheese, and a $5 bottle of australian wine;
returned to campsite...it barely rained during the day, despite the predictions that, in part, informed our decision to hold up in these here parts;
i played chess with gordon and the little rain that did fall drove us into our tents.

M&V: Day 67

2009-12-27T21:01:00.002-08:00

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the breakfast was absolutely fantastic, as promised.

after filling up we biked to the nearby yet difficult to reach veterans memorial park, a community campground with hiker/biker rates, huzzah!

we lounged around for some time before doing lunch, recall those free brussel sprouts:

after lunch was wandered into town and ended up going to the theatre to see the road...i just couldn't suspend my disbelief...besides which, i decided that anyone that doesn't utilize a bicycle in a post-apocalyptic wasteland is a damned fool. my jealousy over vicki's viggo-lust was tempered by the fact that he looked wretched in the movie.

after that it was a walk back up the hill and off to tent.

M&V: Day 66

2009-12-26T21:01:00.002-08:00

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a muddy and miserable start to the day. the only reward for our troubles (besides a lesson learned) was the sunrise over the mountains and fields.

there was a nice path for us along the side of the highway and we followed that into seaside, where we went to a diner (the del monte cafe) and i ate some nourishing omelette goodness. over breakfast we argued about hotel/camping...we were wet again and i had near-zero sleep, so i wanted a bed, all costs aside. vicki wanted thrift.

vicki spotted a guy that she thinks alyssa likes:

nope, not me, this guy:

so, was she making it up, or was it an accurate remembery?

arriving later in monterey, we stopped and watched some surfers on a tiny pier break (talk about waves being a scarce resource luke!):

after that we road along the old rail trail that follows the coast and were afforded beautiful views of the rocky shores being pounded by high waves.

i was terribly grumpy and the hotel/camping argument continued on through our brief visit at the monarch butterfly grove.

after that we stopped at an inn and decided it was too costly. so, after reaching that decision and while vicki was distracted, i went and checked us in. the wonderful lady in the office told me about the waffles and other goodies included in the continental breakfast and i was sold.

before entering the room we went out back and hosed everything we owned down and then hung everything out on the back deck to get the afternoon sun.

we went out for round table pizza for dinner (good deal on salad bar) and retired to our room for the evening with the movie kiss the girls, borrowed free-of-(additional)-charge from the hotel's VHS collection. the flick wasn't as good as i recalled, woops.

M&V: Day 65

2009-12-25T21:01:00.002-08:00

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a pretty ride that again reminded vicki of holland. coming across an already-harvested field of brussel sprouts, vicki gathered some missed or perhaps just unloved stalks for our consumption.

we stopped for lunch in marina and watched idiotic humans harassing sea lions that were hauled out on the docks.

after that, we stopped at a market in moss landing and got some inexpensive veggies and snacks.

a storm was quite evidently coming our way and we rode almost until dusk in search of shelter.

we stopped where the map above shows (in detail, if you zoom in and check out the satellite image), on a farm road that was keeping us off the highway. we spotted a railway bridge, a heavy timber affair.

we sat under said bridge and munched until it got dark, at which point i made the incredibly stupid decision that the best sleeping solution would be, in order of ascending elevation: earth (a just-add-water mud dust), ground tarp (a device for soaking moisture through the wet earth and into our mattresses), our air mattresses (possibly the only thing doing an honest job of trying to keep us warm/dry), us in sleeping bags (i.e., materials for wicking water closer to our bodies), covering tarp (which may as well have been absent but was intended to prevent what i thought might be the occasional drip off of us), air (but perhaps more accurately a mix of air and water droplets...mostly water droplets), bridge (in this case a structure designed to capture, stall, and dirty the falling water before depositing it on us), and, more air (mixed in good measure with rain, literally precipitating our misery).

i don't think i actually slept. i hated the world. i will never make such a horrible decision about how or where to weather a storm again. end scene.

M&V: Day 64

2009-12-24T21:01:00.000-08:00

so, we stayed in the motel again.

christmas. i finally got to transfer materials from my old wallet to my new wallet, a task that victoria forbid me to do until the morning of christmas (after a sleep).

so, guess who couldn't get enough of us ;)

huzzah, luke and beth came to play with us again!

first we went to see the folks surfing steamer lane:

after that we went to the the hook and suited up. here's luke with all the gear in the truck:

after getting suited up we posed for a picture and i dinged luke's board off the ground and felt like a complete chump for it...so sorry dude.

here we are getting wet:

luckily, vicki didn't stick around, since she wouldn't have missed anything but failed attempts to surf on my part (which i'm going to go ahead and chalk up to sickness and intimidation at the rock bottom); her and beth went to explore capitola on foot.

here's a flower pic i'm guessing came from that walk:

i got out of the water early, discouraged, and chatted with some guys in the parking lot. i was eating some chocolate covered almonds from trader joes and offered them to a couple of parking lot folks, one of whom was rather "thuggish" looking and responded, i kid you not, with, "no thanks bro, i got hella sweets up in my ride."

L&B, t'was great to see you again, thanks for playing with us on christmas!

after saying farewell vicki and i chatted with man named doug in the parking lot for a while and then, in an incredibly display of athleticism, cycled 2 miles to the nearby state park and made camp. we went for a walk and i had it in mind to go out for christmas dinner but these plans were frustrated by geography. instead we made a spicy peanut stir fry, a traditional christmas dish.

here's the view from the beach off of the park:

M&V: Day 63

2009-12-23T21:01:00.002-08:00

christmas eve, though it's hard to experience christmas-type feelings (whatever those are) in the warm weather.

the journal says, "we made out alot" in vicki's handwriting...and alot isn't even a word.

according to my annotations to her entry, we also walked around santa cruz, mailed a cell phone that we found on the side of the road to the owner's parents in LA, purchased a wallet for me for christmas, and watched star wars (I, and II...or IV and V if you count those recent atrocities).

here are the photos from our stroll about town:

(megan, please identify the above).

M&V: Day 62

2009-12-22T21:01:00.001-08:00

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a cold and frosty morning pack-up, being in a valley and waking early to be out before any rangers might hike through.

we adventured to a rest area with picnic tables (picnic tables make me inordinately happy...) that were catching the morning sun. there we made breakfast and chatted with some homeless folks that were staying there in the back of their pickup truck. they told us that the santa cruz homeless were a different sort and would rob us blind.

we fuelled my coffee addition in davenport (jpage assured me once that coffee was good for you when you were feeling sick...of course, at that time i stayed sick until my tonsils were extracted...).

along the path we stopped to shoot some flowers:

in the afternoon we found ourselves in santa cruz and, feeling less than miraculous (i.e., more than a little sick), we decided to grab a motel room for the night.

in the evening we went to see "men who stare at goats", which i had seen and ad for at some point and added to my list of movies to attend...it was underwhelming at best, despite the cast of favourites.

M&V: Days 55-61

2009-12-15T21:01:00.026-08:00

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"what's this all about?", you may very well ask, considering that a multi-day post has never graced this blog before. well, to everything there is a season.

this leg of our journey found us in comfort and camaraderie, temporarily and thankfully residing with luke and beth in their tricked-out trailer home in half moon bay where we slept on pressurized air in a vinyl cuboid and avoided, for the most part, the teeth and claws of andromeda a temperamental and fun kitty cat.

our first day found me updating all of the information on the youtube videos that i'd uploaded the night before and hanging out with beth while vicki rode into town to do some exploring.

that evening, we went for tide pool walk and saw cool creatures:

also, i got attacked by a wild vicki:

that night we watched zombieland...awesomely funny.

when everyone else slept, i played portal in a characteristic dizzy of addiction.

...

the next morning, thursday, we woke early and went, along with luke's friend robert, to mavericks, a big wave surf break. there, we watched some folks that were, more often than not (surprisingly), floating on the ocean, despite her best efforts.

robert got some better shots, but even then, as he says, you need a big lens to see the little people out there.

after that we went and sat in a waiting room while a doctor used light amplified through the stimulated emission of radiation to correct an aberration in beth's optical organs. this worked out swimmingly for her.

during this interlude, much to vicki's disapproval, i setup my phone to allow me to "tweet" from it, which, if you know the vintage of my cell phone, is comical and comparable to using a quill and inkwell to take a photograph.

to celebrate the gift of sight, we went out and ate dinner at the olive garden; t'were delicious and many a celebratory "yarr!" were uttered (i started talking like a pirate at some point, possibly owing to andrew calder, although i hadn't picked it up when he initially started added r's to words, some time ago).

...

friday we played in a park, which involved smelling eucalyptus leaves and flying a spaceship to the moon.

that night we went and saw avatar in 3d and it rocked our worlds. if you haven't seen it yet, do so now. the blog will still be here when you get back, don't worry. go.

...

saturday morning, luke took me surfing! i failed to stand up, but i did technically go surfing!

i immediately resolved to one day stand up on one of these things, so i can finally understand why people are addicted to the ocean and why there are so many pickups parked along the side of the road with men nearby getting naked and clothed like seals.

here are other more successful participants in this surfing enterprise:

the rest of the day was spent blogging. vicki spent her time baking, a fun novelty and a source of delicious foodstuffs for me.

in the evening we went to the nearby ritz to watch the sunset with the 5-star accommodated and to make smores utilizing their bonfires.

photo by luke, methinks:

ritz christmas tree:

that night we checked out the boats in the harbour, which were lit up for christmas. we were joined by derek, who also went to school with me in ontario and wound up in california.

inexplicably, one set of boaters were attired as popeye and olive oyl and sang a lewd and sexually suggestive song. good for them, the world needs more randomness, methinks.

after wandering around the harbour we dined at tres amigos, a taquería (my new favourite source of food: inexpensive delicious veggie-friendly food; ubiquitous, owing to high hispanic population).

...

on sunday we did nothing but laze about and go over to L&B's friends john and erin's for a fun evening of hand and boot and matt and vicki life/route planning.

...

on monday we went to the academy of sciences with beth. t'was lots of fun. my favourite was the planetarium...i didn't get any pictures of that though, although we did take a few others:

eventually we had to leave, although it seemed like they didn't want us to:

returning home, we had cold stone ice cream for the first time. t'were good.

...

tuesday (day 61, if you were following along), feeling a little under the weather, which was inevitable since L&B were both recovering from flu-like sickiness, we went for a morning stroll with beth and then slowly (almost imperceptibly) gathered our things and relegated them to our saddle bags and eventually ushered those onto our bicycles. we said farewell and thanks (thanks again for having us!) and were off by 2 p.m. or so.

as per usual, we travelled about 30 miles, ending up at the big basin redwoods state park, which was "closed"; we camped on one of the trail accessible sites.

and that's our HMB chapter.

M&V: Day 54

2009-12-14T21:01:00.003-08:00

we packed up (note: as i wrote that, vicki tisked at me and chastised me for always writing that insipid sentence...but really, we hadn't packed up for a while).

we said goodbye to laura, since she was off to work (again, david and laura, thank you so much for hosting us, we really appreciate it!).

david helped me replace my rear tube, which i discovered was suffering from a slow leak. he did this with incredible speed, resulting from much practice during his career as a bicycle courier.

not quite sure what luke and beth's truck situation was, we decided to set out for the day with all of our gear loaded up. much to our delight, david elected to take us for a tour around town for the day, which is amazing, since he is, in our opinion, probably the most qualified bicycle tour guide around.

we were a little concerned that we'd be far too slow for him, given that we were loaded up, so he decided to level the playing field by riding his 1937 single speed bicycle (and he still kicked our asses).

we rode to the top of twin peaks and looked out over the city, it was spectacular:

while up there, david told us about the wild parrots of telegraph hill (check out the trailer; mark, the creator of the film is david's friend). we also heard and then saw said parrots flying around :)

after that we toured the mission, stopping for coffee, to check out a pirate store, and then grabbing some delicious burritos and meeting another couple of cyclists who david was acquainted with (a small cyclist world, san francisco is).

we heard from luke (oh, i just found his blog from a link on the page that i link to in the next part of this sentence, haha) and learned that we'd be meeting him at the adobe building for his fireworks users group meeting.

we scoped out some of the excellent art work in the mission:

david then took us to a bike path near a highway overpass, which is where his band practices to avoid noise complaints (very clever).

david then escorted us to the adobe building and we bid him farewell (david, you're a king among men, thank you so much for everything).

we met up with L&B and spent a little while disassembling our bikes and packing them into the subaru (fun).

then into adobe, we got some guest passes, left luke to do some prep., grabbed some fries with beth, and returned to the users group meeting, pilfering some delicious veggie pizza. i took in the users group meeting, understanding most of what was going on and learning about the software, while vicki (who figured everyone was speaking greek) updated the journal.

after the meeting we took our second ride of the trip, cutting out the devil's slide and arriving in half moon bay, where we were welcomed in to L&B's trailer, which we both think is basically the most awesome solution to dwelling, and watched a hilarious surfing video before crashing for the night.

[time-of-blogging (dec. 30^th) note: stay tuned for our adventures in half moon bay. also, for the facebook folks, please note that if you visit my actual blog site, i have incorporated a feed of my twitter updates, which allows me to make brief entries from our cell phone, so you can get up to date info. on where we are and if we're still alive.]

M&V: Day 53

2009-12-13T21:01:00.004-08:00

this morning laura invited us to a talk about a book (carville-by-the-sea) at the sunset library in the evening; with only this on our horizon, we adventured over to luke's truck to await a tow. after luke was picked up we decided that a walking tour would be an ideal way to see the city, and so we walked the approx. 9 miles from the outer sunset to the fisherman's wharf.

we checked out haight and ashbury, which was basically a collection of head shops:

we also admired numerous pretty houses, of which these are a few:

we checked out city hall, listening to a youth band performing christmas music:

lunch snuck up on us in chinatown, where an elderly chinese woman, whom didn't appear to speak english, proffered us a restaurant flyer, took our perusal of same as consent, and collected us (physically) and walked us to a little restaurant that wasn't visible from the main drag (thus the flyer agent/tourist collection scheme). this method seemed to be working very well for them, as further couples were delivered by this woman throughout our meal, which was delicious.

indeed, fortunate, we were:

setting out from chinatown to the bay, we saw lombard, a street so steep it had been converted to switchbacks (vicki knew about this from before and pointed it out to me, and the switchbacks are visible in the distance in the photo):

arriving at the bay, we saw alcatraz:

afternoon snack time was at jack's cannery, where we selected several songs on the juke box, enjoyed some of their various beers, chatted with some folks from new england, and where i was unsettled by the distorting mirrors in the washroom:

we then bussed to the aforementioned talk at the library, meeting up with D&L, and learned about carville, which was quite interesting.

after that we did dinner with D&L at a nearby thai restaurant that we both enjoyed. D&L biked home and we walked, stopping at a creperie that vicki thought was the cat's pajamas.

after that we returned "home" and, quite exhausted, promptly crashed.

M&V: Day 52

2009-12-12T21:01:00.003-08:00

had a delicious breakfast; david has mad chef skills and cooked up an omelette and potatoes. over breakfast, we chatted about laura's work with the city libraries and we talked about the increasing role of libraries as internet access points for travellers and folks without computers, as well as talking about google books and her stance on such things (she figured that archive.org had a better model than google).

now, we didn't mention this before, but the map may have told you that we were in a residential area called the outer sunset. we made plans to explore the city for the day, but first went for a stroll of the neigbourhood on our own. we circled around a big reservoir and admired the buildings (sometimes looking down on them from above) and the coastline. here's the view down quintara:

and some comic relief:

and me, noticing the large number of service drops:

after our walk we picked up the bikes and headed to golden gate park, which we'd not really taken in during our nightly ride through it. there, we hit the beach chalet, which is home to murals that were painted during the depression. there, we enjoyed a pint of their on-site brewed beer.

after that, we headed for the dutch windmill, part of the irrigation system for the park. on a similar note, during our browsing of the info. in the chalet, we learned that the builders of the park had consulted with the person behind new york's central park and he'd advised them that they should select another site. there, i posed for a picture and repeated the word "dutch" (you know, to look more dutch, in keeping with the theme)...but vicki wasn't taking a picture...

after riding through the park and taking in the flora, we met up with david and laura and luke and beth at PPQ for dinner.

luke and beth were having a spot of trouble though: their truck broke down nearby david and laura's house, so they made it to the restaurant on foot. over dinner, D&L graciously offered up the use of their car, so we returned to their house and then L&B and i headed for half moon bay to drop beth off, get luke's thermarest and sleeping bag, and return home to D&L's for a sleep over so that luke could deal with the truck in the morning. aside from the misfortune of car troubles, everything worked out quite nicely in fact, as i got to catch up luke, whom i hadn't seen in approx. 10 years!

M&V: Day 51

2009-12-11T21:01:00.004-08:00

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today we played with kids and let amanda get some work done. this consisted of doing arts and crafts. i was quite pleased with my pen & ink / watercolour:

it was raining again today and we decided to wait it out before leaving.

here's a shot, from sausalito, as we rode toward the golden gate bridge, showing the bay bridge:

by 4:30 p.m. we were through the bike paths and hills and to the north end of the golden gate bridge. we had a bit of trouble figuring out which side of the bridge we were meant to be on and ended up getting yelled at (though i'm sure they weren't yelling in their mind) by a police officer over their car's PA. when i approached to get directions, i noted that both of the two police cars there had automatic weapons in the centre console area...wowser!

in any event, we had to cross to the ocean side, which involved carrying the bikes down a steep and under-lit flight of stairs and then pushing them back up a similarly steep set of stairs on the other side.

we'd called david from the north end of the bridge and met him while we rode across, which happened to be at sunset, making for a beautiful view as we crossed this famed marvel:

we met up with david and his friend kevin at about the half way point and they escorted us to a surprise welcoming party in the presidio, where david and his band/crew (including joe, jimmy-james, and ben; whom vicki styles as the earth bikers) have an awesome hut that they've created, the exact location of which we don't rightly know, but if we did, we wouldn't tell you...otherwise we'd have to kill you (mwu ha ha ha, etc.). as we approached, we heard, to our confusion, the haunting and skilled sounds of brass instruments: they literally are a band, gathering and playing horns and trumpets (etc.) when time allows.

as vicki and i set out late and are a little slow, the boys had been waiting for some time (sorry fellas). we hung out there for a spell and traded stories before continuing our nighttime tour of san francisco, which brought us to a scenic view point of the city before plunging into the city's steep house- & shop-lined streets.

everyone else had commitments, so the evening ended with only david and vicki and i back at david's home, where we ordered pizza and, later on, met his wonderful partner laura.

here's a shot of us arriving in david's bicycle-filled garage:

during our conversations, david introduced us to his art: he collects willow bark during a brief period where it can be taken whole, and painstakingly crafts it into beautiful baskets. here are a few shots of the one that he graciously gifted to us (thank you so much david, you're awesome and your art is beautiful!):

after consuming pizza and chatting, we were tuckered and called it a night, retiring to our own basement bedroom (huzzah!) with breakfast plans for the morning.

M&V: Day 50

2009-12-10T21:01:00.003-08:00

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we woke up at first light and it wasn't raining, which, according to the touring cyclist code (that i just made up), means you have to get up and start moving.

we did banana and peanut butter sandwiches for breakfast then rode a hilly stretch into point reyes station. now, a normal human might use already having eaten breakfast as an excuse for not eating a second breakfast, but cycling tourists don't eat, they feed (quote jessica). so, we found ourselves at the pine cone diner, where we enjoyed pancakes and hash browns.

my stress is much relieved: last night my palm pilot went blank and wouldn't turn off or reset, forcing me to leave it on, let the battery drain, and hope for the best. luckily, 'the best' is exactly what happened when i plugged it in here and turned it on (with bated breath); it's working fine now and i can resume reading the baroque cycle (i was beginning to think that some supernatural entity really didn't want me to every finish it).

presently, we're trying to make plans and are making telephone calls...how abnormal for us.

...later...

plans were made. we are staying with our friend david's friend amanda in san anselmo tonight; we'll be riding into san francisco to meet up with david (the touring cyclists we met in oregon) tomorrow; and, sunday night holds plans to meet up with ricky and julie (from the burlington campground) and luke and beth (luke being my childhood friend who, unknown to me until recently by way of facebook, presently lives in half moon bay with his wife beth). the plan is to hitch a ride with luke and beth and hang out with them for a few days in half moon bay, where i'm excited to go surfing with luke!

today we followed david's route suggestion around black mountain and through the samual p. taylor park on a bike path (david really knows his stuff!). it was gorgeous.

here's vicki stalking turkey vultures:

here is black mountain, as we leave it behind:

we stopped in san geronimo for lunch and here's a 1934 maurice del mue mural found in community centre:

we rolled into fairfax at rush hour on a friday and found that entering a city with a population of about 7000 after hanving been in towns of about 100 for several weeks was very stressful. there were too many cars and people everywhere!

vicki really had to pee and found it distressing that she couldn't go where ever she liked ("a patch of grass is so much easier!").

while vicki was adventuring to a washroom, i chatted with another cyclist named kristin, whom i intend to respond to as soon as possible, since she's emailed me some questions for an interview-style blog entry (her blog: an unleashed life).

we made our way to amanda's, first stopping to check out a community bike shop in her area. we were quite soaked at this point. after the bike shop, we went into san anselmo to get gifts for our upcoming host (wine, bread, sweets). after that, it was back to amanda's, where we stripped off our wet gear and let ourselves in from the wet and cold, at her instruction.

amanda—who is a beautiful person, gifted artist, and stellar mom—arrived with her two sons shortly thereafter and we spent the evening making dinner, chatting, eating dinner, chatting, and then we chatted some more.

we noted that conversation is an interesting dance when you're both watching over, including, and entertaining an energetic 5 and 2 year old duo. however, amanda always recalled dropped threads of conversation. also, vicki and i love playing with kids. in this instance, playing involved some fun music-making (drumming and playing the nifty enzotar made by a friend of theirs).

after a fun evening we retired, gratefully, to a comfy bed (you rock amanda!).

M&V: Day 49

2009-12-09T21:01:00.002-08:00

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we had an early start because we don't know how to predict weather accurately ;)

vicki tried to avoid a touristy breakfast spot but we were unsuccessful in bodega bay, and so, in true tourist fashion, we ate at a restaurant with a view over the bay and drank mimosas. the food was good, even if the portions were too small for me. over breakfast, we pondered which route we'd take south.

when we were leaving, the bread at the expensive grocery store in the mall-type building we were in was being swapped out by the bakery folks. in the parking lot, i rode up to the driver and asked him what happened to the unclaimed bread; apparently it gets used to make bread crumbs and other products. nonetheless, i asked if some might also go to cycling tourists at a reduced rate. the reply was two huge loaves of sliced bread for free :)

...

as it turned out, we followed the route suggested by the krebs cycle map and didn't even end up getting to the critical junction that we were worrying over (i.e., whether to go inland or hug the west coast at point reyes station).

the cycling map failed to note some pretty hilly terrain for today's ride, but it was a beautiful and scenic day, regardless of some rough climbs.

almost as a reward for our efforts, we bought local cheese in valley ford for $3.40/lb., and it was delicious and a brilliant compliment to our free bread.

some pics of the day's ride:

vicki picked these, they smell good:

some goats and a peacock:

we stopped over in tomales and vicki really enjoyed the architecture, small town vibe, bustling little bakery, and the fact that men were hanging out and chatting in front of the general store.

the ride from the town of tomales to the bay of the same name was beautiful but went by too quickly for vicki's liking, since were we being pushed at speed by the wind (i liked that very much).

cycling down the bay, we stopped and chatted with some folks at an oyster spot where i turned down an offer of free oysters. i've never had oyster, as far as i can recall.

shortly after leaving there, it started to spit rain, so we pulled into the millterton point state park and setup camp at the picnic area, fearing an imminent downpour.

as luck would have it, it didn't rain too terribly before dark on our little picnic-table-surrounded homestead.

M&V: Day 48

2009-12-08T21:01:00.002-08:00

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a very frosty and cold morning...all the better that we didn't have to contend with the tent.

we did oatmeal and rode past a few towns, none of which inspired us to stop.

what did inspire us to stop was fort ross, although it was closed. nonetheless, vicki set out with the camera and snooped around, bringing back some pictures and historical info. for me. she snapped this picture of what looks like a film crew:

it was hilly and windy riding along the coast. here's a map stop:

we stopped in jenner for coffee and met sandra and jim in the cafe and chatted with these nice folks for a spell. sandra is an artist.

looking at the books lining the window sill, guess what was following me around...imok the purple monster!

we almost immediately stopped again, looking up at the forbidding hill, and got some yummy food at an indian restaurant. eating indian food brought back fond memories of living on brad's floor in brampton and our nightly adventures out for food :)

we're headed to bodega bay and the forecast is calling for rain.

oh, almost forgot, finished the textbook finally!

as of last night i'm 3/5 done the 1^st book of the baroque cycle. i've been trying to read the series since publication but always get sidetracked. i was a 1/3 of the way through the 3^rd book but had forgotten all of the characters and plot lines.

riding into bodega bay, we saw some homes for sale, but something about the neighbouring properties tells us that buyers may be a little leery...

we made it to the bodega dunes state park campground, setup, and had a fire to dispel the cold.

M&V: Day 47

2009-12-07T21:01:00.002-08:00

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here's a view of our riverside campsite:

we had to carry our bags up then haul our bikes up the steep hill to the highway, since we weren't about to ride back up a big hill and down again just to meet the road that was actually right beside us.

we then went back into town and thawed out at a cafe and read.

while we were there and journaling, we were reminded of a comical incident: while at the manchester beach state park, we had gotten up briefly and then returned to the tent, wherein i was reading the chapter of my physical geography textbook on predicting the weather. while reading said chapter, it began to rain on us, prompting our swift departure. funny, no?

i'm almost done the textbook and vicki has started into 1984.

sometime later i got a flat tire and repaired it along the side of the road. it was the rear wheel and the tire itself actually had a visible puncture, so i used a tire patch as well as patching the tube.

vicki took some pictures of the wave-pounded shore while i worked:

lunch found us at the salt point campground and i voted that we stay there, but vicki wanted to move on, aiming for the upcoming county park.

while riding there, i spied the entrance to the stillwater cover day use area. the sign said that the beach was one of the most dangerous in california, but i forgot to take a picture.

i did get a picture of the gorgeous sunset though!

exploring, vicki discovered that one of the change rooms was unlocked, so we made that our home for the evening (huzzah, no tent setup!). it was a tight fit, with the bikes stood up on the bench, but it worked out perfectly and we read and slept well.

M&V: Day 46

2009-12-06T21:01:00.004-08:00

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meet joe black is a long flick and we were up late, so we slept in this morning; we just made the 11 a.m. checkout. although the predictions were still calling for rain, the day was clear and sunny, although frigid.

it turned out to be another day of pastoral beauty and winding roads.

we stopped over at the point arena library for some brief interwebbing, including house affairs for vicki and photo uploading/captioning for me. i also made a text file of all al lukas' blog entries on my mp3 player for future reading, since i hadn't made time to catch up.

they had a copy of i'm ok--you're ok, a book of renown from my high school days, when my friend jerrid (and i may be mis-remembering here) misread it as imok, you're ok, and wondered who this imok was, prompting the creation of imok the purple monster of low self esteem.

vicki picked up the female brain, a book about neuropsychology (a continuing interest).

this town also featured an adorable puppy leashed to a cinder block (vicki wanted to abduct it) and a yummy lunch stop at an organic cafe/grocer.

the local theater wasn't showing men who stare at goats that night (a movie that i've been wanting to see for a while now), so we had no excuse but to roll on.

we rode 24 mi to gualala (not a hard "g", more of a "w" sound...vicki insists that i'm unable to say it properly...).

a resort along the way:

sunset in gualala:

we were initially aiming for a county campground but had our eyes open for free camping options. while en route to the campground, vicki saw a spot near a river but i was concerned about the proximity to the water so we biked up a big hill and back down into the campground.

there were no envelopes for payment and no one in the campground but the host, who had a sign lit with a halogen work light (go energy wasting!) saying that he was off duty. so, we ended up not going out of our way to try to pay for our patch of grass and followed the trail to the hiker/biker sites, which turned out to be in the same area that vicki had spied from the road and that i'd made us ride up a hill and down a hill to get back to :S

another night of contending with artic air was upon us, resulting in a frosted tent and cold feet. vicki had all the clothes she could find on; reportedly including three pairs of socks, five pants, two garbage bags, and a towel around her legs, seven tops, gloves, two hats, my coat over her sleeping bag, and the bag's mummy seal down up tight...and she was still cold.

here's a shot of the tent the following morning:

when vicki was all bundled up i read al's blog to her aloud and reminisced about my own adventures along the route he's now following and also felt pangs of jealousy over his laptop, making blogging a much less arduous task i'm sure.

my back has been feeling less than awesome lately (probably owing somewhat to my psoriatic arthritis), but i can't complain too much, since life is generally fantastic. hopefully i'll rest up in the days ahead, stretch it out, and feel better.

M&V: Day 45

2009-12-05T21:01:00.003-08:00

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we rode to the manchester grocery store and received several severe weather predictions from locals. accordingly, we decided to hit the KOA right beside the state park we'd just left and get a kabin.

i had bought vicki a pumpkin pie with the intention of eating it for breakfast but discovered that it was frozen once we'd secured and "moved into" our cabin home. solution: space heater = pie warmer and pumpkin scented air freshener.

we rented a tv/dvd unit and watched sideways. t'was okay. featured an alarming amount of drunk driving along the californian coast...

in the afternoon, we met another touring cyclist, orlando, hailing from england.

we hot tubbed with him then had him over to our place for dinner (kraft dinner with slight embellishment) and the aforementioned pie. it was great hanging out with him, sharing cycling stories and exchanging witty banter.

after we'd said farewell, vicki and i snuggled up and watched our other rental, meet joe black, before sleep.

at some point we heard a noise and, investigating, found that the food we'd stored outside to "refrigerate" it was being hijacked by a raccoon. in particular, he/she was making off with a bottle of mustard (poor choice, given that there was cheese on hand). i rescued the mustard though, ensuring future sandwich yumminess.

oh, and there was no severe storm...would have been a beautiful cycling day...probably a conspiracy the whole town is in on to trap cycling tourists at the KOA.

M&V: Day 44

2009-12-04T21:01:00.002-08:00

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a cold start.

we went to the little river deli for coffee and warmth.

after that our day's ride brought us pretty coastal vistas and various other sights, including grazing pastures, turkey vultures, hawks, sheep, cows, chickens, and deer.

here's one of vicki's famous (in my mind) wardrobe stops: when vicki wants to wardrobe (to the extent where she needs her lower half fully unclothed), or when she stops to pee, her selection criteria for a site doesn't include a heavy weighting for privacy, which it certainly would for me. i recall one time when an RV rolled by and snapped a pic of her peeing, i wonder if it's on the web somewhere...

we did lunch in the town of elk and vicki lay in the sun reading.

after elk was an awesome descent and inevitable climb-as-payment. at the top, the road was falling away:

here's an ewe and lamb that we spotted. the lamb was making adorable noises, but i failed to video it:

the end of the day found us at the manchester beach state park campground, which really had nothing to offer except ground pocked with gopher holes and several deer, which we (read matt) accidentally divided when we arrived but herded back together to make up for it.

the cold drove us into the tent. that was our day.

M&V: Day 43

2009-12-03T21:02:00.001-08:00

a short entry (huzzah!).

i decided that i needed to get some blogging done, otherwise i'd probably abandon the project altogether.

i rode into mendocino and blogged all day while vicki explored the pygmy forest:

here are vicki's thoughts on her day's adventures:

The beautiful Fern Gully Trail led me to the Medocino Pygmy Forest which I had been looking forward to visiting. The forest is comprised of trees which have had their growth stunted. It actually reminded me of being somewhere near the tree line of a mountain. Century old cypress trees were only six feet tall in the pygmy forest though they can usually be over 100 feet tall in surrounding forests. In this case though, the growth of the trees were inhibited by acidic, low-nutirent soils and the hardpan surface of the terrace on which it was located. The pictures below are for your learning and enjoyment:

in the evening i returned to our campsite with some chocolate and some of the aforementioned old no. 38 stout. we were joined by another cycling tourist, brent, from washington D.C. (though his tour has been along the west coast with airplane assistance) and chatted with him for a while before retiring for the evening.

further further temp. update.

2009-12-03T21:01:00.006-08:00

okay, so i felt really stressy about not being more caught up so vicki stayed at camp and perhaps hiked today while i came back into mendocino and blogged. you're welcome ;)

a little bit of news that i neglected to mention earlier: vicki and i have applied to become volunteers at the humboldt county redwoods state park, where we may end up working at the visitor's centre and either living out of our tent for free, with a heated lounge type structure to hang out, cook, eat, stay warm in, or even wind up in some sort of lodging while we work through this not-so-hot-as-maybe-we-dreamed-cali-would-be winter.

i'll keep you posted on that, and bring you up to speed soon. however, light is dying and so i must return to vicki, with chocolate.

oh, and the photos are up to date on the picasaweb site, although they're not all captioned yet.

peace,

-matt

M&V: Day 42

2009-12-02T21:02:00.000-08:00

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it was a pretty morning, with much birdsong and a chipmunk eating blackberries by our site when we woke.

dave, a local fireman on his morning walk, told us where to get some coffee in mendocino, a community apparently composed of moneyed artists from the bay area living in pseudo-retirement.

rolling into town, we got coffee at the eco cafe, where people definitely (and with apparent intention) dressed the hippie part.

the town was beautiful and vibrant and full of energy.

after caffeine, we adventured to the library (no internet computers), bookstore (where vicki picked up a copy of 1984), and an awesome music shop, where i jammed with some cool folks:

the drum was wood-topped and wonderful, which the the camera microphone doesn't do a lick of justice to.

i also briefly did some blog-work at moodys.

after our day in town we rode to the nearby van damme state park (named after an early settler, not a belgian martial artist/movie star).

here are the deer that greeted us on our way in:

and here is the site we selected:

end log.

further temp. update.

2009-12-02T21:01:00.000-08:00

shoot, only had enough time to get the photos off of the full camera and onto the thumb drive, as well as upload about 10 of those shots to the interweb before our time here expired... :(

so, yet another dissatisfying (i'm sure) blog entry. vicki and i are having great adventures and wonderful times and are presently in mendocino, california!

hopefully we'll have internet in san francisco and i can spend probably a whole day bringing you all up to speed.

until then, bear with us, and we send all of you our love and good wishes.

peace,

-matt and vicki.

M&V: Day 41

2009-12-01T21:01:00.003-08:00

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we did the continental breakfast again and chatted with a man named evan who had many a cycling story to share with us. paraphrasing two of them:

while getting ready for a ride with his new mountain bike leaning against his car in the middle of nowhere, several tweaked-out gang members approached him and were making pre-murdering him small talk when he was saved by a park ranger rouding the corner and sending them fleeing into the woods; and,
an RV was passing him by and thought it would be funny to spray water at him; it wasn't. the stream had enough force to knock him off the bike and nearly get him killed. later, he saw the same RV and stood staring at it, internal battle raging, and decided not to destroy it.

also, evan gave me a reflective vest, which is awesome and i'm very happy that i'm now more visible. after that, we were on our way.

as we cycled out of town—stopping for new cycling gloves and pizza—and we ran into our friends daniel and steven at starbucks, huzzah! we went in and i got a coffee and we got caught up.

it turned out that they got a ride back into garberville from the nice folks at the peg house and got the wheel repaired and so a weight was lifted from my shoulders...i was still worried about them. :)

we then headed over to the police station and got live-scanned. it was a comedy of errors for me, since i went to get money at safeway and the atm touchscreen wasn't working, then i went to find a bank and a (very nice) lady told me that they were far and offered me a ride. i chatted with her while she got her groceries and kids into the car, then she drove me what turned out to be about a 5 minute walk away. then, the bank atm was getting reloaded with money, so i had to wait there for about 15 minutes (meanwhile vicki is waiting at a police station). eventually i got back there and we gave the american people our fingerprints.

we then rode 11 mi to russian gulch state park, but it was closed, so we camped for free ;)

M&V: Day 40

2009-11-30T21:01:00.002-08:00

we broke our fast at the hotel's continental, which included oatmeal (you know, mixing things up for us...not) as well as danishes. i did the word jumble (i do this whenever possible).

we got our laundry done (for free), which was going to be our excuse for going into town and being productive.

without said excuse, we hung out in the room.

unfortunately, my tummy wasn't feeling well...vicki says that it's certainly something to do with the amount of cheese that i consumed, but i prefer not to think ill of cheese.

i napped it off and was feeling better in the evening so we decided to go out for dinner.

we ended up at the local brewery restaurant: north coast brewing co.

we got a sampler of all their beers and many of them were delicious. vicki especially liked le merle, and i, the old no. 38 stout. also, they made us vegetarian pasta, which wasn't on the menu, and it was perfect.

we returned to the room and true lies was on TV, i was so happy that vicki could see this masterpiece and it fit perfectly into my plan to watch every arnold schwarzenegger while we were in his governorship. we also enjoyed ice cream while we watched. then sleep.

and, just so that today would have a photo, here are my gloves, which i've decided to retire after over 3000 mi. the background is the bandanna gifted to vicki by family-ties.

M&V: Day 39

2009-11-29T21:01:00.007-08:00

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in the morning we rode to the nearby richardson grove state park to meet up with marianne and alfred for coffee, but we hadn't actually set a time to meet them and they weren't there.

here's a pic vicki took near the day use area washroom that we moseyed down to:

we left a note near the gatehouse and carried on, arriving shortly thereafter at the one log house where we had breakfast and waited out the cold.

we then rode to legget, where we'd planned to get a motel to celebrate our 1000 mi mark!

however, legget had no such accommodation. they did have a garage where the employees were openly smoking marijuana on the front lot (they're the ones that told us we'd not find a motel in town).

so, we went to the general store. the lady in the store seemed a little gruff and shut down the small talk attempts we made over our purchase.

here, we met kevin, a man who is homeless and who talked my ear off, nicely enough, but told stories that led me to believe that he is probably mentally unwell.

the lady from store told him to "clear off" before i actually approached him (beside the store) and said hello...

while he was talking at me, daniel and steven arrived on their bikes. and so i detached myself from kevin and wandered back over to the storefront.

steven had three broken spokes on his rear wheel (they're overloaded, but they know this) and we decided to try to tackle that problem together to get them to the next bike shop. after a lot of toil, we realized that the supplied spare spokes they had were too short for the non-cassette side of the rear wheel (seriously, come on surly, they're double walled rims, so aren't their spokes that can fit both sides just fine?). i felt really bad because i'd prompted what turned out to be a fruitless venture and consumed all of our time. i was quite sure that they wouldn't be making it far on three broken spokes, near one another, and urged them to consider backtracking to garberville.

now, during this adventure, kevin had meanwhile called 911 because his colostomy bag was nearing full and he had no access to supplies and needed medical assistance.

so, the storefront was chaos as there were us bicycle tourist doing roadside repairs as well as ambulances and paramedics.

now, during all this, the woman from the store left at the end of her shift and came up to us (repairing a bicycle) and asked us to "wrap things up and move on"...my patience excused itself and i asked her if she was seriously so callous (though i forget how i phrased it, and it was a lot more subtle than that), i also asked (knowing the answer) if she could give D&S a ride into garberville so they could get their bike repaired. when she replied in the negative, i asked if she knew of anyone with a shred of compassion in town that might be able to give them a lift...she replied in the negative. hopefully you were just having a bad day lady...

deep breath

sorry, i needed to vent about this. almost everyone on this trip has been so amazingly helpful and welcoming and generous and it sucks when someone is quite the opposite.

i tried to get D&S a ride, asking a few more motorists, but no one was headed that way, unfortunately.

so, i was a little stressed out by all of this and needed to extricate myself, so vicki and i rolled out and onto the famed highway 1, even though we knew we had perhaps our most mountainous stretch ahead of us and little light left for the day.

when darkness fell, we were on the first of two major ascents. we were tired and sweaty and i was still upset about D&S's bicycle situation. vicki and i decided to press on, given that it was a full moon and their was barely any traffic (read approx. 1 car every 20 minutes). with our lights on, we continued up the hill with vicki on lead (bump watch) and me on rear guard (headlamp watch and car sound alert).

the downhill was wicked-awesome, costing us only worn brake pads and drained batteries. we also got to see some nightlife, including a skunk (thanks for not spraying us!) and an owl (thanks for scaring the crap out of me!).

when we made it to the coast the moonlight was good and strong so we continued on our original mission to find 1000 mi celebratory lodging. the problem was that it was still far away an there were several inland dips/uphill climbs before us. nonetheless, we rode and rode and rode and rode and rode and rode and rode...
finally we made it to the beachcomber after our longest day (65 mi. compared to our almost unerring daily 30 mi) vicki promptly collapsed on the bed and began snoring (it's cute, she thinks she doesn't snore and that i'm kidding) with all her gear on. i let her be and watched some TV before passing out myself.

quite a day.

(that's vicki in my shirt)

M&V: Day 38

2009-11-28T21:01:00.001-08:00

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when i got up this morning there were some live embers in our fire pit and in jeff and ingrid's fire pit (they'd already vacated their site, we slept in a little), so i used these along with some rummaged garbage and firewood from other abandoned sites to make us a morning fire.

then i set to work on a bag of smartfood that i somehow failed to break into last night (i love smartfood and tend to inhale it by the bagful without letting anyone else near it...i'm a charmer).

after getting a jump for ricky and julie and bidding them farewell, we rode out and had a great day rolling alongside the eel river.

in the town of garberville we ran into (guess who?) marianne and alfred on the side of the road and decided we'd chat with them some more over at the grocery store, since we were both headed there.

when we arrived at the grocery store we met two more cycling tourists, daniel and steven, who hail from chicago. they were super friendly folks and we chatted with them for a while. vicki then disappeared into the store and was gone for probably more than an hour while i continued chatting with D&S...turns out she was chatting with marianne and alfred in the store.

so, good times with friends, but we'd whittled away the daylight and weren't going to make it to the hiker/biker equipped state park that we'd targeted. nonetheless, we set out and found ourselves be-darkened in benbow state park day use area (i.e., no camping). riding around, we selected a building to shelter us from view and, on a whim, i checked the doors and found them unlocked; huzzah, we slept in a washroom, saving us the time and energies associated with tent setup!

M&V: Day 37

2009-11-27T21:01:00.003-08:00

here's the site we've been staying at:

we finished american gods, huzzah!

we filled out applications.

i had a flat tire (what's with all these bicycle issues appearing in a cluster?) and i repaired it.

we decided to leave the campground. we dropped off our applications.

as we were leaving, we met up with ranger emily and spent some time chatting with her and touring around the campground together. she said that she'd love to have us. we just need to get live-scanned (scary!).

we made it about 4 mi.

at myers flat, we met ricky and julie, from the bay area. we chatted with them and decided to get food together; however, we quickly learned that this wouldn't work out, since the bar didn't serve food and the restaurant wasn't going to open for a few hours. we got ricky and julie's contact info. and were chatting with them when our pie-gifting super-gracious friends (jeff, ingrid, and kids) showed up on their bicycles. i helped pump up some (flat) tires and i think they may have departed already (a lot happened in a short time here) when ricky and julie emerged from the bar and julie was in a (totally legitimate, not being judgmental here) panic because she'd been stung or bit by something, was allergic to bee stings, and didn't have her epipen on her. vicki was on top of things and was calming and assessing things when marriane and alfred pulled up in their RV. madness!

here's alfred and us:

after we figured out that julie wasn't going to die on us, we hung out in the pub and ricky and i shot some pool and drank a few beers. we had decided to return to our burlington campground home for yet another night.

after picking up some food supplies we returned to the campground (bikes in their vehicle) and had an enjoyable evening complete with tunes from the SUV (which lead to a dead battery in the morning), warmth from the fire, and food from the grocer to the stove to our bellies.

[as we haven't heard back from the state parks yet (december 19^th as i blog this), i may as well mention that there was no one on duty and no legit way to obtain firewood, so ricky scaled the wood depot fence and passed us the necessary supplies, causing only mild injury to his person in the form of ripped jeans and lacerated flesh. vicki and julie had a lot to bond over in the form of discussing dealing with ricky and i, who are reportedly very similar ;) ]

M&V: Day 36

2009-11-26T21:01:00.002-08:00

it was raining and cold this morning, so we lazed about the tent.

this photograph issues from our tent-lazing, and i have no idea what it's about:

when we did rise, we went to the visitor's centre and spent all morning drinking their coffee and soaking up their knowledge. the centre was awesome: they had many interesting and informative exhibits. here are some fish and a diorama of stump pulling operations:

we also looked into volunteering and got a positive response. we have to do some paperwork though.

we hiked out to weott, a nearby town, and, contrary to our map, there were no shops in town (we'd been hoping to get groceries there).

in the evening we got another invite for pie and joined jeff (or maybe geoff?), ingrid, and their three children for fireside conversation and delicious pie (thanks so much you guys!).

a nice cycle-free day.

M&V: Day 35

2009-11-25T21:01:00.000-08:00

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in the morning we showered, huzzah!

when we'd packed up we realized that vicki had a flat tire, so i taught vicki how to replace a tube...i wasn't allowed to help ;)

although the map doesn't show it, today's ride was along the 'avenue of the giants', not the 101.

the journal is barren....apparently we have nothing to report about the ride.

it was dark when we finally made it to the burlington campground in the humboldt redwoods state park. as we were finding our site, we starting chatting with some folks in an RV and the father had been cycle touring and invited us over for pie...we took him up on it, yummy.

M&V: Day 34

2009-11-24T21:01:00.002-08:00

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while packing up, vicki spotted pretty dew on spider webs:

at this time i also realized that i had yet another broken spoke. so, we rolled into eureka—which was revealed to us as the sun lifted the blanket of fog while we rode in over the bridge—and found a bike shop (henderson center bicycles) then went next door to the bakery to get breakfast and wait for the bike shop to open up (very convenient).

we hung out in the shop while they repaired my wheel and installed a new tire (it was time). the staff were really nice and friendly and informative. vicki doted on the shop cat, it was sickeningly cute:

when the work was completed it was lunch time, so we went to a 50's style diner with outdoor seating so we could dry our things. an employee came out and told me i couldn't spread my tent and things out and i told him we'd ordered food and that if it was still a problem than he should just go get the manager. no further friction, gladly. sheesh.

they had pretty good veggie burgers and we got soft serve ice cream as a treat afterward.

we spent the remainder of the day riding to fortuna, where we met a man on a bicycle who had previously been on tour and wanted to help us out. he did so by escorting us to a the campground on the outskirts of town. thanks john!

the riverwalk rv park was really nice and vicki sweet talked us a deal. moreover, the receipt from the campground entitled us to 10% off at the nearby brew pub, yar!

here's vicki journaling while we did dinner and beers:

after that, it was to bed with us.

M&V: Day 33

2009-11-24T15:41:00.000-08:00

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[having trouble playing with this map, so it doesn't really show our route, which was mostly avoiding the highway for the day]

in the morning we chatted with a parks employee named jim, who told us that we may be able to volunteer for the parks...an opportunity that we started pondering.

from our campsite, we hiked down to the shore to take a look.

while we packed up, i had to keep moving the tent as the sunny spots shifted around...it was amusing.

leaving the park, vicki made me pose in front of rhododendrons because she recalls having to do the same as a kid (not sure if i follow that reasoning either).

the town of trinidad seemed pretty hip, but we had nothing to do there, so we rolled out along the scenic road that used to be the highway. along that route, we saw surfers for (i think) the first time on this journey.

here's a picture of a painter painting a picture of the ocean:

it was really nice and warm; we wore shorts!

we took a detour and rode into mckinleyville. there, we joined up the hammond coastal trail and, before setting out along it, ate a yummy lunch of cheesy pasta. vicki really liked the route we took, which took us through agricultural coastal plains that reminded her of holland. here's a house that vicki liked the look of and photographed:

the setting sound found us in manila where we investigated the possibility of legitimate camping but wound up in the community park. the park was really nice and had a frisbee golf course with many people utilizing it. in fact, some drunkards wandered by at about 2 a.m. (a guess) playing the course...they spotted our tent but thankfully respectfully ignored us and played on.

fun.

here's our site with a long exposure and some headlamp light-painting:

M&V: Day 32

2009-11-22T21:01:00.002-08:00

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in the morning, i was reading american gods to vicki and erica came to say goodbye. we did some map trading and she was on her way.

the morning sun was burning the water off the meadow as we made for the visitor's centre and it was pretty. as we wandered over, we noticed that there were elk in the elk meadow (what a surprise):

boring video of same:

en route to the info. centre, we noted, by the german flag on the RV, that marianne and alfred (of day 16) were there too(!), but they'd gone off on a hike, so we left them a note accusing them of following us ;)

the info. centre was really cool and i soaked up some knowledge they had on tap. also, they had an elk horn tree!

but then again, no they didn't:

we rolled to orick for food and ate at the la hacienda, it was fantastic.

at the nearby highway-robbery grocery store we found a bag of assorted "broken" cookies for about $2 and they were great and there were lots of them for that low price. we decided we'd keep our eyes peeled for more of the same.

while riding alongside some lagoons, we stopped to watch a herd of elk. so did everyone else; i'll bet there are a lot of accidents at this spot, whether vehicle/pedestrian or vehicle/vehicle.

we chatted with a really cool couple, jared and molly, while the elk wandered to within i'd say 10 ft. of us...sort of surreal to be carrying on a conversation about your travels with these ungulates approaching. they told us about someone from their neck of the woods that's doing something pretty interesting; check out run tellman run.

while there, another guy came up and started approaching the elk with plucked grass in his hand. vicki cautioned him while i was trying to hush her so i could see an elk headbutt a human. this same chap also mentioned to us that he had recently fallen off a wild horse that he had mounted when his "stupid friend slapped it's ass."

we arrived at patrick's point state park at dusk and i biked in the dark to the hosts' campsite to get firewood to warm vicki up.

that night, we sat around the fire and heated up cheese sandwiches and broken cookies by the fire. yum.

M&V: Day 31

2009-11-21T21:01:00.004-08:00

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note: so, we've started going more point-form in our journaling, so, you'll probably pick up on that ;)

...

in the morning, we attempted to dry our tent while we made oatmeal for breakfast. that's when we spied the campground goat, named "gotcha goat". vicki went and said hi to him. he was indifferent.

at the mouth of the klamath, we stopped at the yurok tribal ceremonial grounds and admired their structures:

there were some people in a boat shooting at ducks, somewhat spoiling the atmosphere:

we chatted with a nice couple that had camped out there in their SUV and they said that the hunters had been at it all morning.

vicki spied a banana slug during our chat:

the waves were insanely huge and i would have shot video, but the path over to the spit was narrow and rocky and unfriendly to bicycles.

we reluctantly left that beautiful spot; reluctantly because there was, immediately, an incredibly steep climb...we pushed the bicycles up the hill to the narrow, intermittently paved, beautiful coastal road.

along said road, we stopped at an old world war II radar station that had been disguised as a farmstead; there was little information there and you could only look into the darkened and empty building through grates.

after some more coastal road fun we put back into the redwoods. here's some redwood sorrel:

the next part of our day was our favourite: we coasted downhill for what seemed like ages through the redwoods. it was fantastic :) here are some videos of the fantastic descent:

at the bottom, we found ourselves at the elk prairie campground in the prairie creek redwood state park.

we briefly checked out the visitor's centre and decided we'd come back and really look at the exhibits tomorrow morning. heading for the hiker/biker sites, we met another cycling tourist from sweden: erica.

note about cali. state parks: hiker/biker spots are $5 per person and the sites have containers for your foodstuffs.

we setup and did dinner with erica before retiring to our tent for the night. and that, was our day.

M&V: Day 30

2009-11-20T21:01:00.002-08:00

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in the morning, we went to the harbour.

after that, it was a big climb. about a quarter of the way up, we stopped and read some informational placards that brought us up to speed on the coastal redwoods and giant sequoias. recall, they're these big things that now surround us:

here's some more info. about the redwoods and the parks: wikipedia article.

vicki spotted some pretty little mushrooms during today's ride:

also, we rode past the trees of mystery but elected not to partake of the self-guided ascending tour and gondola-style descent. we did check out the gift shop and see some nifty burls.

in the evening, we rode into klamath and saw a snow covered mountain a little ways off (east).

we rode out onto the south shores of the mouth of the river and found a private campground to set up at. it started to rain as soon as we'd set up, so we just hung out in the lit and sheltered washroom facility for a few hours, drinking a few beers (that they sold in the campground shop: moonstone porter), reading californian tourist literature, and playing with insects.

M&V: Day 29

2009-11-19T21:01:00.003-08:00

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it turned out that we had sited ourselves quite well: we woke to almost every other piece of land around our tent being rain flooded, while we were thankfully above "sea level".

a separate near miss: during the night's storm a large-ish branch had fallen, caught on our food hanging line, and slammed down into the picnic table next to our tent, where the line was secured.

after that, we rode into the state of california.

yar, huzzah!

mysteriously, it didn't suddenly turn to sunshine and swim-suit weather, :(

we decided to detour into the redwoods and rode to the jedediah smith campground.

redwoods are really incredibly super magically fantastically big:

the campground was pretty, but we decided to head into town and get a motel to celebrate our state-crossing.

the forest ride included a scary descent, but the cars, thankfully, patiently waited for us to make the winding turns on narrow-to-non-existent shoulders.

after that, we found ourselves at the crescent city econolodge, where we showered our filthy tent and washed our clothes and bodies. we also installed vicki's new seat and new brake pads on my bike.