day13 54km 2:38 bodega bay

I took it easy today because I want to meet up with miles in sacramento on thursday. Thanks for the offer chris, but I just checked my blog today and already had accommodations set up. I appreciate it though. Bought some food organic oats, pop tarts, fruit and trail mix. Met a group of roadies hanging out at a cafe and chatted with them for a while. They were all older and wished me luck. One of them was nice enough to buy me a chai tea and candy ice cream bar. I love candy ice cream bars. nothing tastes better than cold, chocolatey, ice cream, caramel goodness. Just past the turnoff to 1 was an accident and I had to wait about 5 minutes before I could go. The officer waved me up ahead of the cars. He also told me to watch out for debris. 1 car got ahead of me when I started, but both sides started to go at once. The cars came to a standstill and I threaded my way through and continued up the road. Score one for the cyclists! Made some phone calls since I made camp so early and washed my clothes in the sink and strung up a bad clothesline because it was so windy. Didn't really dry them out as much as I though it would. My achilles feels the same and my ears are still sunburnt and driving me crazy.

day12 115km 5:24 fort ross

Ate an orange for breakfast and stopped in albion for food. Met up with a guy named mike who was an officer in the navy for 12 years and had done a lot of touring with his wife. This was his first solo tour and he was taking his time. He spent 2 days in brandon and only rode 8 miles one day! I rode with him for a bit and had a lunch of hummus and tomato on bread. Hit a new top speed sometime today 77k/hr or 47m.p.h! Had a strong tailwind today and was feeling good and rode over 80km in 4rhs. Went into a ditch on an uphill, lost momentum trying to wave a car past and rode into a ditch. I had a little a moment after that and was like' screw it, i'm not waving any more cars through.' Later in the day I was riding up a hill and my rear wheel locked up. I pulled over and my left upper bolt and rear rigth bolt on my rear rack were missing. This had caused my load to lift back and rub on my rear tire. I replaced the bolts and checked that the rest of my bolts were tight. I hadn't eaten since lunch and was getting pretty low on energy and booked it to the campsite. I found a campsite dumped my stuff off and raced to a store up the road. I was almost shaking when I paid for my food can of coke, twix and cookies. I don't know why I didn't eat for 3 1/2 hours after lunch, but you know how it goes. Rode back to camp and finished up dinner, couscouswith veggies and a tylenol, when rob and chris rolled in. The campground host was awesome. He made us all ham and cheese sandwiches, a big bag of chips, chocolate and some firewood. One of the guys built a fire and we sat around for a bit talking. I finished airframe and my achilles hasn't gotten any worse or better. The heel lift seems to have helped and there is no new pains, so I don't think its affecting the mechanics of my pedalstroke.

day11 95km 4:39 little river

Left before chris and rob today. Bought some groceries in legget. Started a climb after a chilly little downhill. Climbed for a bit, about 700 ft, and then flew down a descent leaning hard into the corners with my front brake squealing the whole time. Ate lunch after the rockport climb and had a tailwind on some rollers by the coast. There were 2 back to back 15 mph corners that were really fun. Stopped at a walgreen's and bought an insole for my left shoe. Ate dinner at the little river inn because I forgot to grab breakfast when I had the chance to buy groceries. I'm probably going to just eat an orange for breakfast anyway, so I don't know why I ate out.

day10 110km 5:28 legget

Slept under a gazebo last night at an rv park and didn't even set up my tent. Slept on top of this cot with a piece of plywood over the springs. Should have gotten a picture of it. I suck at remembering to take pictures of stuff. haven't been able to upload any because the library computers don't allow it. couldn't decide what to wear today because of the weather, overcast, and decided on 3/4 tights (knickers) and ls jersey with a base layer and short-fingered gloves. Rode through the 'avenue of the giants' and they were huge redwoods all over the place. I decided not to do the 'lost coast route' because in the description it said over 60 miles with over 6500 feet of climbing. Ouch! My achilles started acting up again and if I took my foot out of my shoe and pedaled with it on top it didn't hurt. I have been doing that on the flats and climbs and putting it back in for the added security of descending. Decided not to push it to legget ( there is a climb right after it). I went down to the river and tried to ice my foot in the water, but it wasn't very cold. I also massaged my achilles a little and tried to stretch my calf a little. At the hiker/biker site I met a couple of guys from N.Y who are riding prom portland to san fransisco. We decided to go up the road about a mile and split a pizza. You are always hungry and able to eat because your burning like 5-6000 calories a day. An oversize load truck came through and he honked right as he was passing me and chris. We were already almost in the ditch and I though 'we are gonna get sliced in half/run over by some wide thing on the back of this truck.' luckily nothing happened. The truck passed us and later we concluded that he was probably honking at a car in the oncoming lane to get over. We finished with the pizza as it was getting twilight and they stopped at a store, but I decided to go down to camp because I didn't bring any bike lights. I had my headlamp with me and with my helmet on it was somewhere between my eyes and my nose. Descending was scary, because the cars had their lights on and it would illuminate the road ahead of you and you didn't know if they saw you or not. Probably one of the top three dumbest things I've done on my bike. Made it back to camp safely though. I was sitting in my tent writing in my journal when i heard singing with a guitar. They played a couple
of songs I knew and then I thought 'I wish they would play some death cab'. The very next song played was I will follow you into the dark. I got out of bed and wandered over to their campsite and it was a girl (mariasa) singing and a guy (kieth) playing a guitar. They played about five or six more and then called it a night. It was really cool.

day9 88km 4:24 stafford

Left the earliest I have all trip 8:40. My watch stopped working last ight as I was trying to reset the day. Got a little lost in eureka and the library didn't open until noon, so I found a mall and got a new phone with my same old phone number. Not everyone's number transferred over, so if you aren't one of the lucky 9, then I don't have your number. Ate to much at a hometown buffet and was burping up stuff for a couple of miles after that. My left achilles tendon started to ache just about an hour before I found a campsite. I think that I might have had my shoes cranked down to tight yesterday, or overuse, orleg length discrepancies, or..... The tops of my ears also are itchy/hurt. I don't know if its a sunburn or the helmet straps/sunglasses rubbing or what. I am getting an awesome cyclist tan. I will try to baby my achilles tomorrow as much as I can, but what can you do?

day8 ~135km in ~7:30 arcata

I always seem to ride better when I'm angry. I was angry today. Angry at myself, angry at california and angry I got a hotel room. Got out the door at 9 am and started a climb right away. Today was the longest day and most climbing i've done all trip, probably 3-4,000 feet. Met up with matt at a state park and he is going to stay with friends in mckinnleyville. Newton b. drury parkway was cool. A bunch of exotic cars passed me going the opposite way. I saw a maserati, bentley, ferrari's ect. Just after trinidad was a surf spot and the road was very bad and dirt/gravel in places. I had to pay very close attention to the path I was taking because of huge potholes, but managed to get through it o.k. Coming into arcata started on a bike path and then a bunch of flat windy farm roads. I remember taking a hard left hand turn on bad pavement and imagining I was in the tour of flanders. Stopped at an rv park, but they wanted $18 with no showers, so i continued on to a koa just past arcata. Did my laundry and got a hot shower. The town of arcata was pretty cool. I was on bike paths the whole time and there were tons of people riding. i wanted to hang out in town, but it was getting late and I hadn't set up accommodations for the night.Matt gave me his house number and said his roommates would be happy to put me up, but no one answered and I didn't feel like waiting around when it was getting late.

day7 122km 6:21 crescent city

A truck pulled in and out of the park last night. I woke up to it and waited for doors to open but there was nothing. There was a climb right after gold beach and I stoppeed in gold beach and bought some used books 'airframe' by crighton, 'eat to win' about sports nutrition from 1982 and some random classroom/education humor book. Now I won't lay in my sleeping bag for hours trying to fall asleep. Had another tailwind today and met a nice lady named barbara before smith river. She said she has a niece/granddaughter who wants to do this after she graduates college. Barbara was nice enough to offer me a glass of juice and some mixed nuts at her house which I gladly accepted. Her husband was shining some new brass fixtures they had gotten and it reminded me of my old job. Another georgeous day today and think that I burnt the outside of my elbows. After smish river I crossed into cali at 4pm and got a picture of the sign. I rode with an older black man for about 5 miles and he was riding an old hybrid. We talked about all kinds of cycling things, crashes, places to ride, cars, ect until he turned off on his street. I didn't see any signs for camping like in Oregon and it was getting late. Two cyclists, ron and his friend, talked to me and tried to give me directions to a campsite. I missed it the first time and only found rv parks, but found it on the way back. They wanted 18.75 and no showers,  so I gave ron a call and he checked around for me but he couldn't get in touch with anybody. I was pretty angry at this point and just decided screw it and got ahotel room, because I hadn't showered since 2 days ago and didn't want to camp out so close to a town. It was all right 47 bucks and I got a shower, washed my clothes in the sink and watched a stanley cup playoff game. I will just have to pay better attention next time.