Summer 1997 - Yukon to California
Journals - 3 September 1997
Day 55
3 September 1997 (sunny; mileage = 45; New Brighton SB) -- A - Chris
wasn't sleepy for some reason during the middle of the night, so I didn't
get much sleep then either, but eventually we did sleep and then I didn't
want to get up this morning. Dennis and Nancy even beat us out of the tent,
but we were packing up stuff as we heard them get out. Chris attempted to
change the spoke guard from Dennis' bike to Nancy's but could not get the
free wheel off D's bike. He got Nancy's off in 5 minutes but was defeated
by Dennis' wheel. We left the site around 9:30 -- the magic time, it seems.
We stopped for a break at about 10 miles and had a snack. We were making
pretty good time thanks to a very nice (if you're going south) tail wind.
There was a guy there who Dennis and Nancy talked to. The usual paranoia
questions -- is it hilly ahead? I've learned it's better not to ask, but it
did take me a long time to get over that! He told them there's a campground
south of Capitola. It was one that I hadn't been able to locate on a map,
but we are at it and it's pretty nice. We went another 10 miles and stopped
in Davenport for lunch at a Mexican restaurant. It was really good food! It
was obvious Nancy doesn't eat much Mexican food because she didn't know
what any of the menu items were and when the tortilla chips and salsa came,
she asked if someone had ordered it. To Chris, it was proof that we have no
Mexican restaurants in Cinti. We saw 2 guys on bikes while we were in
eating lunch. One came in to get his water bottles filled (not bomber cage
ones!). When we left, they were outside eating bagels and started talking
to us about Jesus. They were pretty tame, but Chris wanted to get in a
comment about cheeses, our savior, but he did resist the urge. We got to
Santa Cruz and got on a bike path that followed the coast. It was quite
nice riding and very beautiful scenery. We went to the toilet and then over
to look at a pile of barking sea lions on a rock. That was really neat! D&N
made phone calls and checked voice mail and let Dennis leave the new
message. We then followed the bike route signs through some interesting
twists and turns, one of which meant crossing a river on a train trestle.
We got to Capitola and went through it, not too secure in the promise of
the campground, but it was there. With showers! We got our sites and Chris
and Dennis went to the grocery and gas station. Chris got 12 cents worth of
gas and good food! (pancakes and eggs also!) Apparently, the grocery was
annoying because of a cash-only checkout with a credit card machine and no
one at any other lane, but he was made to pay cash or go to another lane.
He already had his stuff run through and hadn't known it was cash. Nancy
and I put up the tents and got a little worried by a "creepy" guy over on
the other side of the hike/bike sites. He seemed to be watching us and was
sort of disfigured a little. She was very worried; I was annoyed that he
was watching us. He has a cat and seems OK, though.
![[Bike]](./only2500b.gif)
