PC_Day28

Day 28

Saturday, 26 June 2004
San Luis Obispo, CA to Lompoc, CA
64.1 miles, 4h45m, 13.5 mph
Elapsed Time: 6h52m, Max speed: 37.4mph
Total Climbing: 2365ft, Max elevation: 1009ft
Total mileage: 1663.6

It seems that as we get farther south, motels get more expensive and their continental breakfast buffets get lamer and lamer. This morning's was the lamest ever--only coffee and pre-wrapped pastries--so we walked around the corner and had french toast at a breakfast place.

The weather was perfect once again. The only wrinkle was a 20-30mph wind out of the northwest. It figured to help us more than hurt, but you never know.

It took a while to find our way out of San Luis Obispo, but eventually we reached Pismo Beach. We stopped at the state park to use the restroom, which led to many bad jokes that will not be repeated here.

A little later I saw a shortcut that I thought would save us a couple of miles over the Adventure Cycling route. Soon we found ourselves climbing up a very steep hill on a road with no shoulders and plenty of traffic. Oops!

At the top there was a store, so we stopped for a break. There was a couple sitting there, spending their third anniversary just relaxing in the shade outside the store. As we were about to leave a cyclist named Curt rode up. We talked to him for a few minutes. It turns out that he is originally from Maryland. He also told us that we could expect some nice tailwinds down the road.

But first we had to cross some open fields with a 90 degree crosswind. I took this picture to illustrate the unbridled fury of the wind when there's dust and irrigation water and stuff blowing around and stuff...well, it doesn't really do it justice. You'll have to take my word for it. It was really really really windy. Eventually this road bent around to the east and the wind became our friend.

Unbridled fury.

We stopped for lunch at a small town called Orcutt. We had the Super Turkey Sandwich at Kate's Kitchen. It was really good. Then we rode on.

We had a nice tailwind down the freeway until we reached a road called Harris Grade. With a name like that you know it has to be trouble. So we climbed for a while, quite a while.

Looking down on Lompoc from Harris Grade.

We rolled into Lompoc (pronounced Lom-poke) at around 3 o'clock. On the way in we passed Starbucks and other trendy restaurants and shops. By the time we reached the Best Western we were on the other side of town across from a motorcycle dealership. There is some kind of flower festival in town so we got stuck with a 2nd floor smoking room. At least there won't be any noisy kids upstairs. We did laundry and spent 20 minutes soaking in the hot tub. There are no decent restaurants within walking distance so we ordered delivery from an Italian place.

There aren't many pictures today because there was very little stunning scenery. We barely saw the ocean at all. Overall it was a refreshing change. Tomorrow we ride to Santa Barbara.

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