Fri: Coastal Conquest, Santa Cruz to Big Sur

well today had a few twists and turns :)


take for instance, the fact that before we had even begun to ride,

my back tire was flat & had to be changed...

then, JJ opened the back of the car & 4 bottles of vino splattered all over the hotel parking lot...

:(


but then,

there was the map...

trump card...

the map

for 3+ hours there was a lot of this...

& strawberry fields galore...

more of this...

a stop for this.... + more studying of zee map...

@ noon we still had 60miles to go...

"must get to Big Sur before dark..."

we finally did make our way back onto the H1

(and chose not to look at the white sign that said no bikes/ no cyclist)

zooming along we were...

oh look! a real bike path!

...

♥ that it took us here...

hello Monterey Bay!... even with my silly, old point-and-shoot camera you are beautiful...

hello bright, clean sand...

hello stunning blue & turquoise ocean...

we continued to follow the map...

bad decision

our glorious bike path was leading us astray...

very much astray

so much so, that Matt & Barbie had to come find us...

there was not a chance we were getting in that car

not. a. chance.

somewhere in the twist and turn of it all, Chuck earned his nickname...

El Diablo Vaquero! ... the devil cowboy...

guess he figured that at some point we were going to have to climb...

and it might as well me now...

forget the plan...

there the Devil Cowboy went... the crazy

& the hill went on and on... like, forever...

after lunch on a sunny patio we were happy (so, so happy) to get back on the H1

a lengthy stretch of views amazing!!!

see pictures below...

first flat out on the open road...

but with views like these, who cares?

she & I did this...

snapping pictures of famous bridges & such...

we had the most incredible panoramas all the way into Big Sur...

even more breathtaking at 16mph... you bet!

I don't know how many hours we sat on those bikes...?

I do know that this was my favorite stretch of coastline...

& also that I began to serenade the others 10miles out of Big Sur...

...

next thing I knew, there was Matt... we were there!!!

Total Miles:  82

no one was happier than this guy...

we dined at Big Sur River Inn...

on the patio

next to the river

surrounded by ginormous trees

breathing in the fresh mountain air :)