Picking A Sweet Route to Carmel
Total Distance Ridden: 1160 miles
Cumulative Elevation Gain: 67,115 feet
We have found so far that we have a mixed opinion on the impact of seeing family and friends on our ride. We absolutely love the company and wouldn't trade it for the world. There are a few drawbacks, however. In San Francisco Katelyn first experienced the homesickness as her friends and family got to hang out with her and then she had to say goodbye and she had to keep pedaling. The second issue popped up the night of Father's Day. We checked into our hotel room only to find that the room only had a queen bed and a tiny twin size pull-out couch and we had Raquel and Cameron that were going to stay the night with us. After deliberating on the best sleeping arrangements, we decided that Cameron, Katelyn and I would all three sleep in the queen bed and mom would take the pullout. Note to self: never ever try and sleep 3 people again in a queen bed! I was basically given about 8 inches on the edge and through the night that kept shrinking. I have found that, just as much as I look forward to the ride, I look forward to the night of sleep I am going to get at the end.
After another emotional round of goodbyes, it was time to ride again. although it was 49 miles to Carmel, we had a detour to make to visit the folks at Specialized Helicopters who are going out of their way to make sure that we have a way to get over the mud slide. Up until now, we had only communicated via phone and email and because of the planning involved, it was important that we made a visit in person. Today we were able to nail down that we will meet the helicopter down in Big Sur sometime on Wednesday midday.
Because of the detour to the airport to meet the helicopter team, we also modified our route a little inland on the way to Carmel. It took us through a lot of farming country--both crops and animals. At one point, Katelyn and I talked about how we had yet to stop at a fruit stand and we committed to buying cherries at the next one we saw. About a minute later, we passed a large strawberry field with some workers in it. We pulled over and asked one of the workers if Katelyn could pick a couple strawberries and she smiled and said that was fine. While Katelyn was looking for the perfect berries, the lady walked back over and said, "un regalo por tu hija," which means, "a gift for your daughter." She gave us two large cartons of strawberries to take with us. Last night, we may have overdone it but we ate all of them and they were so good!
A little further up the road, I had my second flat tire of the trip. Without any hurry, I changed the tube and started riding again only to notice that my bike shifting was off--NOT what I needed on the eve of climbing into Big Sur! Now, instead of a leisurely pace to get down to Monterey, we had to push hard to make it in before the bike shop closed. Also, I had to get another spare tube--just to be safe. We made it into the shop 30 minutes before closing and it turns out that when I laid my bike down to change the tube, it must have been my rear derailleur. The bike mechanic did a great job of putting everything back together and getting us ready for the long day to follow.
Last night our destination was Carmel, which sits uphill from Monterey. Basically, I have yet to find a part of Carmel that is flat. At mile 47, our road pitched upward and we had an incredibly steep climb to finish our day--probably the second steepest climb we have encountered on our entire trip. But, 1200 miles of cycling got us up the hill and to the Carmel Resort Inn for the night. At lunchtime, I had scoped out places for dinner and, while there was nothing close by the motel, there was a movie theater and restaurants only 2.5 miles back towards Monterey. We quickly changed our clothes, grabbed an UBER (it's not cheating if we already rode it!), and went back down the hill and watched the Incredibles 2 movie and had some dinner. It was a nice break from staying cooped up in the room.
Now comes the last really tough day of riding: Big Sur. What makes this leg different is that there are extremely limited resources up and down the coast so we will need to be prepared for anything. Also, the weather is supposed to get up to 80 degrees so we don't want to be stuck without water. We will make the push all the way to the edge of the mud slide and then rest there until we rendezvous with the helicopter. We are excited to meet the young boy with Leukemia that is coming along on the trip! Hope he has a great time!
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| She didn't pick them as fast as the other workers but she did get some good ones! |
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| This sweet señora gave us a couple cartons of strawberries for free--we hopefully won't get sick today from eating them last night because we ate them all! |
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| This happy little cow liked to have his head scratched |
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| There were SO MANY goats in this field. The babies were skittish but the adult goats were pretty friendly. |
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| We are basically a pair of superheroes out fighting cancer in kids! |
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