Cycling with Sally

The rollercoaster of beautiful sights, warm welcoming weather and convivial people continues and we find ourselves simply overwhelmed. In Santa Barbara we shared 2 splendid nights with Desmond and Monica who we met through SERVAS. They live in a very cool house with a yard filled with vegetables and fruit trees. Santa Barbara is a striking city with lots of charming parks, old buildings with red roofs, sandy beaches, a huge pier and the best movie theatre ever, Arlington Theatre. We even stumbled across a very talented musician, Owen Plant and took in some of the free entertainment in the city centre.  After a truck full of recipes (from Monica who is a very talented cook), a dog buzzer (to keep dogs from attacking us) and a couple of complementary soda drinks we slowly hit the road and made our way to Ventura.

 

The ride from Santa Barbara to Ventura was neither long nor demanding and this suited us perfectly, as we tried cycling a recumbent bicycle, took in the Sunday Art exhibition along the waterfront and slowly meandered through a fleet of thrift stores in Ventura. Here we met up with some serious cyclists Nicole and Jim who had just completed a 200km trek and still had heaps of spring in their step. How do you wrap up a brilliant day like this? How about pizza, beer and Tim Tams (according to the packaging, Australia’s favourite cookie) for dinner.

 

In complete contrast to the previous day we had a very early start, gritted our teeth and cycled through L.A. city limits – Malibu, Venice and Redondo beaches before reaching Long Beach. Somehow we managed to survive the ciaos of the PCH – Pacific Coast Highway and navigate to Captain Jack’s boat without a street map. Spending the night on the boat was a real treat and watching the neighbouring dogs come aboard the next day for dog biscuits was pretty remarkable. Jack is a kind and generous Captain with a great laugh. We even managed to slip in a few three handed games of crib over coffee before disembarking.

 

Staying in Long Beach for a few more nights over the Thanksgiving weekend, we next hooked up with Steve and Andreah. A super down to earth couple who were very accommodating and a barrel of fun. Having lived in the area for a number of years, they knew all the great dining and night life places, like the local Korean Restaurant that features one dollar Tacos. Sounds weird, but oh so good.  Staying up way past our regular bed time of eight or nine, our black bags under our eyes were worth it!  A whopping big thank you to Patrice, a close friend of Steve and Andrea, for making a massive Thanksgiving dinner and a special chocolate oreo cake. Out of this world! Steve and Andrea (The ultimate Party People) have many talented and interesting friends, who made us feel right at home.  

 

Steve even has a beard that is just a stunning as mine - just to clarify Roland is writing this entry! 

 

The road from Long Beach to San Diego is covered with many picturesque beaches and oodles of people. Navigating through this thick traffic, cracked pavement, parked cars that protrude into bike lanes, swinging surf boards and merging lanes took its toll on us, and we found ourselves all bundled up ready for bed at quarter after six. After our 12 hour hibernation we emerged from our tent ready for some more. On our travels into Del Mar we met Steve, a fellow cyclist out for the day, who very kindly offered to shout us breakfast. At the restaurant we also met his good friends Lee and Julia and had a wonderful time swapping stories. Many thanks to Julia for the sunglasses, they work like a charm and match the bike perfectly.

 

It’s incredible that we found our way into San Diego without a detailed street map and without using any freeway. We have a lot of work sorting out things and getting ready for the next stage our trip. In many respects it feels like Alaska all over again. We are a  bit nervous and a bit scared. We are leaving all the comforts of an English speaking first world and enter Mexico.