Jeff Bikes: Cold Gray Day

San Simeon - San Luis Obispo
45 Miles

Got up, checked the email, read a little news, walked outside in the wind to look at the gray skies and see if the fog had lifted, malingered some more and then finally pushed off just before checkout time.

It was a cold gray day all day, which is fine for riding by the beach, right? That's what I say.

Just before Cambria the route goes inland slightly through Cambria and Harmony. Lush, green, beautiful (yada, yada, yada...more of the same). It got very misty in this stretch. Glasses kept getting spotted up and it was about as close to raining as you can get. I kept thinking it was going to start pouring down rain at any minute, but I was luck and it held off. Was passed by several friendly riders in both directions (I get passed all the time...I'm kind of the biking equivalent of the old man driving 10 miles per hour below the speed limit in the right lane with his blinker constantly on. I've made peace with it..it's fine.

Soon the route comes back over to the coast and Route 1 splits; the main highway going off to the left and the business district splitting off to the right to go through Cayucos. This is the coolest little town. The town looks a century old, but fully restored with lots of interesting shops and restaurants. It looks homey and organic and healthy and rich. As I pulled into town (chilled to the bone and looking for soup and crusty bread for lunch) I noticed many of the cyclists who had passed me, and more had converged on Kelleys Expresso & Desserts which is just the right kind of perfect for this town. Had a bagel, banana and a lovely Kenyen blend of coffee, warmed up and then headed back down the road. I checked for geocaches and noticed a web cam geocache where you had to pull up the web cam on your smart phone, position yourself in front of the web cam so that you showed up on your phone, take a screen shot and upload it along with your find in order to get credit for the find. Alas, technology failed me, as the web cam website required a flash player which refused to download to my phone. So I went for another cache a couple blocks away in a playground where they had an ancient wooden shed with bars on the windows and a sign above the locked front door stating that this was the original Cayucos jail. Interesting placement, I thought - jail in a playground. Think they're trying to send a message? I couldn't find the cache here either and later learned that the past several seekers couldn't find it either, which is usually a good indication that it has been "muggled" (stolen or destroyed by non-geocachers). Wasn't my day to find caches! Back on the road.

The route continues south to Morro Bay, where it splits with Route 1 again, diverts through the national park there, and then heads inland to San Luis Obispo. I hadn't really noticed that ever since San Simeon the route was gradually becoming more "suburban" until I entered Morro Bay state park. Suddenly I was surrounded by fragrant eucalyptus trees, the beach, and all sorts of nature that I can't even identify. This is what I love, and it soon got better.

As you exit the park the route goes a mile or so down a very busy highway and then onto Turri Road for 5 miles. Best 5 miles of the day. This reminded me of rural Virginia. Almost immediately it gets quiet and I was surrounded by scenery from a painting. The road was lousy with birds that I never saw except for several red winged blackbirds. There were rolling pastures full of cattle, lush green hill sides, brooks, clusters of trees, and very little traffic. It was quiet, peaceful, and beautiful. At one point I rounded a corner and there was a huge field full of wildflowers.

All too soon I turned off of Turri Road in pedaled the final few miles into San Luis Obispo. Cold, wet and gray, but a great day of biking nevertheless.

Tomorrow I'm headed for Auntie Sharon and Uncle Charlie's.