California, here we come....

From Brookings to Klamath......

Forgot to post the total of kilometers cycled on Thursday - 92 with 0 flats
Will post some pics showing how we dry our laundry after it has been washed in the showers along with the cyclists who wore it..

The morning did not start off good for Curt - he discovered a soft tire just before departure time and checked it out and found a piece of wire which he pulled out causing the tire to go completely flat.  Meanwhile the other cyclists were all waiting at the local McDonald's where they had gone for the "buy one get one free" Egg McMuffin deal for breakfast.  We also ate most of the oranges we had purchased yesterday because we had read about the inspection centers at the border - not one question was asked of us about any fruit we may have  with us - oranges are good for breakfast...

This area of the country is known as the Easter Lily capital of the world - we saw lots of fields with lilies growing but could not get close enough to get pictures of the machinery used for harvesting the bulbs which was happening as we drove by.  The clouds and fog kept coming and going along the coast and the sun came out from time to time to warm us up. This is common in this part of the country.

Coffee shops are hard to find and we finally found one in a town that looked pretty abandoned - the building that once was the bank, and the words, "The Bank" were right on the building, now houses a bar with "Budweiser" signs in the window.  A local tells us that people can honestly say when they are late coming home that they were held up at "The Bank".  It's neat to meet up with the locals in these little towns - it's a different way of life to what we are used to.  An elderly couple were having a quiet breakfast together until we came in and invaded their space.

Once back on the road and we were along the coast we could hear the sea lions before we could see them and it was very hard to see them because of the fog.  Crescent City was a place we passed by on the way and got a picture of the light house there. 


The cyclists had been warned there would be a very long, steep climb before lunch and they should get ready for that.  Half way up we stopped to see if any of the cyclists needed assistance and some needed to get rid of some of their extra layers of clothes....the sweat was just dripping off their faces.  When we met up with them again at the bottom, they were sorry they did not have some of those extra clothes, the downhill can be very chilly.  Total kilometers of the up hill and downhill section here was 18.  When it was all over, they all said they had enjoyed the workout.  This section of the road was already in the Redwood National Park.  We did see some larger trees but could not risk stopping to take photos.  There will be lots more big trees to see in the next few days.

Lunch break was quite soon after the down hill and then there were only a few kilometers left before we came to the Woodland Villa Country Cabins.  Right on the premises was a small cafe where we could eat supper and we decided to eat there.  The owner informed us that at 5:30, a group of 16 had reservations but he could squeeze us in at 4:45.  We decided to do so since happy hour was before 3:00 today and the cyclists were hungry.  There was only 1 waitress on duty so John VanderSteen got up and helped the waitress get   stuff to us.  The waitress later on came over to some of us who were using the cafe for internet purposes and told us how blessed she was to have had his help.

Total kilometers today 79....almost double to do tomorrow so will make up for the short distance today.
1 flat for a total of 5.
P.S. I did change the settings so folks can make comments.
P.P.S. Pics will come later, cafe closes in 10 minutes.