Life happens while we are away and all of us are in touch with family at home….Adri heard this morning that his sister in law, Trudy, had passed away after a brief battle with cancer. We offer our condolences to the extended Kloet family, many, we know, are reading our blog. You will be with us in thought and prayer….may God comfort all of you.
Wow – sunshine from the time we got up – a perfect day – we’ve not had this yet so early in the morning. Our route today takes us away from the ocean so we did not have fog this morning even though we were right close by it in Davenport. It’s interesting to see the crops growing right along the highway – right on top of the cliffs – we saw trucks hauling boxes full of vegetables away. Migrant workers are camped right along the roadway here. Brussel sprouts was what we could see/smell this morning. We are passing through the artichoke capital of the US today – will be interesting to see how they grow.
Today’s route is on lots of city streets since Highway 1 is so busy and narrow so it’s challenging for the SAG wagon to try to stay with the cyclists. A flat tire held up three of the cyclists so the other 7 got way ahead and were scouting out for a coffee stop. Starbucks was calling out to them and the lattes were ordered and we all sat around drinking our coffee while the tire was changed on Ed’s bicycle – John, our “bike tekkie” , has it changed in no time. John’s expertise comes in handy and is very much appreciated.
Strawberry fields are next and lots of them in all different stages of readiness – plastic covered furrows with plants being put into them to the finished product being picked for market. We can’t capture the smell on pictures but enjoyed seeing the process from start to finish.
We have finally discovered what the plants were that we kept seeing yesterday – today we saw them up close and they are artichokes – never knew how they grew but now we do… we see asparagus and red leafed lettuce – truly the market garden area of California. This part of California is called,"the salad bowl of the US" and now we know why.
Lunch stop was to be at Moss Landing and we were able to use picnic tables right at the Yacht Club – great location – to our delight we saw some seals sun bathing out on a dock – the closer we got to them, the louder they started barking. They even posed for us to take photos….huge jelly fish went swimming right by us…
Today's ride was 95 kilometers.........with one flat to fix....
By 3:00 p.m. everyone was at the Howard Johnson in Monterey - everyone is sporting some tan lines today - it was just one fabulous day all around. We were very impressed to see what this area produces in terms of agriculture - something we were not aware of. In the heart of this area, we stopped at a roadside stand where everything we had seen growing was being sold. Bottles of marinated Artichoke Hearts were also available - the young lad minding the stand asked if we wanted a sample before we bought, we said yes, we sampled, we bought....and shared with the others at happy hour along with the "real guacamole" dip we also bought...
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| The fruit of the land |
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