Morro Bay, CA to Pismo Beach, CA - 30 Miles
We camped last night in a Eucalyptus grove. It is so refreshing to exit a stuffy tent in the morning and breathe in the scent of Eucalyptus. I'm going to take a tangent here and write a bit more about smells. Of course, if you've been reading this blog, you already know that I follow many tangents without the courtesy of a forewarning. My apologies.
While there is plenty to see on a bicycle tour, I don't think I've done justice to the many things there are to smell. Some smells aren't so pleasant, like land fills, road kill and water treatment plants. Some smells, however, are so wonderful that they will be forever cemented in my mind. I mentioned the strawberry fields last week, but today we rode past a cilantro field. Acres and acres of cilantro combine to pack quite an olfactory punch. Another more surprising scent that has accompanied us is fennel. Wild fennel grows on the side of the road in Southern Oregon and Northern California. Every once in a while I still pick up the scent, but it is more sparse in Central and Southern California. And of course, there are always flowers. Occasionally we pass a well manicured flower garden in full bloom. My favorite is when we pass one in the morning. Flowers always smell better in the cool of the morning when they're wet with dew. OK, tangent complete. Thanks for indulging me and my hyperactive sense of smell.
We planned such an easy day of riding today that we decided to take our time breaking camp. We finally packed up and left at 10:30, then visited the Natural History Museum that's connected to the State Park where we were staying. We learned about the history of Morro Bay and how changes in the local economy have affected changes in the landscape of the bay. We learned about ocean food chains, erosion and sea life.
Today's destination: Pismo Beach. I first visited Pismo Beach during my freshman year of college. It was the first time I ever tried clam chowder in a sour dough bread bowl. It must have been memorable because I didn't remember anything else about the city. Either I didn't see much of it when I was here last or the place has grown significantly. Coming into town, we passed at least a half dozen RV parks that were huge and packed! It may be like this all year, or it could be that we unwittingly chose to visit Pismo Beach during the annual clam festival. We were lucky to find a campsite! We were just passing through, so we didn't participate in any of the local festivities.
