Day 33 - Distance record

Willits, CA to Cloverdale, CA - 60 miles

Thanks to the Warner's who prepared breakfast and wouldn't let us wash the dishes, we were able to leave by 8am this morning.  It was another very chilly morning, but we were climbing a mountain before long and all additional clothing layers were shed.  We made it to the summit, then enjoyed a loooooooooong downhill.  We completed 30 miles before 10:30 am.

We are in Sonoma county now and the famous California wine country. Just because I'm not a wine drinker doesn't exempt me from adoring vineyards.  I think it's the math-wired side of my brain that enjoys the symmetric spacing and perfect pruning of all the impeccably straight rows.  I wonder if I stopped at a vineyard if they would let me taste the different kinds of grapes?  I know that grape lovers aren't their target audience, but who knows?  I might get lucky.

When we left this morning, we were anticipating a nearly downhill ride all the way to San Francisco.  That's what Google said anyway.  Their elevation map feature must still be in beta, because it was horribly wrong.  We mentioned to the boys that if it really was all downhill, then maybe we could go 100 miles today.  At 50 miles (2:30pm) we stopped and asked them if they were still up for 100 miles.  Tan answered in the negative almost immediately, but Robinson was actually deliberating!  "How many hours did it take us to go 50?  What time would we get to camp if we went 100?"  I love the enthusiasm!

We knew that taking this inland route would mean fewer campgrounds, so we are staying in a hotel tonight.  This makes 3 nights in row of sleeping in actual beds.  We better be careful, or we might get used to the luxury.

Day 32 - Days of rest

Willits, CA - 0 miles

 

We're still in Willits, CA enjoying food cooked in a real kitchen, listening to conference and playing Foosball.  I can't believe that Bins and Tan aren't sick of Foosball yet.  They've started talking about getting a table of our own when we get back to Houston.

We all cuddled up with blankets on the couch to listen to conference this morning and again this afternoon.  After conference the boys had their first fishing lesson.  We went fishing in the Warner's pond and ate apples fresh off their trees.

Some of my favorite quotes from conference:

"Courage is the form of every virtue at the testing point." - Lynn G. Robbins

"Truth is the truth regardless of what we think of it." - D. Todd Christofferson

"God has given us the promise that we can each know truth for ourselves...It may not come as quickly as you desire, but if you do your part it will come and it will be glorious." - Dieter F. Uchtdorf

"I may not be my brother's keeper, but I am my brother's brother and 'because I have ben given much I too must give.'" - Jeffrey R. Holland

"Personal revelation lifts us above our own capacity." - Henry B. Eyring

"Bring all that you know is true and test our message." - David A. Bednar

Day 31 - A place to stay

Willits, CA to Willits, CA - 10 Miles

Our plan for today changed at least 3 times since last night. We finally decided on watching the first session of LDS General Conference at the local chapel, then making an easy ride of 20 miles. We've had some pretty long days lately, so we plan to take tomorrow off completely and enjoy conference.

After watching the first session, changing into our riding clothes and back tracking to a grocery store it was nearly time for the second session to start. We stopped at the church again to eat out lunch and listen to as much of the session as we could before starting our ride.

When we had the trailers repacked and our helmets on, a brother we met this morning invited us to stay at his home for the weekend if we wanted a break. We had planned to take tomorrow off anyway, so it sounded like a good idea. He introduced us to his wife and explained that they had 5 bedrooms at home all to themselves.

Technically, we did ride 10 miles today. We just didn't make any forward progress. Instead, we made some great new friends and indulged in comfortable beds, good food and too much foosball! During one game Tan was playing with Brother Warner he informed the older gentleman, "You're fast for...a man...who's...not very young." I love the funny things my kids say!

Day 30 - And I would walk (Ride) 1000 miles!

Leggett, CA to Willits, CA - 49 Miles

For the last 2 nights we camped with 4 other cyclists touring various sections of the Pacific Coast. We have met wonderful people on this trip from many different places around the globe. Raj is from Singapore and generously gave up 30 minutes of his evening to teach us about the island of Singapore. He was even kind enough to ignore Tan's repeated question, "Are people from Singapore poor singers?"

We bid farewell to our fellow cyclists this morning and steared away from the coast. The more popular route from Leggett to San Francisco is along Hwy 1. We decided it would be safer for us and the boys if we avoided the coastal cliffs in favor of a more inland route. We climbed most of the day, but we're excited because it's setting us up for a mostly downhill ride into San Francisco.

Half way through our ride today, Stephen called a stop to direct our attention to his odometer. We have officially traveled 1000 miles! Now may be a good time to talk about other statistics and projections. On our 27th day of riding, we calculated that if we maintain our current pace of averaging 34 miles per day, we could finish the ride in 26 more days. That would put us at the border on October 26th. There are obviously a lot of factors to consider and things that could come up. We could possibly finish sooner, but I think I'm safe saying that we will definitely touch the Mexican border before Halloween.

Day 29 - Mendocino County Line

Meyers Flatt, CA to Leggett, CA - 44 Miles

There are a few difficulties with camping in the middle of the redwood forest.  The scenery is beautiful, but being surrounded by 300 foot tall trees means it gets darker earlier in the evening  and gets light later in the morning.  The other problem is the temperature.  This was our coldest morning of the trip.  It just takes the sun and heat longer to filter down that far.  Ironically, our coldest morning turned into our hottest day.

Today we made it to the "Drive Thru Tree."  Apparently there are at least 3 in the redwood forest, and we passed one today.  It's just off the Avenue of the Giants in a park.  The park also has tree houses, hollowed out stumps with roofs made into play houses.  The boys loved them!

I left camp this morning humming the song "Mendocino County Line."  It must have been intuition because I'm not up to snuff enough on my California geography to know that Mendocino county is south of Humboldt county.  Sure enough, this afternoon we passed the Mendocino county line.  The reason this is significant is because it reminds me of a family vacation when I was in High School.  

Right about the time we crossed the Mendocino county line (and commented on the song) my Mom and I had a memorable conversation.  I was telling her how one day I wanted to design and build my own home, but not just the house itself.  I wanted to build/make everything in the house (the furniture, the cabinets, the bedding).  Her response was, "You know, you're going to get married one day.  What if your husband doesn't like your crazy ideas?"  All I said was, "Oh, don't worry.  My husband will LOVE my crazy ideas."  I feel like the conversation came full circle today being here at the Mendocino county line with Stephen, doing something that some have called crazy.  Funny though, it doesn't seem crazy to us.  It seems perfectly normal.  We were meant for each other.

"I keep these pictures and I keep these photographs to remind me of a ti-i-ime.  These pictures and these photographs help me know I-I-I'm doing fine."

Day 28 - Gems and Redwoods (Half Way!)

Eureka, CA to Meyers Flatt, CA - 54 miles

Getting out of the tent early was easy this morning because the hot tub was calling my name again. It was covered up, but there were no posted hours, so I helped myself.

We went grocery shopping in Eureka before heading out for the day, but it was a little different than typical shopping on this trip. Eureka has a Costco. We obviously didn't buy much, but we stocked up on the items we use most - peanut butter, honey, nuts, soap. Another rider at camp this evening couldn't believe that we did Costco shopping on a bike tour! We are discovering that there is a whole different dynamic when touring as a family. When we meet a group traveling together, they typically each still have their own gear. 3 cyclists travel with 3 tents, 3 stoves, etc. Traveling as a family, we share a lot of those things.

Last fall in Houston, a friend invited us to the Rock and Gem Show. We saw geode splitting demonstrations, participated in the archeological dig and saw more rocks and gems than we could name. This year, of course, we're not in Houston to attend, but we stopped by a Gem and Mineral shop on our route today. We didn't see any demonstrations, but we did peruse the shop and museum and saw more gems and minerals than we could name. We aren't just homeschooling now, we're travel schooling.

The most exciting part of the day was Avenue of the Giants. We broke away from 101 to travel through the Redwoods. I finally learned the difference between a redwood and a Sequoia. If you're interested, keep reading. There are 3 types of redwood trees. The Dawn Redwoods grow only in Asia and are the smallest of the redwood varieties. The Coast Redwoods grow in Northern California and are the tallest variety, while the Sequoia Redwoods grow in Central California and are the largest in diameter. There's your botany lesson for the day.

At some point today we passed the half way mark! Yay!

Day 27 - Eureka!

Orick, CA to Eureka, CA - 45 miles

I'm an early riser.  At home I get up to read in the kitchen or write on the computer.  It's a bit more complicated while camping.  The boys each need 9 - 10 hours of sleep, while my body is satisfied with 7.  On this trip, we all go to bed at the same time around 9pm.  Even if I sleep an extra hour, I'm up at 5am when it's still dark outside.  If I sit in the tent to write (wireless keyboard connected to my phone), then I get a back ache in the sitting position and I wake up the men folk úwith my click clacking.  I could sit outside in the dark, but the fact that the campsites have bear lockers for our food is slightly disconcerting.  Usually I end up staying in the tent reading until my arms get tired of holding the phone over my head.

This morning I woke up to a screaming neck and back.  For 3 1/2 weeks in a tent, I've been fine, but my body did not appreciate last night.  At 4:45 am I was done sleeping and had to do something.  Solution: the shower stalls have benches.  This morning, I'm sitting in a locked shower stall click clacking away with no one to bother and no bears to bother me.  I hope the rest of the California campground showers are as accommodating as this one.

Last night we are stayed at a campground called Elk Prairie State Park.  We didn't see any elk last night, but they were out this morning.  There were 4 grazing in the prairie as we rode out of camp and plenty more down the road.

When we broke camp this morning, I knew we would be staying at a KOA, so I prayed there would be a hot tub.  My simple prayer was answered and my neck and back thanked me for the jet massage.  The weather today was beautiful.  We had a north wind that blew hard all day and helped us complete our 45 miles by 3:30pm.