California!

So much has happened in the last week, and of course no time to write about it right now. Basically things have gotten very social, we've met lots of interesting people, mostly other cyclists doing the same thing or similar. We left late compared to other groups, but we've been making crazy time: if this were a race, we'd be lapping people. So now we've caught up to several groups who started in August or early September and have been going slower and/or taking rest days (which we have not done so far).

We're now 30km outside San Francisco, at Point Reyes station (which is a very cute town by the way), having cycled around 1800km in the past 2 1/2 weeks. We've cut 2 days off of our guide book suggested day trips so far.

Everybody we meet at campsites or on the road (other touring cyclists I mean) is pretty awesome. We were with another group of 2 for a couple days in Oregon, but we never saw them again after that day when it poured and we stayed at a hostel in Bandon.


The day after Bandon, we didn't miss a beat and decided to cycle to Brookings, which is a few km from the Californian border, but unfortunately was also 150 km from where we started that morning. We were making good time, but then Madalene got social at a rest stop while I was in the washroom (it's always while one of us is alone that we start socializing with others and good things happen) and met a fisherman who was driving to Brookings later that day in a big truck. A few hours later, he indeed drove past us and pulled over and gave us a ride for the last 25km or so.

Very interesting guy, and four of us went for some much appreciated pizza and beer that night in Brookings, after hanging out on his fishing boat for a while. Had we had extra time we could've gone for a fishing adventure for a few days off the coast of Oregon, but alas we are on a deadline of sorts.