Day 10

Travel Buddies

Peddling towards warmer weather motivated Dusty and me to bike through Washington, then the cold and windy Oregon coast, and now we hear the warmth awaits us on the other side of San Francisco. We did two taxing days through the Redwoods, yesterday finding ourselves climbing the two worst climbs on the Pacific Coast route. We treated ourselves to a hippie cafe serving an all-organic breakfast in a town called Fort Brag where we find ourselves with way overdue laundry, zero groceries and two sets of tired legs.

Trips like these are easy and cheap to tackle. Dusty rides a bike built for touring; I simply threw a rack on the back of my road bike (purchased second hand during my years in college). We see people cycling with four times as much gear as us, pulling trailers, panniers on the front and back of the bikes, bringing with them everything but the kitchen sink. While some just have Wal-Mart bikes with duffel bags hanging off the sides, you can spend a fortune on the lightest, smallest gear known to hikers and bikers. It's fun looking at those folks when camping, but you can also cut corners and take what you have in a pack, on a bike, in a canoe and just enjoy the ride at minimal expense. We pay $5 a night to pitch our tents at state parks, spend $20 a day at grocery stores, and occasionally treat ourselves to a meal out (as you can see from the pictures of the margarita's last night)!

Limping into camp at a snail's pace last night, shivering, we found a state park with non-drinkable water and ice cold showers. It is times like these you appreciate having a good travel companion like Dusty. This guy has pulled me through days of agonizing painful knee problems, generated belly busting laughter amidst stressful scenarios and provided a positive outlook on the days most would call down right miserable. Yesterday, after taking a break atop a monstrous climb, he looks over at me while reviewing some of our photos on the camera and says, "Hmm, I look like a model in this picture." One look at him with fresh smears of sunscreen on his cheeks, dust covered bike shorts and disorganized bike rack and I lost it! Laughing at his less than modest remark I could barely hold my bike upright.

Though we have been cornered into tight spots, less than safe biking conditions, ugly weather and painful health issues the two of us never remark about these things while biking. It is laughter that gets us from point to point.

Happy 4th of July! Holidays make us miss friends and family...