It was relatively quite an easy ride today. Everyone kind of slept in this morning (7:30 breakfast instead of 6:30) and laid back on getting the ride done. It was about a 20 mile ride to get to Santa Barbara, and while there most visted the REI here to get re-stocked on items that were needed or that have broke in the meantime, etc. I always like to go to an REI store, just to look at all the cool stuff. There were just a few things I needed, batteries and I broke my tire tool when I had the flat and needed to get a new one and that was it. We then went to a place and had a nice brunch.
We then rode another 17 miles to Carpinteria where we are spending the night at the state beach here. It was TJ and my turn to prepare dinner again. Since TJ is such a good cook, I just left it to him to figure out what to eat. We prepared Ahi tuna with a pesto pasta and a salad. The tuna that they bought to eat was $25 a pound. I couldn't believe it. It was really good. TJ cooked half of the tuna the way you would probably get it in a restaurant, only seared on both sides and pretty raw in the middle and cooked half the way that I would prefer having it cooked and that is well done. I did try the half cooked version, and I must say it is good if you can keep from seeing what you are eating. Anyway, we received some great comments on the dinner.
We rode through the campus of University of California, Santa Barbara. What a place for a university, right on the coast.
Peer in Santa Barbara
And beach
Beach we are camping on tonight.
View from here towards the mountains to the east.
This is Catherine and her husband Dave. They are from Seattle, WA. Dave is the one that is good friends with Bill that I introduced a few days back. He was originally from Texas as well until marrying Catherine. Catherine worked as an attorney for REI and recently retired in June. They have done quite a bit of bicycle travel over the years and are great to travel with and talk to.
This is Phil on the left from Minnisota and Buddy on the right from Irvine, CA. I don't know that much about Phil and he is a very quiet man. I will have to do my best in the next few days to find more about him. He was the last one to sign up for the trip, signing up only days before the trip started.
Buddy is a great person. We have gotten to be good friends in the short time we have been together. He loves to ride bike and has done a lot of it through the years, but is feeling that this may be his last extended trip. I hate to see that happen, he loves it so much but his knees bother him quite a bit. He let me take his tire boot to place in my tire this morning because of my puncture problem and then he bought me another as a spare as we visited REI today. Great man that I feel a blessing to get to know. He is just so positive and sees the best in everything.
Well, that is about it for tonight. We are sleeping next to the tracks and the Amtrac goes by in one direction or another about every hour.
I sleep with ear plugs, so I should be good, but this would be a great way to see the coast. Many times it is traveling right down the coast.
Thought I would leave you with the sight I see the most in a day. I took this on yesterday's ride.
As you can tell, going down a hill.
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