Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Day 4 Santa Cruz to Monterey

Mileage 46.15 (Total 144.9)
Climb 1,700 ft

It was my birthday today and other than not being able to spend it with my family, I couldn't have asked for a better day.  The weather was beautiful, the ride exceeded my expectations and the food and company was great.

We did start out the day with some bad news.  One of our group quit the trip today.  Her name is Jennifer from Sacramento and she said that the requirements of the ride were just too much. She had been having a hard time sleeping in the tent and between not getting good rest and the riding up hills and against the wind, it was too much.  We will miss her. She is a great lady.  She knew that I forgot my bike lock on coming on the trip and as she left she wanted me to take hers.  I told her, "I am not going to take your lock" and she demanded that I do so. She mentioned that she lost her mom recently and she was taking this trip with the life insurance money she received and riding with her mom in mind, so it made me feel bad she couldn't continue on with us.

Today's ride was just beautiful.  We rode through agriculture areas and it was just so much fun for me to see all the different crops that are being grown and harvested right now.  I saw all these things being harvested in one day:


Strawberries


Celery


Artichokes

Mushrooms


Iceberg Lettuce, and cauliflower, which I don't have a picture of.  It was great to see all that.  I guess the farmer blood still flows in me. The route had us get off of highway 1 and took us on all these quiet country roads through all these farms and it was just fun.

We also rode into Monterey, California today.  This would be a neat place to spend a little more time in. They have a fisherman's Wharf and there are great places to eat and do if you have the time. I walked through all the restaurants and each one is giving you a sample of their clam chowder and you could eat quite a bit of it just by getting all the samples. All of them were really good. I was able to stop at a fish house and have halibut for lunch.


Thanks Mom for the birthday gift.

I guess this was my birthday lunch.  It was delicious. I know pictures of food usually don't look that good, but this still looks good. Tonight, Simon and Thomas (they both are from Toronto, Canada) cooked dinner.  They made this chicken with broccoli, stuffing and cheese in tin foil dinner that was delicious.  For dessert, they fried pound cake in butter and then added Rolos and strawberries. That was delicious as well. As you can see, pretty good eating for the birthday.

A little more on Monterey. There is a place here called Cannery Row, which is all shops and restaurants now, but it was made famous by Steinbeck in his book called Cannery Row. I have never read it, but probably should.

Well that is about it. I think I am feeling a little bit of heartburn coming on. Kind of understandable, right. I hope you all are well..


Moss Landing were I ate the fish.


 
Fisherman's Wharf

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