VANCOMEX: 09/26/12

Wednesday, 26 September 2012

26th September - Solvang to Ventura

Concensus was that hotel breakfast today was the best so far - a small point of detail, but when you have a long ride ahead it becomes an important issue for the day! We had the luxury of a late breakfast (7.30am) and departure time of just after 8.30am as the ride to Ventura was estimated at about 100km.

Today we continued to roll along the Santa Ynes valley for about 32kms (20miles) with some fantastic mountain views and a fabulous stretch overlooking Lake Cachuma. Every day has been strenuous, some more so than others, today was relatively easy. Initially Maurice explained it was downhill all the way from Solvang to Santa Barara as he had driven the route several times. Last evening we found out that in fact there would be a long, tough 6km (4 mile) climb of to an altitude of 2,225 ft in 80F - ouch !! As we were pushing up this long climb we just kept in our mind that it was an even longer descent of 11kms into Santa Barbara - thoughts of much free wheeling helped motivate us up the climb.

Another first for the team occurred on the descent - we were pulled over by Highway patrol. This is the gist of what the officer said - just try and imagine an strong Californian accent when you read it!.............

''I don't know where yo'awl from, but let me tell you that you've got to stay on the right side of the white shoulder line. If you stray from that line these drivers won't care, they will drive you off the road and you'll become an Organ donor''

There was no room for negotiation so we gratefully accepted his advice! We wanted to ask him for a picture but thought it best not to!

We descended slightly more cautiously just in case he was sitting round another hairpin and rolled into Santa Barbara where we had lunch at Rusty Pizza House. Santa Barbara looks like a great place for a holiday - gives you the real Southern Californian feel.

After lunch it was a gentle roll of around 40kms along the Pacific Coast bike route to Ventura. Easy cycling which we were grateful for having done 160kms (100 miles) in each of the 2 previous days. We are not being complacent but it really does feel now like we have nearly cracked this challenge - bring on the next 3 days.

TWIT of the day. Maurice gets away with murder! Brian, Chris and Simon highly featured. However, after careful consideration Tom was awarded TWIT of the day for short-changing on the restaurant cheque - luckily Maurice spotted his mistake and rectified the downfall. Tom - you have done it again!

Tom, the master of pre and post ride stretching

Views of Lake Cachuma

Views from our ride today

Views on our ride today

Keep pushing Brian and Simon, almost at the top

Almost at the top Maurice

Beach view at Santa Barbara

Marina view, Santa Barbara

Meet Sophia, also doing Vancouver
to Mexico but carrying all her gear!.

Helping with directions through Santa
Barbara - it's like bees round a honey pot !

Official handover of navigator maps from
Brian to Maurice as we enter Southern
California, home territory for Maricue

Simon posing !

Vancomex reach Sothern California!

Vancomex reach Sothern California

The new navigator and deputy in action on the way to Ventura

Cool pitch for RVs right on the beach
near Ventura

Nice view - the sea that is!

25th September - Morro Bay to Solvang

Breakfast plans had to be changed as the hotel staff appeared to have sleep in! So, we popped over the road to a restaurant and had blueberry pancakes and waffles - a great start to the day. The waitress in the restaurant explained that Morro Rock (see picture) is one in a chain of volcanic plugs called the Nine Sisters that extend from Morro Bay to San Luis Obispo.

We left the hotel around 8.15am. The terrain for the first 50km was generally flat with only a few bumps and we made good time to our coffee stop. We passed through a quaint, historic town called San Luis Obispo then after Pismo Beach we reached our coffee destination of Grover Beach where Scott had located a Starbucks. There was, on reflection, quite an amusing dialogue over coffee which started with a simple question of 'how much further to go?' Bridget said 110kms, but blokes being blokes thought the woman was wrong and it was more like 75kms. Bridget stopped giving us feedback at one point because we hadn't listened to her so there was a continual banter on the ride about how much riding there was left to do.

Near Guadalupe Chris punctured his rear wheel putting him firmly at the top of the punctures league with a total of 4. This one was a thorn which we think punctured the tyre when Chris put his bike down at one of numerous toilet stops! We headed further inland and the temperature changed dramatically - rising from 65F when we left the coast to over 80F when we moved inland and stopped for lunch. Lunch was on the side of road overlooking of the town of Lompoc. The view was fantastic, which was a deserved reward for our stiffest climb of the day - just over 1000ft. Over lunch debate continued on just how much cycling we still had to do - Bridget stayed firm in her opinion that there was around 50kms to do - the team continued to ignore her!

The last stage followed highway 246 through Santa Ynez Valley in Santa Barbara county. We followed a detour suggested by Scott which added to the problem of 'how much further have we got to go?' debate. We arrived around 5.45 in Solvang for the night's stop. Solvang was founded and settled by Danes who have done a spendid job keeping it's heritage alive. It was a nice ride into Solvang - the Santa Ynez Valley is scenic through rolling grass hills and importantly was gently undulating.

How far did we end up cycling today? The final distance was 147kms (95miles). If the detour is included in the calculations the overall distance was 160kms which is what Bridget predicted. Just proves the theory - a woman is always right !!!!

We've now cycled 19 of the scheduled 23 days and covered in excess of 2500kms (1560 miles) of the 3000km (1900 miles) planned total distance. Over that time we've been sitting on those little saddles in excess of 125 hrs and climbed over 75,000 ft. A tough challenge for a bunch of mamils, but we have enjoyed almost every minute of it so we will savour the last four days !!

There were two main contenders for TWIT of the day - Maurice and Tim. After careful consideration Tim was the TWIT for losing his sun glasses whilst cycling and not even noticing they dropped out of his pocket. Fortunately, Simon saved the day. Of special note: Tom had a completely TWIT free day - a first in the tour!