Saturday - Morro Bay, SLO, and a blue jay

I fed this bird almonds and bits of fruit the night before, and it came back in the morning looking for me. Every time I gave it a piece of almond too large for it to ingest, it would bury it. Birds are kinda fun when they're not in a cage, squawking and making awful smells in your apartment.

Morro Bay is awesome.

Bubble gum alley in San Luis Obispo. Cool town.

I caught the train back to Santa Barbara and drove straight back to Glendale, arriving this morning at 6:00am. I'm pretty damn tired right now. My whole body aches.

Totally worth it.

Friday - Right bundle branch block hills

Waking up in a cloud.

The sun burned off some of the fog.

More windy hills above the clouds.

Ragged Point

More seals - this time they're elephant seals. They seemed pretty lazy in the afternoon.

Thursday - Air nomads, Big Sur

Everything was soaking wet. This camp was a quarter-mile from the road over a muddy, hiking trail. I've never been so happy to climb into a tent and sleep.

Up and over.

The ocean is there - a hundred yards below the fog layer. I wish I knew how to take better photos. I felt awesome riding above the clouds.

Wednesday - Wind, Rain, Strawberry fields

Best western provided a shower cap which fit nicely over my helmet

Moss Landing - strawberries and a horrible headwind. I think I was averaging around 5mph all morning.

Seals!

Around noon the skies cleared and I thought I was good to make it all the way to Big Sur. As I rounded the corner after Carmel, I saw this storm coming in. I tried to race it and lost miserably, arriving at my campsite soaking wet and freezing .

Tuesday

Pigeon Point Lighthouse.

Same lighthouse, different angle.

This is Scott's Creek beach.

This is where some nice hippies run an organic farm/bake shop and you pay on the honor system. I had some awesome pumpkin curry.

I'm typing this in the Best Western in the Santa Cruz area. Why am I here, in the lap of luxury, and not out camping? There is a mighty wind forecast for tonight and all of the coastal campgrounds in this neck of the woods are closed.

Tomorrow the forecast says rain. All. Day. Long.

So I don't know what's going to happen.

pacific coast - Monday

I'm on a boat!

Hey look, it's some kinda bridge.

A panorama. I swear there are no glitches in the matrix this time.

It's a beach. I saw a whole lotta these. In the background you can see construction from a tunnel they're building which should bypass part of the uber-scary no-shoulder steep road just south of Pacifica.

This is where I camped at Half Moon bay. I was so tired, I went to sleep at 4:30 and didn't leave my tent until the next morning.

I made it to Santa Barbara!

I woke up at 4:30 a.m. and managed to get to Santa Barbara with around 3 hours to spare, so I took a walk, bought some supplies and managed to get a bite to eat before boarding the train.

I also managed to spot a glitch in the matrix. Can you see it too?

Amtrak:

My first Amtrak experience gets three gold stars. They have electric hookups, a meal car, you can walk around, recline your chair (they even have footrests), and they only charge $20 to ship a bike. $20!!! Can you believe it!? Stupid airlines.

Downside: it was an 8 hour trip from SB to SF.

Upside: it was really scenic.

Downside: Most of the trip was after sunset.

Upside: I got to sleep.

Downside: I can't sleep because my sleep schedule has been thoroughly messed up by a week of solid finals combined with excessive caffeine and anxiety.

This is me at the Jack London Inn. I'm pretty sure this place is a crackhouse. I will be using my sleeping bag tonight.