PDF to SFO or Bust

September 24th, 2020     We moseyed around the motel in the morning, taking our time packing up and getting ready for the day. This resulted in a 1030 start time for our 36 mile day. We were excited to have a short day finally, and crossed our fingers there wouldn’t be too many hills. This section of Highway 1 continues to have great views, but the first 10 miles or so had construction. This resulted in uneven road waiting for a fresh layer of asphalt; what a bumpy ride! A few vehicles got a little too close for comfort and didn’t bother slowing down. I cursed them under my breath and continued on.      We hit our lunch break in Gualala around noon and were excited to find an open restaurant! It had been about four days since we had an actual lunch with real food, not typical camping garb you cook over a Jetboil. It had also been since Trinidad, CA that we have sat at a restaurant in outdoor seating; everything we have found has been takeout only. We met a nice ...

  The aviators make their first appearance September 23rd, 2020     Our morning didn’t start as early as planned, but Flo shared a cup of jo with me in the morning (thanks again) so I was ready to conquer the day. It started by me walking up the gravel path to the main road, cause I was not confident I would stay upright on the bike 😂. Once we got rolling, the caffeine boost in the morning really pushed me up the hills and Brandon was wishing he would have had some. It was a short 10 miles into Fort Bragg. I will be adding this to my list of future towns to visit in a car. It was a bustling town for being 0930; we saw more cyclist in the next 10 mile stretch than we had seen this whole trip combined. Sadly none of them were going in our direction or packing gear for a cycle tour. But we had a great time waving hello as they went past.      I can’t say enough about the views on this stretch of highway 1; they were gorgeous! If I were to give someone else ad...

  We knew we had a lot of miles and a lot of elevation today, so we talked about getting on the road at first light. We missed that mark by about 45 minutes, mostly because I relied on my internal clock instead of an alarm. 🤷🏻‍♂️ Before we even left the camp we paused to take a picture, that would be the story of our first 30 miles today. It seemed like every time we turned a corner there was another gorgeous beach just begging to be photographed. As much as we wanted to take it slow and dip our toes in the water of some of these incredible beaches, we remained business like, and kept plodding along.  We were feeling pretty good about the ride at this point in the day, with the highway winding along the cliffs of the Pacific, it seemed like every hill was rewarded with an incredible vista. We stopped frequently to snap pictures. We made a stop at McDonalds for some breakfast in Fort Bragg. The town looked really neat, and had a brewpub, so I was a little sad that we didn’t h...