Monterey night out! Cheap mexican, a ride on a free trolley and endless entertainment from a dude who continually talked to himself:)
Big Sur - believe the hype. so beautiful
Can you see hughes? the Redwood is big no?
Hughes against the road...this is my version of art...sad but true!

Our friend Micah...no caption needed:)
Downtown San Fran on our day off
I could swim out of the Rock no problem....you can't hold me down!
Giants vs. Nationals - Giants came back to win in the 9th. Good game but so friggin cold!

Santa Cruz - aka Santa Carla from the Lost Boys!!!
Low and behold, these our our riding soul mates, the "cali boys". We find them wherever we go, even when we think we've finally lost em:) Pretty sure we caluclated and we've only spent 5 nights total apart!
This is our beloved Tyler. He is a teacher from Colorado that came on this trip with no sweater, no towel, but a whole lot of hilarity!
I took this picture for obvious reasons! I was meant to stay there but we decided to hit the motel 6 ( the most wonderful motel on earth in stead while we took a day off in Gold beach)
She's not faking. Fog and northern Cali go hand and hand!
Sarah on Paul Bunyon's foot. Kinda a big dude i guess!?

Our camp view from our tents. It'll do i guess:)
Trees that grow out of the sand in Southern Oregon. We also went 5 miles in the wrong direction that day into a pile of sand dunes! 17mph out with a tailwind, but not so fast to back track:(
Our friend Ben the med student from San Fran!
The San Fran boys, Justin and Ross (left to right) so hilarious! In love with making fire. they had another friend with them but he accidentally chopped his hand with an axe on their first night and had to call is short for obvious reasons (had to have surgery to have his thumb extensor reattached!)

The Belgians! - Martin and B (Note: waffle maker not in view)
The Astoria bridge - long, windy, full of trucks and no shoulder:( but pretty to look at...
Nehalem State Park - the lesbian love tour continues
Hughes was having IT trouble and was rolling it out...if you were me, would you not take a picture and post it for all your friends and family to laugh at!?
Beautiful Oregon!

more beautiful Oregon...

more pics!!

This is the view from our hotel room in San Simeon!! Crazy!

this is my usual view for most of every day! nice flat day today at least!

Sweet, Big Sur is awesome!
Everything on the right is burnt, pretty much all of Big Sur! All the way down to the highway for like 40 miles at least!
McRay (I think?) Falls, just past Big Sur.

Elephant Sea Lions molting on the beach!! Tuna's lovin' it!
Our first glimpse of San Fran! (see Alcatrez to the left?)
We made it across! Me, Tuna, and our friend Micah nearing the end of our 80 mile day to San Fran! Just a few more miles through downtown and we're at our hotel!
Tuna with Alcatrez! Our tourist day in San Fran.
World's most crookedest street! The streets of San Fran really are steep! We did a LOT of hill climbing that day, and we thought it was gonna be a rest day!

Remember the movie Lost Boys? This is where it was filmed, the boardwalk in Santa Cruz! Remember the creepy scene where they're hanging from the tressles? LOVED Keifer Sutherland in that movie!!

Top of our biggest climb of the trip, 2000ft! Wow and would you just look at the view. Kind of anti-climactic.
Another foggy day on the coast, at least we weren't right inside the fog this time!
Ahhhh, my WORST day of the trip. This was the hill that never ended, with cattle guards and RV's on our tail ALL day. Yuk. Notice the two tiny specs on the road, that's the Cali boys close behind us.

Reverse dog sled! These people were kind enough to lead us through the maze of suburbs to the Golden Gate Bridge on their way home! The dogs are being trained to literally sniff out cancer! They're world-famous! Check out their website at www.pinestreetfoundation.org

WE GOT PICTURES!!!!

Big tree! We FROZE all morning, but hugging the big tree made me feel better!

Our night-time bike ride to the Meyers Flat Saloon. It was only 0.7 miles, but I was scared!
The gang of misfits! B. and Martin the Belgians, Tuna, Kyle and Jeremy the Cali boys w/ me between, and Ben the med student from San Fran!

Tuna's new boyfriend, look out Jeff! Oh, and my new bf, bigfoot! I like him 'cause he's very tall!

Yay, Cali!! We thought it was gonna be warm now; boy were we wrong!
Various beach views, so nice!!

And then there was fog! We rode in this ALL morning. And then the next day, and the next day, and the next day. I think the ocean's down there somewhere!

We finally found an cafe with a computer that will upload pictures!!! Enjoy everyone, if a picture's worth 1000 words I shouldn't have to type again for months!!

Good stuff a brewin'

July 26th - Saturday night in downtown Monterey
So another beautiful day of weather. We rode all morning thru beautiful ripe strawberry fields ( i can see why the Beatles got stoned and wandered thru such a glorious place...pretty much all i could do to keep Hughes on the bike and iff the vines:) We had our first brush with the law today! A trooper pulls up behind us as we're on the Highway 1 freeway and gets right behind Sarah and lets his horns and flashers fly...scares the shit out of us obviously just to tell us what we already knew, that we had to exit the highway the next exit...(thanks tips, maybe next time you could just throw something at us while we ride... maybe a bit more subtle!) so we ride the rest of the way to monterey on a bike path, meet up with a dude who shows us how to get right downtown/to our campsite on the path and offers to let us store our bikes at his place, as he and his wife are big riders, if we want to tour around Monterey:) We climb a hideous hill to get to camp, set up and Jer and Kyle roll thru. We were suppose to loose our Cali Boys as they are now gaining distance to get home, while SH and i have time to kill. Jer went hard the night before and was drinkin' til 4, then only got an hour sleep. We let him nap then the four of us took a cab back down the mountain (cause no one was climbing up that thing again:( and went for cheap mexican fast food, then took the free trolley all around town, peeked into a wedding, had some ice cream, and watched a crazy dude have a hilariously happy conversation with his other personality! Racoons at the site, tried to get into my food (no avail...don't they know that i don't share my food! boo yah!) and we got a huge jump on the Sunday ride the next morning to avoid traffic!
July 27th - Big Sur
Rode thru a cloud of hills all morning! super hideous climb right out of the site, but then we were in Big Sur and done for the day by 11am. Beautfiul town where we hung out all morning in the sun, chatting with fellow riders, and Hughes made friends with a little girl named Sasha that asked Sarah if she had sisters, or babies, then let us know that we all have gas that comes from our privates:) it was boss! No sign of the Cali boys to say bye, so hughes and i went on to camp (i felt a bad tire day for them and attributed their no show to such). Went and hiked to the top of the hill to see the fire damage, pretty neat and good pics taken. Read, played cards and basked in the sun:) I'm sitting there while hughes showers and i hear a "tuna" call thru the trees and low and behold our Cali boys are here, having had THREE friggin flats, they had to come back a mile down the mountain to this site cause they have to back track to Monterey where the closest bike shop is. Busese don't start til noon so we'll be seeing them again at Kirk Creek outside Lucia (yah mommy) tommorrow...or will we...have to go switch the laundry...so i'll leave you all on the edge of your seat with excitment! Peace out!!!

July 21st - Bodega Bay
KS - My dear sweet lord, this was the longest day I have ever lived. Hughes and i got a late start on the day as we tried to stop at a public library to use their computer but alas the bloody place didn't open til noon (good news is that Point Arena is showing the new Batman so our San Fran buddies will be happy as all hell!) We did stop in Gualala (the G is silent:) for like a hundred hours doing all sorts of life tasks, and then had an afternoon of hilly, torturous switch backs (where the highway rolls down, pulls a 90 degree turn then makes you climb back up to the height you were just at. It's absolute hell on a bike:( Hughesy was not feeling "uncomfortably energetic" and then i pulled a typical me, got caught in my clips and toasted my bucket off the ground while chewing the back of my right leg in my front cassette:( SH bought me an "IT'S IT" San Fran ice cream treat to cheer me up! Didn't get to camp til almost 7 and were stone cold exhausted when we got there. It was the last night with the Belgians which was sad, and there was a super annoying chick riding with some friends that i got stuck chatting with for most of the night, which was also sad!
ps. Hughes dreamt she was going off a side of a cliff (pretty much cause that's what we were doing all day and spent a good portion of the night trying to snuggle me and steal my thermarest!

July 22nd - San Francisco....or bust!

KS- I felt like ass all day due to lack of sleep (note hughes story above:), but we got up early to throw an extra 20miles on our day to get to San Fran baby! Micah rode with us all day (friend from Oakland area) who is really nice, and we had fun in the am picking rode side blackberries and he introduced the game "F*&k, Chuck or Marry" where you pick three people, 1 you can $%^k then never see again, one you must live in a platonic marriage and the other you can push off a cliff! (hours of entertainment, you have no idea!) Stopped at Point Reyes for lunch, our Cali buddy blew his tire up which we didn't get to see but is hilarious none the less, then missioned on to the Golden Gate Bridge! En route we met a couple who showed us how to get to the bridge via bike trails, which was doubly wonderful cause they were also packing thier dogs with them, who are research dogs, famous for their cancer sniffing capabilities!!! Ling and Ming (google them, cause they're pseudo famous!), then we got close to the bridge, got lost, my chain snapped and pretty much all hell broke loose! We got our lives back together and crosssed the bridge (so windy!), got sweet directions to our hotel that had minimal hills and passed the hell out upon arrival at 9pm. We were absolutely done with 14hours outside and tons of obstacles!
July 23rd - San Francisco ....DAY OFF BOO YAH!
Hughes and i were up and at it by 9, i went to get my bike tuned up and Hughes went and did laundry. I walked all over the city, seeing quite a bit in my quest for a bike shop (which took almost 1.5hrs, which is also ridiculous since EVERYONE in San Fran rides a bike!) Hughes made friends with a Filipino lady who was trying to jam her carpet into the washing machine, and when she realized it wouldn't fit, decided to get scissors and just chop the bad boy down to fit!! hahaha) We then went to breakfast at Brenda's (bottom line: best breakfast ever!) then went to the city hall, public library, fisherman's wharf, pier 39, the world's most windiest street, china town, a giants game and then out to a bar that was having a 1964 theme night. Hughes and I boogied down, hoover some post bar pizza, then returned to our delicious hotel bed:)
July 24th - Half Moon Bay
while swimming in a sea of day after beer, we missioned out of San Fran and made it to Half moon bay. Went thru Daly City, that looks like a 1950s horror movie set, met 2 new peeps at the site that were just riding for the day, who were super nice and supplied us with smoores:)
Not much of an exciting day, when your suppose to be having this great adventure and the most exciting thing is smoores! (but really we went thru the golden gate park and it was unbelievably beautiful:)
July 25th - New Brighton State Beach, Soquel CA
KS - Today was boss!!!!! Such a beautiful view/ride (so much so that we actually got stopped for a bit cause they were filming a commercial on the road cause it's just that nice. and there were sweet porches zooming all about:) we then went on to Santa Cruz (or as you may know it as Santa Clara from the Lost Boys!!!) we hung out on the board walk (way less scary) and looked at the tressle that fakes as the one from the movie (we met a girl named Cerradwyn who is from the town and she gave us the goods on what's real and what was a set. The original bridge was ruined in the '89 quake and the cave was a set:(...too bad cause that would have been wicked! The weather is finally wonderful (i'm riding in a tank top which is saying something seeing as though i am constantly cold on this trip! hahaha) Peace out hommies!

FINALLY AN INTERNET CAFE!

Ok, we have soooooo much to catch up on! So disappointed though, this computer won't let me upload pics either! We're gonna have to do like a full day of just pictures, because seriously, who wants to look at a blog with no pictures? But we'll update you anyways, I guess Tuna and I will just have to be extra witty to keep your attention! I'm gonna re-cap July 16-20, and Tuna's gonna do the 21st to present!


DAY 12: Wed, July 16

Longest day yet, 76 miles! We rode from Crescent City to Eureka to catch up with our route in the guidebook, and to catch up with all our friends! 76 miles actually went surprisingly well and we only had to ride for 13 hours! (we took lots of breaks, we're not THAT slow!) We got to ride through giant redwoods ALL day today, soooo, nice but freezing our butts off all day, it was only 10 degrees out! We had two huge climbs in the morning then had to stop for an oatmeal and coffee break because we were FREEZING after coasting down! We took a sweet detour to Patrick's Point and saw SEA LIONS! Everyone at the KOA campground was so surprised to see us, it was hilarious! Plus there was a hottub there, so it was totally worth the ride!

DAY 13: Thurs, July 17

Our ride today from Eureka to Hidden Springs (58 miles) was PAAAIIIINNNFUL! apparently we couldn't ride 76 miles and escape unharmed! My legs were totally dead today (I think the hot tub had something to do with that too!) and I got my first flat tire today! We changed the flat "no problemo" but then had to conquer the much more difficult task of finding a bike shop in Eureka so I could replace my spare tube. It took us 2.5 extra hours, and I ended up buying 3. So we rolled into camp late and exhausted but somehow got talked into a nighttime bikeride to the local saloon for beers! I am glad we don't usually ride at night, it was SUPER scary! Lucky it was only 0.7 miles! Stayed up till midnight, way past our usual bedtime of 9pm! better sleep in tomorrow!

DAY 14: Friday, July 18

2 weeks on the road! We had a good sleep in today and the legs are not feeling quite so exhausted. Plus we went inland, which meant finally HOT WEATHER!!! It was actually super smoky from all the fires in Northern Cali, but it was actually mid-80's which was AWESOME and we went swimming twice! The roads were REALLY windy and narrow today and steep, and tonnes of RV's on the road, so definitely NOT the most ideal riding conditions. We rode to Legget, CA today, to the base of what will be the highest climb of the trip tomorrow!

DAY 15: Saturday, July 19

HILL DAY!! We climbed the famous Legget Hill, to the highest point on the coast highway @ 2200ft. (I know, still nothing compared to the Rockies!) The climb actually wasn't as bad as the ride DOWN! Going down from inland back to the coast, the temperature must have dropped at least 15 degrees Celcius down to under 10 degrees, we FROZE!! plus we had to descend for over an hour! It was ridiculous, I wanted to climb another hill just to warm up again! We finally shivered our way into the only town on the whole ride today, which turns out has a population of 350 people and we had coffee at the only "cafe", which was totally just this guy's living room! So weird! Oh, and we had the crazy Asshole RV people to deal with next! Again the roads are super windy, narrow, and steep with NO shoulder, so we're climbing and have nowhere to go, and these A-Holes with a truck and camper start honking and riding our ass and yelling at us! I seriously turned around while climbing and yelled "Where the F*@k do you want me to go? Just WAIT!" It was literally less than 20 meters to the top of the hill, we were NOT impressed. So then Tuna had a few more choice words as they burned by us at the top of the hill, including calling the wife a fat lazy cow and a few other words I'll censor out. GO TUNA! We arrived at Fort Bragg only 39 miles later and more mentally exhausted than anything else! I hate weekend traffic!

DAY 16: Sunday, July 20

Pretty short distance day today (42 miles to Manchester KOA). We pushed for 30 miles early morning to get to the town of Elk for breakfast, which was so pretty and totally worth the wait! Then we only had another hour to our campsite, sweet! Plus I think I love KOA! Another hot tub and a communal fire! We sat by the fire, where KOA staff would come by hourly and throw more wood on the fire, and talked to KOA RV campers who gave us all sorts of food and goodies! At $7.00 a bundle for firewood, a free fire is hard to pass up, and we ended up chillin' by the fire for a good 4 hours!

OK, HOPEFULLY we will eventually be able to upload more pics! We have soooo many good pics to show you, so stay tuned!

Hello again everyone! So we made sure to not go so long until we update this time! We are at the Cali - Oregon Border!! Just having lunch in Brookings, OR before we head across! Unfortunately the internet cafe here won't recognize my USB, so no pics today; sorry! So here's the update from the past few days:

JULY 11:
Beverly Beach --> Honeyman State Park

Ok, I'm gonna be totally honest here; I skipped a couple days in my journal and this day is a total blur, I don't even remember if anything interesting happened! Let's just move on to the next day, ok!

KS: Most interesting thing was crossing a bridge on foot that brought a whole new meaning to windy and small shoulder!

JULY 12:
Honeyman SP --> Sunset Beach, OR (60 miles)

We got a couple new additions to the pack today, that's now pretty set! we all hang out at camp together, then leap frog all day as we start at various times in the morning. There's me and Tuna, then 2 surfer guys from Orange County, one guy from Denver, CO, one other guy from San Fran, and a couple from Belgium. Sunset Bay beach is awesome, wish it were warmer and we had gotten in earlier so we could've enjoyed the beach! Our rides are pretty much an all-day affair now; we leave camp between 8 and 9am, and arrive at our destination between 4-6pm. We like our breaks! Usually a couple hours break for lunch, then another hour in the afternoon!

KS: There was a gang of British dudes that were less than social and we met up with a father and his two sons that are hilarious. The boys started in Alaska and are going to mexico and the dad jumped in in Van and they've already done this trip Hughes and I are on once before when each of the boys was 13!!!! so wild.

JULY 13:
Sunset Bay --> Humbug Mtn. State Park (57 miles)

SH: Yay, my knee is finally feeling better! Chiropractic cures! Thanks to Tuna and her stellar A.R.T. skills I'm feeling about 85%, and my right leg is thankful to not have to do all the work anymore! Tomorrow we're riding to Gold Beach, OR for our first rest day on Day 10! Unfortunately my bad luck with the knee seems to have leapt into Tuna's intestines, her stomach was NOT feeling good today. Poor Tuna was balled up in the fetal position a couple times at the side of the road today.

KS: I'm an idiot and Hughesy is too nice to write "poor tuna". I haven't been drinking any gatorade at all. So i had way less electrolytes then my body has room for! :(... I've also developed ulnar nerve palsy in my left arm in C8 (so no adduction or proximal extension in my 3-5th digits. It's pretty hiliarious cause even as i type i have to keep a strong focus on not screwing up a, q, z w,s and x!

SH: It was super warm out today which was pretty sweet; wore my tank top, until we got to Port Orford and literally rode INTO a cloud and the temperature dropped down to about 10 degrees Celcius! Yikes! We'll be happy for our rest day tomorrow, but sad to leave our band of misfits that we've been travelling with!

KS: Riding in was like something out of a friggin' Steven King novel. I was close to death and pretty sure that a creepy clown was going to roll out from around the corner at any second!

JULY 14:
Humbug Mtn --> Gold Beach, OR (20 miles)

Yay, a couple hours ride in the morning, then REST DAY!! Yay for Motel 6! They let us check in at noon so we got literally watch TV ALL DAY. And clean clothes too, sooooo nice!!

KS: I love television so much. we watched movies and ordered pizza and salad for dinner from the only place in the whole town that does delivery:)

JULY 15:
Gold Beach --> Crescent City, CA

Into Cali we go! Tuna keeps singing some rap song about "Goin' back to Cali", mostly it just confuses me. We are both feeling UNCOMFORTABLY ENERGETIC after our rest day, we're gonna kick those Northern Cali mountains in the face with our ENERGY LEGS!

KS: I'm also pounding out some verses of 'i wish they all could be california girls"...perhaps it's too much women's basketball in my youth. I've been lucky enough thus far to avoid getting the theme song from the O.C. trapped in there:)

SH: We'll post pics next time, promise!!