Rain? Yes Sur.

Please forgive the cheesy pun. I couldn't help it...
Well we had seen rain forcasts before, many times before. Never had they actually resulted in any rain. That's right folks, believe it or not, Team Ontario made it across five states, cycled for three months and saw little more than a 20 minute shower on two or three ocasions...Until we got to Big Sur. Leaving San Simeon, we remained dry for the first few hours of cycling. Time enough to check out some seals lounging on the beach. Then it began to rain and did so for the rest of the day. We were pretty wet once we reached Lucia, a gas station with some rooms above it and a very expensive restauraunt. We were presented with two options: 1-camping in the rain and 2-room above the general store.

While Team Ontario is a very hardcore team which can endure physical and mental tests of every kind, they were totally unprepared for rain having never experienced it before on their trip. They opted for a lovely room with fireplace, shower and the entire thing was conveniently located very close to a source of ice cream... While it was expensive and a bit of a drag to be stuck inside for the afternoon, it made us realize just how lucky we had been for all those weeks of rain-free cycling.

Day two of Big Sur was sunny and beautiful. It was a challenging but short ride to our next hike-and-bike and we enjoyed the afternoon in Pheifer campground. We even had the oportunity to go for a hike in the afternoon.
Kit, our friend in Apache Junction cleverly nicknamed these hills the PUDS: Pointless Ups and Downs. And that they were... the elevation profile on our maps looked like a heart rate monitor compared to what we had seen in the past.
I do have to disagree with Kit about their pointlessness though...
The ups and downs were worth every grueling hill to be cycling through countryside that looked like this.
These were some of the most beautiful biking days of the trip, even with the rain.

After Big Sur, we got to stay with Juliana and Brian in Monterey where we went for delicious sushi and watched a strange but fun movie. Then we biked to Santa Cruz where we spent the evening with Ian and Christine.
This is where we had the oportunity to go on the second rollercoaster which was considerably more fun for the younger Anne than the older one... Another thrilling part of our time in Santa Cruz was a guest lecture at the university where we learned about a four-man trek through the desert in China. Very awesome indeed, suddenly our bike ride through civilized America seemed less intense.
Our last camping night was spent in Half Moon Bay. It was a gorgeous site overlooking the ocean and we were antsy and excited to reach San Francisco, Uncle John and to lay our bike trailer and paniers to rest for a while. While the touring was soon to be over, much fun was still to be had...find out more in Adventures in San Francisco and Yosemite!