5-16-10 -- San Luis Obispo to Santa Barbara

After I finished writing last night, my buddy Noelle Cirisan was nice enough to drive down from Paso Robles to have dinner in SLO. When she found out I was planning on camping out in the county park that evening, she quickly ushered me to her car and took me home for the evening. I tried to put up a fight, but the promise of a hot shower and a load of laundry proved too much for my weary brain to resist. We drove about half an hour north to Paso to Noe’s Mom’s house. She lives in a sweet, simple suburban neighborhood. It made me smile, because her home feels very much like the one I grew up in in Santa Rosa. I finally got to meet Noe’s mom, Francis, and her new puppy ‘Chewy.’ Both very cute and sweet. :-) I tried to stay up and chat, but 11oclock rolled around and I could feel my eyelids easing shut. I bid my wonderful hostesses good night, and hit the hay.

The next morning we had a nice breakfast – traditional pancakes, bacon and eggs. All the lavish food plus the half-hour drive back to SLO meant for a VERY late start to the day – like noon kind of late. Noelle was nice enough to take me with her on her way to the Sierra Club. She’s been volunteering there EXTENSIVELY, and has become an integral component in their operations. Today she was doing a project with some Cal Poly students concerning the oil spill in the gulf. Hope it went well Noe!

This afternoon I rode through the small town of Guadalupe. It looks like most towns in the Midwest – one street surrounded by old-school single floor retail mom-and-pop shops. The population was entirely Hispanic from what I could see. Being hungry as I usually am, I stopped in the pizzeria to get a slice. As it turns out they only sold whole pies – oh well, at least I could use their bathroom, right? I stepped in the back party room looking for the restroom. The ladies room was well marked, but the men’s was nowhere in sight. There was a small, older Mexican man is standing, waiting for something. He was wearing a HUGE cowboy hat, a worn but clean looking button up shirt, and a comforting smile. He nods to a small hallway in the corner, as if to direct me to my destination. I checked the darkened corner, but there was only what appears to be a bathroom stall door nailed crookedly over the entrance. The older gent comes around the corner, still with the kindly smile and moves the stall door as though it were an accident that it were there. (I have to mention that I was still in that post-exercise drunken haze where everything feels a bit dreamlike.) He smiled again, nodding me through the door before quickly stepping back into the party room. I steped into the darkened bathroom and immediately fell through the floor up to my waist. I managed to catch myself before completely falling through to the god-only-knows how deep basement. My feet had punched through a thin layer of plasterboard, leaving an eerie blackness below. I pulled myself out of the hole, still in a haze, and started laughing hysterically! The whole thing just tickled me so! Did the man know? Why hadn’t the owner marked this? How zany! I laughed again and walked around the corner to find the man. He was greeting his grandchildren who he was hosting a party for. He knew nothing about the bathroom, and was simply trying to be helpful - he also didn’t speak a word of English.

I had set myself a high mileage target for the day. I wanted to make it from SLO to Santa Barbara, but knew with the noon start that that was probably unlikely. I ended up making it to a beautiful rest stop about 25 miles outside of SB in Gaviota State Park. It was 8:30 by the time I made it that far, and it was getting dark, and VERY cold. I figured it would be best to hunker down here for the night.

Its actually quite pretty here – behind me are huge red rock formations , offset by streaks of green vegetation. If there were a restaurant it would be perfect! I’ll have to make due with peanut butter and bagels tonight I guess. :-)