OTIS AND THE BIKE RIDE

Drunk By Two, On The Road By Two-Thirty

Friday, July 20, 2007 - Day 29

Alright, so I wasn't really drunk, by I got a pretty good buzz going before I hit the road. I was getting a later start than I wanted to, and I had to go south into the town of Arcata to pick up some supplies, namely a new hat and some food for camping tonight. So I had told Amy that I was going to stop by the deli she works at on my way out to get lunch. So glad I did. After picking up some food at the co-op grocery store (not good prices) and a beanie at a thrift store for 50 cents or something like that, I headed back north to stop at the deli. I'm sure glad I did. Amy hooked me up with an awesome sandwich for about half the price. It was delicious. I met some of her friends while I was there, as well. Unfortunately, because I am so horrible with names, I forgot most of them. Don't take offense, if you guys read this. It's nothing personal, I swear. I do remember one name, and I couldn't forget because he wrote it down, and that was Alejandro. Super nice guy. Offered me a beer from his pitcher. He and his friend were up in town from Mendocino county and just hanging out, so they had started drinking just after noon. I took the beer, thinking I would have just one. He topped me off at least once. Nice guy.

Then when he found out that I was a traveler, he went nuts. He was so excited about what I was doing. He has traveled around as well, to England, India, and I think Nepal? He backpacked through Kashmir. I was impressed by that. Said he stayed with some Muslims up there, followed their customs. Anyway, when he was so excited about me being a traveler, he wanted to buy me a beer. Instead he bought another pitcher and gave me at least a quarter of it. It was great. So we had a good conversation. Oh, and he bought the rest of my marijuana peanut butter. That was perfect. There was still most of the jar left. I had only had a little and only shared it with a few people. I was tired of carrying that jar around, knowing that I probably was never going to use or give away it all, and I knew I didn't want to have it trying to go into Canada. I don't want to mess with that shit. So that's all gone now. All I have left is a bunch of crumbs from some of the cookies. I figure I can sprinkle them on some ice cream or something later, maybe when I get to Portland and take a few days off.

These guys were so nice, and they invited me to go down to the river with them for the afternoon. I have to admit, I was very seriously enticed. It sounded like fun. But I really wanted to keep moving forward. I get restless sometimes when I am not moving, and I have taken two days off in the last four. So I rolled out of there around 2:30. I hope to come back there someday. There are plenty of friendly people.

I was hoping to make it pretty far today, cover some good ground after those days off, but I figured that I wasn't going to make it as far as I planned, with such a late start and all. A lot of the day was spent inland, going past some small cities, one of which supposedly is home to the grand wizard of the KKK. That sickens me. I thought about going into the town and trying to find him, maybe throw some hot coffee on his face, but I didn't want to waste my time on a man like that.

Saw some nice lakes and streams. The weather was pretty dreary for most of the day, though. Then, towards the end of the day, I came over a ridge and came down to discover a nice little stretch with the ocean to the west and a lake to the east. It was so pretty. It really made me feel good. I decided to stop on the beach and eat some lunch/dinner. It was around 5 or 6. Walking out to the sand, a man started talking to me. He was friendly, talked about biking. I asken him how far Prairie Creek campground was. He said it was just down the road a few miles, they have a nice biker space there, and he's staying there, just before the hiker/biker spot. He told me to come over and have a beer. What a great idea! He took off, and I sat and enjoyed my can of chili on the beach. It was peaceful. There were other people on the beach, but not within 800 yards of me. There was even a little seal that kept swimming back and forth, just about 20 yards out in the water. He would stick his little, shiny, round head out of the water for a few seconds, then go under for about a minute, then resurface not more than 10 yards further. He did this for about 10 minutes.

After my nice lunch, I set out towards camp. Approaching the campground, I don't know why, but I had a feeling I was going to run into my other northbound friend, Steve, the little Brit. Sure enough, when I pulled up, there he was, about to wash a pot, and there were a few other people there. I was pretty excited to see Steve again. I hadn't seen him in at least four days. So I hung out and set up and chatted and made a little pasta. Then I went over and said hey to the guy from the beach. His name is Todd, and he was so kind to make me a burrito and give me a beer. He had his family there, a wife, two daughters and a son. They were all nice. They live just outside Sacramento. He's a biker, does cyclocross and mountain biking and rides a road bike as well. By trade he's a painter, but he says he bikes pretty much every day. We had some good conversation, and he gave me his card, told me to drop him a line down the road and let him know if I'm ever in Sac-town. I surely will.

Tomorrow should be exciting. I'm planning on making it into Oregon. It will be a decent ride with I guess some hills to start things off, but to make it to a new state will be great. I will have conquered California's coast (except San Diego, but who's going to pay attention to that. Maybe I'll go back and bike San Diego's coast when I'm done with this journey).