Bitter Wind And The Hill That Almost Destroyed Me

Saturday, June 30, 2007 - Day 9

Distance Traveled - 47 miles

The bitter wind roars and slaps me in the face; so violently it seeks to alter my pace. With wicked intent, sudden gusts blow; surely from the devil's mouth does this evil blast flow.

Today was tough. That's it, it was just so hard in every way. I got started pretty late, a little after 1. Last night was cool. Carole and her roommate Kate and their friends were really friendly. Most of them went to a drum and base party. I didn't go, and neither did Carole, and we had a great conversation. She has a great young spirit. Everyone came back around 12 something and it wasn't until after 1am that I got to go to sleep, maybe it was after 2. So I got up a bit late, everyone slept until almost noon. But they sent me off with a sandwich and an apple. Thanks, Kate.

After that, it was just harder and harder and harder. Very hot today. I was tired. I stopped at El Capitan State Beach for about an hour to get on the internet (they had wireless there, who knew) and stretch and take advantage of a great little exercise station. I hope I find more of these on my journey. Really, after leaving Isla Vista, there was no more signs of civilization save a few camp grounds, one rest stop and a ranches. No restaurants, no gas stations. There wasn't even a snack machine at the freaking rest stop. Shortly after leaving El Capitan there were horrible winds. For some reason they were blowing towards the coast, trying their hardest to blow me into freeway traffic (I was on the 101 for the first half of the day). I think at some points when leaning into the wind, I was actually at around a 50 degree angle to the ground. It slowed me down so much. On top of that, I couldn't ride with any less than two hands on the bars. They were quite unpredectible. At the rest stop, which is called Gaviota, I think, even though there was no town there at all, there was just a bathroom and some picnic tables. No food whatsoever. I was getting weak from hunger and my water was running really low. Guess what, the water fountains didn't even work. I had to fill in the sink. Luckily, though, I was able to get my hands on some food.

A guy asked me how far I was going, I told him Canada; he said some things to me, asked some questions. I asked him when the next town was, where the next food source would be. He didn't really know, but some other people joined in, giving me useless information about the next town, but one couple did offer some snack food. From their car, they manifested a whole box of Wheat Thins. I was very grateful. When I sat down to enjoy my snack, a weird guy that had been saying something to me earlier came up and started talking to me. He brought me a meal replacement bar. He said it was an energy bar. Nice try. I ate it anyway. He also gave me an unwrapped, homemade looking muffin. I ate that as well. He asked me if I was going up to San Luis. I was thinking that maybe this guy was going to offer me a place to stay. I said yes, and he asked me if I was looking for work. I told him that I might be and asked if he had some work for me. He said he works for an internet company or owns it or something. He said there were people working all over, maybe even up in Canada. It was weird. He pulled a few cards from his pocket. They all looked different. He never gave me any of them. It was weird. He never really explained what he did. When I inquired more about his company, he just said it was an internet company that helped people out, helped them reach their dreams. I was not at all interested in what this guy was saying anymore. Go away and let me eat. He eventually did. It was weird.

I continued on, still fighting wind. Then the 101 and 1 split. I stayed on the 1 towards Lompoc. Only a half mile after getting on the 1, a beastly hill produced itself in front of me. It was daunting to say the least. For what I could see, it was at least a half mile long, kinda steep in some parts, and winding. I started up with caution. It was also still a bit windy at times. After about 400 yards, I stopped for a minute. My heart was beating really fast. I needed to change shoulders for my bag. I also reapplied sunscreen to my face. It was really hot and about 4pm or maybe a little later. I continued up, putting a little extra energy in it, but monitoring my body. I burped and it felt like I was close to throwing up. I stopped again. I still wasn't even half way up of what I could see. I started up again, taking it a bit easier. I didn't get much farther before I had to stop again. This thing was a bitch. I changed out of my biking shoes and started walking. After walking a bit, it leveled out slightly and I decided I could ride up what looked to be the last little part. I was wrong, in two ways. I had to stop again and walk some more. As I got higher, I realized that the incline was going to continue for a while. This was not going to be easy. Did I mention that it was really windy, maybe 20 mph gusts, sometimes as a headwind? I don't even remember how many times I had to stop, but it was more than 4. That hill was at least a mile long, and it easily took me over a half hour to get up to the top. Motherfucker! It really got the best of me. But I continued on because I had to.

It was still over 10 miles to Lompoc. After that I tried to pick up the pace, but the headwinds were vicious. Everything took so long. There were points where my spirits were very seriuosly crushed. Only the realization that I had no other choice but to keep going was what made me continue. At some point while ascending the micro mountain, I decided that I was going to be staying in a hotel tonight. I hadn't heard from the guy on couchsurfing that I was hoping to stay with, and I pretty much knew that I wasn't going to hear from him. Lame. I knew I was way too tired to camp and that I probably wouldn't even get to Lompoc until dark. I would have gladly stoppped and camped anywhere along the way, and there were some ideal spots, but I was running low on water and I knew there weren't going to be any options until I got to the town.

So I finally pulled into Lompoc around 7. I was so excited to see civilation. Elation overwhelmed me. I headed into town and stopped at the first promising restaurant - The Budget Cafe "Where the locals eat." The window said they served breakfast all day and that was enticing enough for me. I didn't even order breakfast food. Inside they listed the dinner specials as an unlimited salad bar with a choice of dinners for 12 bucks or so. I was enticed by the prime rib. So I ordered that. The place was a perfect little small town restaurant with a waitress that had probably worked there most of her life or at least somewhere similar. She seemed bred for the job. Very nice. So I pulled up to the salad bar, and I should have expected this; this is what the bar consisted of - a small tub of lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, cucumber, pickled beets? four kinds of dressing (you can probably guess what kinds they were), macaroni salad, peaches (probably from a can), and croutons. Gourmet. Oh well, it worked. I don't know why I expected something more than that. My fault. The prime rib was alright, much better with a little A1 sauce. The baked potato was good, as were the grilled veggies. It filled me up.

So as I paid for my meal, I decided to try to get some information out of the waitress. I asked her if she knew anyone that put up travelers for a night. She is a simple, small-town woman. She knew nothing about it. She said this other guy would know more. I guess he was a regular (the locals really do eat there). I asked him about cheap motels and he told me what street to go down. Then he kept repeating the directions, a few times. I had to stop him. I think he could have gone on forever repeating those same directions, making slight alterations each time. So I asked him where I could get on the internet. This is what he said: I don't know about that. Probably nowhere in Lompoc. Maybe in Santa Barbara. I don't have internet. Probably not going to find it in Lompoc.

Fuck this town. I knew very shortly after arriving that this wasn't going to be a good place. I set out to find a cheap hotel. First place only had a double room for $55. No internet. Next place had a room for $69 with kitchenette and internet. Thought I could find something cheaper. Found some much more expensive places. Then I found the Motel 6. $49 a night. No internet. They do have a data center, which I guess was just dial-up access or something. The lady behind the desk didn't seem to know much about it. I asked her where I could get on the internet. She said the library. I told her it would be closed. She said they would be open tomorrow. So I left and set out to find a place to get online. When I first turned off the first main road onto the other main road of the town to find a hotel, I noticed that in the other direction there was someting going on. There seemed to be some music and people around.

So I set out to find out what this place was. Maybe they had interent around there. Bingo. It was a coffee cafe. It was packed with probably every youth in the town, everyone too young to go to bars, and some who were of age. They had interent there, but they also had way too many annoying high school kids, some kid playing acoustic guitar and singing badly, and nowhere to sit that wasn't taken. It was horrible. I couldn't stay in that place for longer than 2 minutes. I was so fed up with this shitty town. Lompoc really depresses me. I don't like it one bit. So I decided to go back to the $69 hotel with internet. I need to find a place to stay tomorrow, after all. So I pulled back into the Budget Inn. It was a different lady at the desk. I told her I wanted the cheapest room in the place. She said they had one room left and asked me my budget. I said around 50 or less. She offered me the room for $55. I accepted. She said it was a kitchenette room, I think trying to make it seem like it was a premium room or somehow better than other rooms. I knew it wasn't. They're probably all the same.

This room is hilarious. It smells a bit like mildew. The bathroom has water on the floor, water around the sink, a drip from the ceiling above the shower. it looks like there has been a mildew problem in the bathroom. Half of one side of the door is missing and the baseboard has been torn up. There are little cockroaches. I opened a drawer in the kitchenette and found an old onion and some kind of wrapper, maybe for a Mexican candy bar or something. You know what, though, it's warm, it's a place to sleep for the night. Still, I can't wait to get the fuck out of this town.

I'm going to try to make it to San Luis Obispo tomorrow. It's something like 60 miles. At least I know that is a nice town with character and probably nice people who know about the internet in their town. This place is a hole. What a fate after such a tough day. That's how it goes.


Thanks again Kate and Carole. So friendly.


Carole and I did some finger painting on ourselves last night. This is my colorful Kiwi bird. I think I want to get him tattoed on me one day soon.


beginning of day


some fresh roadkill. so relevent after holding Carole's snake.


they have free wi-fi here




just before the winds


the pictures don't do the mountains justice


shit


does this at all give you an idea of the hill. this was probably about a fifth of the way up


this is really hard


this grass made me happy


whatever that mossy stuff is looks so cool


almost defeated, but not quite


oh how happy i was to see this. what the fuck do these sister cities mean? i've never been to any of them, but i imagine that they are all 800 times better than Lompoc. this doesn't make sense to me. i don't like this town.




deluxe!




on the wall



classy



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Comments

If I lied about who I am, would you know?

P.D.

It's past my bedtime here on Sunday night, I've got work tomorrow. I'm having trouble caring though, and I don't feel like sleeping - I'll make another drink and keep writing for you and for me. Hold on. I'm back on the board, fresh drink on the coaster and I'm staring at the mold and what appears to be some tomato-based stain in the drawer shown in the last picture right above the area where you can send otis a comment. It reminds me of my life. I talked to you on the phone yesterday, the day of this blogpost, and I think that I didn't tell you something that's been ricocheting around my brain walls since I saw you making a left-hand turn onto the 5 North: I am jealous of you. I envy your strength, physical and otherwise, and I wish myself capable someday of achieving equitable greatness. Because when I say that I think it's great that you're doing this trip, I really mean that I think it's Great. I think it's Great in the same way I think GiFF is Great, in the same way that Paperback Writer is a Great song, in the same undeniable way that it is Greater to give than to receive. Greatness, for me, has always had the facet of being Big. Great people have Big thoughts and Big dreams and they aren't scared of whatever may stand in the way because they are Great. Surely greatness can be nurtured; surely there are proactive measures which can be taken to ensure the growth of ultimate positivity (I think it is better to be positive than it is to be real) and seeing that you are so much farther down this path than me is cause for both celebration and concern. I am so proud of you but I can't help comparing myself to you and I can't help feeling like you win every time. I don't devalue my own life, but to be free, to be aimless and untethered seems such a worthwhile endeavor and I wish I knew what that is like. When you stop, wherever that may be, you won't look back on these days with regret - that will not be true for entirely too many people. Cherish yourself; love your body, your mind and your youth. Remember that each breath you take is a success - there is no shame in sucking wind.


re: If I lied about who I am, would you know?

Otis

P.D., I'd be lying if I told you that you're not an inspiration to me in many ways. You have such great potential in this world. And while it may not involve fame and fortune, I think you will realize much of this very soon. I have the feeling that you have great adventures that await you. For now, be strong.