The Lack Of Luxury

Today began as all Warm Showers mornings should begin – with a photo. Actually, the morning began with breakfast first, this time cooked by Rita. And it was excellent. From there it was photo time. Looking back, I should’ve taken a photo of breakfast too. Oh well, I can’t think of everything.

The destination for the day was to be Monterey which was less than 80 km away. I would’ve preferred to go further but it was either Monterey and a real place to camp or somewhere beyond Monterey and some unknown wild camping location. As I attempt to NOT rush my ride along the coast, I opted for another short day.

The ride out of Santa Cruz was easy but a bit slow as bikes aren’t allowed on Highway 1 heading out of the city. Fortunately, the route was pretty direct and well signed when turns were required. As I left the city, the coast was also left behind. In its place were strawberry fields. Seemingly endless strawberry fields. One might even say strawberry fields forever.

There are various reasons for going on a cycling trip. Equally varied are the highlights from each day. Sometimes it’s the hills. Sometimes it’s the views. Today it was something else. For the first time, the highlight of the day was the smells. One smell actually. No, not my recently laundered clothes – although, that was nice. The smell of the day was strawberries. And it completely filled the air. Never before had I cycled along such a fragrant road. It was almost hypnotic. So entranced was I by the smell that I actually missed a turn. Seriously. I missed a turn because I was too busy inhaling deeply.

I eventually cleared my head (and nasal cavity) in time for the next navigational decision. I had reached a t-intersection and Google wanted me to turn left but the “Bike Route” sign wanted me to turn right. Given my trust level of Google, I opted to follow the sign. This ended up being a good decision as it saved me quite a bit of time and distance. Not that I was in a rush.

The bike route eventually returned me to Highway 1 much sooner than Google’s route. Given all the fruit in the area, it wasn’t too surprising to see the appearance of fruit stands along the way. The surprising part was some of the prices. One place advertised 10 grapefruits for $1. TEN! And they were big! It really made me wish I liked grapefruit. I almost bought some anyway. Then I remembered I’m on a bike. Where would I put one grapefruit, let alone ten? That said, I might have to learn to like grapefruit. There were also deals like seven avocados for $1. And six kiwis for $1. Ridiculous. I ended up with a small basket of strawberries. They were more than $1.

Shortly after leaving the fruit stand I caught up with another cyclist. We were off the highway at that point and could ride side-by-side. His name was Addison and he’s on a short tour to San Luis Obispo. We rode along for a bit until we happened to pass a WalMart. Normally I would have little interest in such things; however, in this instance I wanted to stop.

Perhaps inspired by yesterday’s successful foray into cooking, I decided that it was time to restock my fuel supply for my alcohol stove. To say that my Mini Trangia stove has been grossly neglected lately would be grossly understating the matter. Despite not having used my stove for quite some time, the truth of the matter is that I actually enjoy using it – except for that minor incident with a fireball. Although, that was entertaining in its own way.

Of course, it would’ve been more practical to buy the fuel yesterday since I was running errands for most of the day. Sadly, the brainwave to buy fuel didn’t come until late last night. As such, I could only scope out possible retailers of the fuel. The purchase would have to wait until today. And according to my research, WalMart sells the fuel and for less than most other places. Sadly, the availability of the fuel online did not translate into availability at this particular store. Fortunately, I had other options.

As luck would have it, there was an REI along today’s route. REI is very much like MEC. Apparently it was the inspiration for MEC. I had never been to an REI before so this presented a great opportunity. I mean, if it was to be anything like MEC then it would likely become my favourite store in the U.S. It was. And it is.

Much like my trips to MEC, my visit to REI took far longer than it should’ve. Partially because I enjoyed looking around. And partially because I couldn’t decide what (if anything) to buy. My primary reason for going was the fuel but there were a couple other “luxury” items that I was contemplating. Turns out I needed to contemplate for quite a while. Remarkably, after far more time than I care to admit, I purchased nothing.

The luxury items I was considering either weren’t in stock, or weren’t exactly what I wanted, or would just add extra weight that I really couldn’t justify. The only item I could justify was the fuel but, much like MEC, REI is membership based and memberships cost $20. I’d have been fine with that if I was buying bigger ticket items. But a $20 membership seemed a bit much for an $8 can of fuel. That said, I had a great time exploring my first REI.

My last hope for fuel was only a few kilometres down the road. The fuel, which goes by different names depending on the country in which you reside (it’s called denatured alcohol here), is essentially paint thinner and is available at Home Depot. Unlike REI, I was only in Home Depot for about three minutes before I left with a can of fuel.

From there, all that was left was a relatively short ride to the campground at Veterans’s Memorial Park in Monterey. The ride was unexpectedly scenic and included some seemingly abandoned military barracks and a very pleasant ride through Fort Ord Dunes.

Veteran’s Memorial Park is near the top of a long, steep hill in Monterey. A long and VERY steep hill. Rita had warned me about the hill but, other than that, Veteran’s Memorial Park was nothing what I expected it to be. I expected it to be a small municipal park with maybe a few cyclists, a few tents, and more than a few homeless people – as that’s what I’d heard from a few sources. On this night, that couldn’t be further from reality. The park is actually a full campground for cars and RVs – and it’s actually FULL tonight. In the Hiker/Biker area, there are currently at least a dozen cyclists, of which I’ve met about half. And, there doesn’t seem to be any homeless people here – excluding myself.

As I sit in my tent typing this update, there continues to be quite a bit activity around the Hiker/Biker area (and everywhere else for that matter). It’s too dark to see people but there are headlamps floating around everywhere. And on that note, I think I’ll grab my headlamp and head over to the washrooms to brush my teeth before calling it a night. Another successful day is officially in the books … or the blog, if you prefer.

Today’s totals:
Distance travelled: 83.18 km
Ride time: 4:39:44
Average speed: 17.84 km/h
Maximum speed: 46.54 km/h