Gremlin's Tall Stories

The alarm was set to ring at 7.30am to have the bag at the van before 8pm. Dave was up and about, opening the curtains, turning up the TV and generally making plenty of noise shortly after 7am, so sleep was out of the question. I turned off the alarm and took the bag down to the van, where plenty of discussion was taking place. It was a strange morning… there was seafog and it was… uh… what’s the word again? Cold, that’s right.

The bags for the San Francisco guys had to be packed to be easily accessible so they could be taken out once the bags were dropped off. An extra seat was down, as one couple would be in the van from San Francisco to Los Angeles, but we got it figured out in the end. They headed off to finish packing and I stayed with the van for others to drop their bags off.

Once Kevin was at the van I left him to it and enjoyed the complimentary continental breakfast, that even had some eggs and bacon/ham (albeit very processed and looked like it had been sent from the McDonalds suppliers). Cereal, juice (the orange juice was very watered down) and some bacon muffins. Most of the rest were standing outside, ready to go, so bade them farewell, especially Mark and Gerry and Peter and Julie, who will leave at San Francisco along with the Dargaville crew.

I headed back to the room and my bed… but it’s not what you think. I spent an hour and a bit blogging, then packed my bags and the bike. 11am checkout times are awesome.

I’m in the country by 11.30am, the temperature nice and cool at 22 degrees, heading up Hecker Pass Rd, or 152. It’s a bit of a find, it simply looked twisty on the map so I thought I would give it a shot. We’ve done the coast already, and if the sea fog was in, you weren’t going to see anything different from 5 weeks ago. Instead, I was going to do a few different roads, making my way south.

Hecker Pass Rd was really nice, complete with tree canopy, but unfortunately heavy traffic slowed the pace a little. I imagine traffic use it as a through route to the coast, given it’s so close to Gilroy. It did give me a good view of the sea fog that was enveloping the coast. After 152, I jumped on 129 and back to the 101. I was only on it briefly, before exiting onto 156 and towards Hollister. Karen was really good here, giving me some back routes, which meant I avoided going into Hollister itself.

Hollister was the gateway to the Airline Highway and this was a really awesome road I’m glad I went down. It reminded me a lot of home. The road mostly went through the bottom of a valley, but instead of being straight and down the middle it wound its way along the bottom of hills, very undulating, like the Mangamukas, but not quite as steep or long. I was constantly cresting hills leant over for a corner, which is very fun.

When the Airline Highway finished, I went straight onto Peach Tree Rd. The temperature had been climbing since the morning, topped out at 40 degrees and didn’t drop below the mid-30s. I stopped at one point to have some water, only to find it had an odd taste. I believed someone had tampered with it (having shared with Dave and Kevin again) so spat it out. Pity it was the middle of nowhere with no services for miles, but I promised myself I would speak to them when I next saw them.

From Peach Tree Rd, I took Indian Valley Rd, then Hare Canyon Rd which took me back onto the 101 again. I stayed on it until Atascadero, stopping briefly at one gas station on the roadside to get more fluids. At Atascadero I jumped onto 41 to Morro Bay. The sea fog was still around and descending through the 15 miles of lovely winding road the temperature rapidly dropped from mid-30s to high teens. Speaking to Murray, who’d taken the coast road, it had been like that all day for them.

Reaching the San Marcos Inn just after 3pm, where we’d stayed 5 short weeks previously, some of the others were already there, but hadn’t checked in because the rooms weren’t ready. I was lucky, the rooms were ready. My luck doesn’t run far however… for some reason I wasn’t on the list, so had no room to check into. Murray offered his that he was sharing with Anjum, so I changed then headed into the main building to write up the day and catch up on other days of blogs.

In due course Ken rocked up, followed by Kevin driving the van. It was arranged to share with Kevin and Dave, but I asked Ken if I could share with Murray and Anjum instead. Then Anjum suggests getting a rollaway into the room would be a hard ask with the rooms not being exactly large. I take a quick look, and Anjum is right. I ask if there is an extra room, and there is, so I’m prepared to pay the extra rather than cramp Murray and Anjum.

I was finally able to check in and I took some of my gear upstairs. Then I got distracted by the free nibbles offered from 5.30pm onwards, so the rest of my gear could wait, while it was crackers, snacks, cheese and even some non-alcoholic cider. The little room filled up fast, so I gave up my chair to whoever wanted it, finished taking my gear upstairs and attempted to start some blogging. Unfortunately, the TV turned itself on and found the 2010 World’s Strongest Man competition, and then forced me to watch it. Well, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

The TV turned itself off afterwards at 7pm and kicked me out the room, so I went back to the little breakfast room, where several were still having nibbles. One thing leads to another, and we were all hungry, so we headed towards the docks to look for some dinner. After a lot of walking, Gary and I came to the conclusion that with thick cold fog and our shorts, we’d never make it out of this desperate hunt for food alive.

Like a beacon of light in the dark, the Brafhaus finally loomed out of the darkness, from some long forgotten recommendation. After looking at the menu, and still not certain what I really wanted, it was handy being last in the queue. Someone asked if they could just get some roast beef and spuds, I agreed (4 of us had that). Then Murray wanted half a roll with his chowder, I agreed. All up, it made a very good meal, and wasn’t even on the menu.

A bit of a chatting followed, with some seals barking as a backdrop, even though we couldn’t see them. Walking back to the Inn, it hadn’t gotten any warmer, much to my surprise. I headed back to my room and carried on blogging… well, trying to string a few sentences together while watching various bits of TV.

I showered and then headed for bed.

Pictures: https://photos.app.goo.gl/jTwsbQE5tDCtheNF7

Route: http://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=Be...,2,3,4&t=m&z=9