San Simeon to Pismo Beach, California

January 11, 2013

It makes obvious sense that the landscape appears more and more "tropical" to us as we progress south. The thing is, if you would just fly from the north to Hawaii, or even San Diego, step off the plane and see palm trees, it would be a non event. But if you creep south at 10 kph and after a long long time a single palm tree appears - wow!

Quite a flat and dry landscape. More like Arizona than anything, until you return to the beach and the surf.

A hawk, one of several we saw, sits quite close to the cars and people.

Of course, in time even at 10 kph there will be palm trees everywhere and they will return to being non-events. But today, the proliferation of palm trees was still had some wow factor. What's more, cactus put in a strong appearance, and even olive trees. It seems to be all part of being south of the Gorda hill. Basically we are out of central California and have entered southern California.

Strangely, although still beautiful, the landscape is not as stunning as it was further north. Now we have dry hills covered with shortgrass and occupied by ranches. On the other hand the road all day was relatively flat, and importantly offered a wide shoulder usually marked as a bike lane. This wide flat lane is why today's trek is called Easy Rider. And oh yes, they thinnk they are having a cold snap here. Maybe that jives with our starting temperature of zero, but the day's maximum was 19, which is ideal cycling to us.

Our typical road, on the left, and highway 101 on the right.

Two towns lay on our way today - Cayucos and Morro Bay. These towns share a broad bay and are similar as seeming vacation villages. They are peaceful and attractive and have any small motels. In Cayucos we even found some good quality bakery, something rare that we are grateful for. We also met one fellow on a Bike Friday (Pocket Llama). He was from Washington State, but was not crazy enough to have cycled here. Another couple we met near the bakery were from Minnesota. Definitely people from all over come to California for the weather, and now that includes us.

We invite this Bike Friday owner to follow the blog

Morro Bay had a nice waterfront, with some unaffordable restaurants. Out on the water, kayakers moved among sea otters and sea lions (seen here lounging on a float).

The Morro estuary has extensive wetlands, and great camping at Morro Bay State Park

The northern edge of Pismo Beach is called Shell Beach, and is quite upscale in overall impression. Downtown Pismo Beach, which comprises just a few streets, is fun but just had a few seafood restaurants, candy shops, and souvenir shops. There is one market+liquor store. Strangely, none of the groceries in there were priced. The clerk said " show me something and I will tell you the price". That recalled for me a restaurant I used to frequent in Winnipeg. It was a Ma and Pa operation. When you were done your meal you would report to Ma what you ate and she would set a price, seemingly based on a loose menu and what she thought you could or would pay. We loved her and never questioned her decisions. But in Pismo Beach we directed a few somewhat critical words to the clerk and took our business elsewhere. Perhaps not surprisingly, " elsewhere" also had no marked prices. What a strange place!

A building at one corner of the main crossroads in Pismo Beach

Today's ride: 88 km (55 miles)
Total: 1,818 km (1,129 miles)

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