The Best Western provided a great breakfast, but after breakfast and packing everything away, we had a problem, which was that Boen refused to get on the bike! My policy about cycling and kids is that you never force a kid on a bike unless there's no other choice (e.g., he's screaming and throwing a temper tantrum at the park and you only have a bike with which to get him home), so I just let him get in the car and started the ride with just Bowen. Bowen vetched a bit but I assured him that sitting in the car was not a good deal compared with riding the bike.
We rode past Sunset State Beach and then came to an intersection where my Fenix 5X told me to turn left (using a preplanned route I had) while the road sign said "Pacific Coast Bike Route" pointed to the right. I asked a passing cyclist, and he said that turning right was the way to go. My wife would later confirm that my planned route would have been much better, since the official Pacific Coast Bike route spent no less than 4 miles on Highway 1. This might have been tolerable on a single bike, but on a slow moving tandem it was very annoying. I was relieved when we pulled into Castroville's Great Artichoke Restaurant, where we had beaten the minivan and ordered an artichoke platter to satisfy Bowen's artichoke cravings.
After lunch, Boen deigned to join us on the triplet, and the bike immediately felt heavier, with the climbs into Marina becoming more challenging. At one point we saw a fox in broad daylight on the other side of the road from the bike path, which was pretty amazing. Since the last time I had done this ride, there was now a bike path all the way from Castroville to Monterey, which made for easy riding. As we approached Monterey, we pulled off onto the side and Bowen and Boen picked wildflowers.
Once in Monterey on the bike path, Xiaoqin met us on her
Cheviot, gave us the keys to the hotel, and we rode into the hotel. There, I did laundry, and then we walked out to dinner, picking up Salt Water Taffy on the way.
1 comment:
I rode to Monterey, once, must have been pre-Strava, and I seem to recall there was a point where you could either turn right and end up on Highway 1 for a long stretch, OR you could turn left and take the 150-mile detour through Elkhorn Slough, where it immediately went from pleasantly cool with a light breeze to still and hot and buggy. That section ended when I got lost trying to transit Castroville safely :-).
I can see your argument for not wanting to ride on Highway 1. ESPECIALLY if you weren't like 65 miles into the ride at that turn.
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