vs. Good

Hi,
Still in Chicago, just signed the lease on an apartment - yay! But, back to the trip...

That night, after the Eel River fiasco we pulled into a little town called Garberville with one thing on my mind - finding a place where we could watch the first presidential debate. I immediately started calling the motels in town while KC and Nina were distracted by the all organic fast food stand. Suddenly KC's face became extremely animated and started pointing over my shoulder. We all turned to see a man on a bike pumping up the hill. He had a mountain bike and a trailer...check that, EMPTY trailer. "Alex!" we all screamed and jumped up and down. Actually, I think KC started with "Jeremy" then switched over to "Alex!".
It was a joyous reunion and Alex filled us in on his previous 36 hours. Essentially he decided that he wanted to bike to San Francisco (plus it seemed easier than renting a one way car out of Eureka) and he figured that without hauling any gear he could stay in hotels and make it in half the time. So, we all got organic tacos, some local beer and headed out to watch the debates.
We entered Mendocino County and were met with fog and the smell of Eucalyptus, both which hung in the air, hit you in the face, and clung to your skin. The roads along the coast were made for convertible sports cars (except for the particles of fog smacking you in the face). Crazy curves, crazy hills, steep cliffs hanging on the right met by the crashing surf.
We stopped for lunch in Fort Bragg and I had the best omelet of my life. After the ethereal experience that was lunch, KC, Nina and I sat down to figure out where we were going to stay that night. 35 minutes later with no resolve, a woman that Nina had talked to earlier walked by and said, "or you can stay at my place. I live in the next town over and you are welcome to sleep on my couch and use my shower." She made the decision really easy. We met Anne later that night at her house. She lives in the town of Mendocino which is a block for block replica of a New England seaside town with Victorian houses every 7 feet. Anne treated us better than a bed and breakfast -we sat around her fireplace drinking beers at night, took hot showers, we each got a couch and blankets to sleep with, and she made us an unbelievable German apple pancake turnover thing along with eggs for breakfast. However, her amazing hospitality was slightly outshadowed by her fascinating life. Anne grew up in Philadelphia but moved out to San Francisco to go to art school around 18. There she got into the early beginnings of the organic farming movement and learned the freedom that came with hitchhiking up the coast. She left San Fran to work on a sheep farm in Montana, spent time in Hawaii and Chicago and at 28 found herself back in California dated a guy for 3 weeks and decided to get married because as Anne put it, "I hadn't done that before." She now has three interesting kids aged 20, 16 and 14 with the 20 year old at Berkeley but spending the semester in Barcelona and her 16 year old is spending the year in France. Apparently international trips are big in the school district because some of the other school sponsored trips were hiking in Peru, surfing in Fiji, and going to Japan. My jaw was on the ground as I thought back to my big excursion in high school which was going to an authentic Mexican restaurant in...Pittsburgh...30 minutes away from my high school. In the past few years Anne got into biking and did numerous bike trips in Ireland which is where her compassion for us ragamuffins came from. The next morning we said our goodbyes and thanked her for the best night and the most kindness that anyone showed us on our trip. I should also mention that we left Alex in Fort Bragg at the brewery there (mmm Red Seal Ale....) talking to a cute bicycling woman from Georgia and he was going to shop around at the outdoors store and possibly buy camping equipment to replace his stolen gear.

We met up with Alex again and the next few days was more of the same terrain. We rode through one little town and as I biked through a man ran out of a store yelling at me. I stopped and turned around and he ran up to me thrusting a bag of taffy into my hands. He said, "I try to give all cyclists a bag of taffy for energy when they bike by." He biked the West coast a few years ago, hence his affinity for cyclists.

So, in summary we have some people for the good column - Anne in Mendocino, the free taffy guy and ...Poland. Don't forget about Poland.

I hope everyone is doing well.
cheers,
Leigh