Mythos in So Cal and a great many thank yous

It seems that somewhere around Pacifica, just south of San Francisco, we entered mythical "so cal". Now I know that many of you will say that So Cal doesn't properly start until point conception but we've hit the warmer weather, chill riding (well, except for the dangerous elephant seals along the way) and hundreds of surfers in the water.

We've had a few great house stays and some fine social hob-nobbing over the past week - first in Mill Valley at Brian Thysell's place (see photo). Brian was incredibly kind, and not only gave us his cottage when he left for the weekend, but also his car, which we used to help us get into the city and check out the area a bit. It was a wonderful stay. In Santa Cruz we stayed with Guillermo, a friend of Jorma's from back in the day. That was also very nice, and allowed us to spend an evening in Santa Cruz. We were also able to spend two evenings with Carl Pettit, a long-ago friend of mine from Bellingham and his girlfriend Petra. Petra is Czech and Carl is well-travelled and it was great to get their perspectives on places and people around the globe. We will be well-served by their conversation in the coming year. And today we are riding towards Monterey, where we will meet with Sam Watson and hopefully spend a few days exploring, surfing and generally continuing this trend of early retirement that we've been enjoying.

In other news we arrived in Santa Cruz yesterday in time for my 3:30 meeting with Dr. Gary Griggs. Gary is an extremely well-respected coastal geologist and I wanted to meet him and explore any opportunities for graduate school that might be presented to me. It was a very good meeting and I will be thinking hard about applying to UC Santa Cruz over the next few months.

We are well over half way now, with only one big section of riding remaining - over Big Sur. It includes some more big climbs and winding shoulder-less sections of Hwy 1. I suppose it would be intimidating, but we are now experienced in such things and have thighs that work like machines.

Just joking...its always intimidating. Despite that, I am looking forward to Big Sur, which is one of the world's beautiful places.