Summer '18 California Coast bike tour: Day Five: Back inland into wine country!

Another easy day today! Clearly, I’m still recovering from the long day Tuesday, but today felt pretty good, getting an early start after a big breakfast in Morro Bay. I started out at 7:30am, riding inland from Morro Bay, with a couple of short climbs, then back around some headlands to the coast at Pismo Beach, of "Bugs Bunny" fame— he may have never gotten there, but I rode through happily this morning :-). From there the ride struck inland towards Santa Maria, and ultimately Los Alamos.

Not much climbing over 68 miles (only 2350’), and for the last 30 miles, a great 15mph tailwind. Thank you Darrell again for recommending I ride north to south, as the wind has been my friend almost the entire ride! Compared to previous days, this one was a bit more relaxed and easy going. Lots of farmland and flat valley riding, with lettuce, strawberries, summer squash, and cauliflower growing in abundance. As I got closer to Los Alamos, vineyards started popping up along the road as I climbed gradually up the valley. About 15 miles out, I stopped at a food van parked at a cross-road, and got a carne asada taco for a snack that was as good as any I’ve had anywhere, on a real home-made tortilla! The college-aged woman serving in the truck asked where I was riding from, and I said Morro Bay today, and San Francisco 4.5 days ago... she then refused to believe I had ridden a bicycle from San Francisco! After recounting each leg of the trip, she shook her head and called me crazy ;-) Maybe so, but I’m definitely having fun!

With the relatively short distance, and the tailwind, I arrived in Los Alamos at 12:30pm, and ready for a "real" lunch. The downtown was unfortunately in the middle of a major CalTrans "mill & fill" paving job, with the whole street torn up and new asphalt going down, but I still managed to find that there were several wineries set up right downtown. I decided to try my luck at Casa Dumetz, which shared space with a local brewery and served tacos for lunch. This proved to be a GREAT choice! As the place was essentially deserted due to the construction on the road out front, I had the tasting area to myself for two hours with the winemaker Sonja. I had three different tacos, including a shrimp & spinach that was to die for, and another of porkbelly & goat cheese that I intend to adapt at home;-) And again, on home-made tortillas! Sorry, I should have taken pics, but it seemed a bit pretentious with me and the winemaker being the only people there! Anyway, we had a long discussion on travel, wine, and places to combine the two, and how life has changed so much over the past 30 years with e-mail, and cell-phones, etc. driving how we approach everything so differently! Amazing what a couple glasses of GSM will get you talking about ;-). Anyway, this is a spot I’d definitely like to return to with Norma in the future!

Tonight is the first in an Air-bnb on this trip, and I'm now sitting in the backyard of a little house on the edge of the village sitting in the shade typing this. I’ve yet to meet my host, just his ancient black Lab, “Jack,” and a huge orange tabby cat named "Charlie." James is due in soon, as he’s out fishing ;-). Works for me, I know better than to get in the way of a guy and his fishing! So anyway, here’s today’s pics: