Crescent City to Arcata-72m

In a month of cycling, waking to the sound of trucks smashing through heavily sodden roads is going to be inevitable.

Mantras for today included:

1. There's only one thing worse than cycling in this weather....not cycling in it.

2. You've been vanned twice in your cycling life, and always regretted it.

3. Nothing lasts forever.

4. You'll be in the bath before you can say chai tea latte.

5. You've been through worse in the Alps, Croatia and Norfolk!

6. And, in the immortal words of Phillip of the East 'we're here to cycle'.

So, with those words in mind and positive mental attitudes firmly in place, we were the first to set off into the torrential rain (every day so far, we've been the last to get going!) 

The route was really quite awesome today, regardless of the precipitation.

 We took in the first part of the Redwood Highway and truly marvelled at the giants towering over us. The most wonderous trees I've cycled under (not the big big one yet Paul).

When we were close to the coast the waves brutality added to the sense of crazy adventure. I was slightly less than enthusiastic when we encountered the 'british road' as Steve had fore-warned us of. But I managed to navigate the pot holes, with some encouragement from my team mate about my nice lines :-)

No stops today, in an attempt to retain some minimal body warmth, being soaked through. 

I got to flash my moons again, as some lucky holidaymakers chose to leave a resort just as I was taking a nature break. Not what they expected to see over the dashboard at 11am.

The sense of achievement as we honed in on destination Super 8 Motel was ace. George even shook Pierre's hand :-)

Understandably George and Monique took the van, after a little deliberation. George is 75 and they are an absolute inspiration. It sounds as though they've been on the road exploring the world together for the best part of four years. The epitomy of seizing the day.

Moira and Colin also vanned it, first thing, worried about trucks and wet downhills. 

Truck numbers were well down today and other road users were 99% of the time excellent today, giving us loads of extra room.

After thawing out in the shower: 

It was time to hunt and gather....

Us guys did good today.

P.s. Most creatures were too sensible to be out, to be spotted today. Of note though was our first sighting in Arcata of a very inebriated man reading a paper upside down drinking out of a brown paper bag at the bus stop!