After a great night’s rest at the historic Paso Robles Inn, I packed up and had breakfast across the square at the Red Scooter Cafe. Then it was across town to do the laundry at the laundromat. An hour or two later, I had nice, clean biking clothes again. Fresh!
After laundry, it was time to hit the road and head south again. My route was quite nice, following the frontage roads along US-101. Then I came on my first freeway section of the ride, that had me go about 1.5km (1mi) to the next exit. Just as I was about to enter the freeway, I got a call from my home services company in Canada, asking about a late water heater rental payment, what timing?!
Ending the call, I sped down the freeway ramp, and was feeling not-terrified, until I came upon a construction sign saying the shoulder was closed ahead! What the heck is a bicycle supposed to do on a freeway with a closed shoulder? I tried walking the bike to the outside of the trucks, but they were right at the edge where the gravel descended steeply to the creek below. Not wanting to take a header into the creek, I had to risk making a sprint for it in the traffic lane. I waited for a long break in the traffic and made a run for it, luckily making it around the trucks with plenty of time to spare. After that harrowing experience, I was glad to get off at the next exit, and hop on El Camino Real through Atascadero.
Just after passing through town, I stopped to recharge with a bite to eat from my food bag. A while later, I was back on the bike heading into the little village of Santa Margarita. My butt was really killing me, and I was really feeling like I was running out of energy, so I started looking for a place to stop for another break.
Oh boy, did I find one. I stopped in at The Southern Station restaurant just as they were closing up, and had bottomless iced tea with an amazing buffalo chicken sandwich.
While I was eating, and eating AND EATING, I had a look at the rest of my 20km route, which took me mostly back on the US-101 freeway. Some locals also let me know about “the grade” between Santa Margarita and SLO that I’d have to climb on the freeway.
With a bit of trepidation, I got to the freeway and started pumping my way up the hill. As I neared the halfway point, I saw my friend from SMBC, Rob Hyman, go by on his blue Indian motorcycle. Luckily, I made it to the top, and took the opportunity to get a drink of water, call Rob, and take a photo of the SLO valley below.
After the short break, I jumped on the bike and began the thousand-foot descent into SLO. Keeping on the brakes nearly the whole way down, I hit a top speed of 53km/h (33mph)!
I met Rob at the hotel just in town, and we met some brothers who were touring California on some Harleys. After some chatting about their visit, route and bikes, we settled into our room.
Coming in on a Thursday meant the downtown farmer’s market was on. We went downtown to a packed set of closed city streets, with vendors of all varieties lining the sidewalks. It was a great scene to arrive to.
Overall, it was my shortest day of the trip so far, at 47km, and today’s been a rest day, which I’ll cover in another post tonight.