San Simeon to San Luis Obispo; A New friend and a little tumble

This is to illustrate how minor the scratches were, don't worry I'm perfectly fine
My fingers are pointing to the bruise from the pedal

you can kind of see the bruise on the right side near the middle, below the knee
It will heal fast

San Simeon to San Luis Obispo, CA
45 miles
Day 38
11/23/09

This morning we headed a mile down the road to the town of Cambria to work on the blog and try to contact some people for a place to stay in Santa Barbara. After some pastries and wireless we rode out, a little later than we liked. We stopped in Cayucos and ate a fast and not fulfilling lunch of chips and spinach dip with an "Its-It" ice cream bar. There were some really pretty beaches along the way today and we had been talking about how much we wanted to finally swim in the ocean. It is weird that we have been riding next to it for so long but have not yet swam in it. Unfortunately we were in a hurry to get through San Luis Obispo before dark. We didn't realize that SLO was actually a pretty safe town that was a lot smaller feeling than we had pictured.

We were riding along a nice side road through some farmland when we met up with a fellow cyclist out for a ride. His name is Matt Potter and we had a great time talking to him for the next several miles down the road. He told us that he is a solar power consultant working with both residential and commercial projects. But work has been slower and he said he rides his bike about 3 hours each day. We had a great conversation with him and we were making great time towards our goal.

We had gotten off of the gravelly, patchy pavement of the side road and back to a road with nice wide, smooth, recently paved shoulders and little traffic when I hit the ONLY rock on the whole shoulder. I don't know if I didn't see it, or saw it and thought it was something soft like a leaf or what, but I hit the 2x2" going about 15 mph and instantly got a pinch flat. I was able to stay balanced for a couple of seconds after hitting the rock but then the immediate deflation of my tire made steering impossible and I went down. I managed the fall pretty well and before I knew it about five people were standing around me. Greg was checking me out to make sure I was OK, Matt checked my bike, then a nurse and her family were there, plus a state trooper. The nurse checked me out and saw that my injuries were pretty minor. I scratched my left knee and had a bruise there as well from the pedal. I had a small scratch on my thumb, and other than that, I was fine. It was really amazing to see all of the good people who seemed to show up out of nowhere to help me. I'm also very thankful that I am only very superficially scratched. I will be all the more careful riding after my little run in with the rock.

Matt took us in to San Luis Obispo and to a bike shop first to get a new tube. Additionally, I am thankful that the fall didn't hurt my bike other than the flat tire. He recommended a motel to us because we knew we were not going to make it to the original campsite, and I wanted to get a shower and clean up. After we checked in to our hotel room and got showers, Matt met us downtown for some dinner. He treated us to sandwiches at his favorite place in town and after dinner we went and got frozen yogurt. Mmm, this was a good end to our day. We had a great time talking to Matt and we ended up talking into the night. One of the best parts about touring is the cool people you meet along the way. What an eventful day.

Dani