Santa Barbara to LA

The scores on the doors

Some stats from the trip so far:
Days on the road = 67
Miles cycled = 1915 (3023kms)
Number of nights where I have paid for accommodation = 10
Number of nights spent camping = 27
Number of nights spent with Warm Showers hosts = 19
Number of punctures = still 2
Total money spent = €859.61
Average spend per day = €12.83

Santa Barbara and Jill's House

I stayed for 5 wonderful, relaxing nights in Jill's house in Santa Barbara

In my San Francisco post I may have mentioned that a kind lady - Sarah - had offered to take a bag of stuff for me to Santa Barbara. I gave her 6kgs of stuff I wasn't going to need over the following two weeks. And really noticed the difference on the bike. Sarah also arranged for me to stay with Jill her friend in Santa Barbara. Jill is a bit of a legend among solo female cycle tourers. She had hosted a rather famous one - Emily Chappell - in June 2016. I was fascinated hearing all about Emily's races. Emily is from the UK, does kind of what I do, except instead of my 40-50 mile days she does 100-200 mile days. Here is a link to Emily's blog if anyone is interested.

Jill's generous and thoughtful gifts.

Now this picture may just look like a mattress on a floor of a living room. Jill was at work when I arrived at her home in Santa Barbara and had left the key hidden in the garden. On opening the door I found not only a lovely soft mattress all made up and ready but 3 towels, 1 t-shirt, a razor, a beautiful welcome note AND a bag of quarters to give to trick-or-treaters when they called later that evening (it being Halloween). After spending two months wearing exactly the same clothes every day it was very exciting putting on a new t-shirt. She was heading away for the weekend so kindly said I could stay and make myself at home for a few days. Heaven!

Having a long bath in Jill's house I noticed some zebra feet.

University of California Santa Barbara girls tennis team training in the background

In order to get to Jill's house I cycled through the university of Santa Barbara, UCSB. Of course I had to stop when I heard the sound of tennis balls. The university girls team was training. The standard was amazing, it was just like watching professionals train and in 30 degrees of heat at 12 noon in the day. I happily stopped and watched for a couple of hours.

Santa Barbara Bike Coop

The following few pics were taken in a bike workshop in Santa Barbara. I have seen signs for 'bike coalition or bike coop' in many towns that I passed through. They seem to be a hub for training and bike repair. I'm wondering of course to myself if there might be demand in Navan for a bike coop. Surely the population would support it? But I know noone rides bikes in Navan - apart from the men in lycra. 

SB Bike offered classes and courses and had a workshop where you could rent a bike stand plus have use of all their tools for $5 per hour. The kind of stuff you can do at Rothar in Dublin. But it was also a 2nd hand shop (or Thrift Shop as they are called here) for bike stuff. 2nd hand bike jerseys, clip-on shoes, reflectors, tubes, head sets, water bottles, helmets etc. etc. I thought it was a fantastic idea.

Anyone need a new fork?

These boxes contained all sorts of used bike parts - all neatly sorted and labeled.

Used and new tyres.

2nd hand saddles and baskets

And best of all, kids fixing their own bikes with the help of staff

Casitas Valley Farm, Ventura
The highlight of the trip so far!
Angel Navan neighbour Fergus, who has been mentioned before, put me in touch with some more friends on the road just south of Santa Barbara. Casitas Valley Farm is much more than just an organic farm and permaculture training centre. It's like a community movement for a more sustainable life. I arrived late one Saturday evening after a 1000ft climb from the coast and was told I could pitch my tent in the persimmon orchard.

Sweeny Green happily sitting amongs the persimmon trees

This is a persimmon. Texture of an apple, colour of a pumpkin,
taste of a sweet juicy roasted sweet potato

Four generations of family live at the ranch. They grow avocados, have a market garden, run all sorts of courses including a 30 day permaculture design course. The main brains behind the operation is Waren Bush who regularly travels to Ireland and has strong connections with UCC.

Anna and her daughter Phoenix who I had met in Navan
in Fergus' kitchen.

Jesse's grandparents had hosted Fergus in California many moons ago

Anna and friends in the farm kitchen cooking up delights for
course participants.

Campfire is up and running at 7am. My kind of place!

Chickens were fed home-grown red peppers
so that their yolk would be dark yellow

An evening on the town with Castias in Carpenteria.
I tasted mead for the first time.

Approaching Los Angeles

Early bird catching the waves at the 6.23am sunrise

The RVs (recreational vehicles) - (or camper vans as we call them) here in the US are massive. When I cycled south in Morocco one January, I was often overtaken by French or Dutch or Swedish- registered camper vans heading south for the winter sun, similar pattern all over the world I guess.

However the big difference is the size of these American RVs. This particular one in the photo below is probably the most luxurious I have seen. It is the size of a 56 seater bus for starters, has four side sections - two on each side - which expand out by the push of a button. This one also has a back balcony, with bbq and a side balcony with awning. I had a quick look online and something like this costs about $350k to buy new. As I cycle alongside them on my bike with 4 pannier bags containing everything I need and more, I do wonder why they need so much STUFF!

Massive camper van with fold out balcony, complete with BBQ.

 A bike rack on the front of a police car in Malibu.

Coastal Erosion

A constant sight on the west coast has been coastal erosion. Below two diggers are reclaiming sand from the sea bed near Malibu, just north of LA.

2 diggers building a sand wall near Malibu.

Roots of trees exposed almost completely on a sandy beach.

Yet another beautiful sunset on the west coast