Tour De La Dead V2

50 Miles

I woke up this morning at 5:20 feeling still tired, as if I hadn't slept well. I spent some time on Instagram before starting to pack up around 6:20. The other bike tourists from last night also emerged, and we chatted a bit more about biking before I set off around 8:20.

The ride to the town of Goleta near Santa Barbara was flat with a nice shoulder. After 24 miles, I stopped for breakfast at the "Cajun Cafe" where I unexpectedly ran into Stuart from last night. He shared that this cafe was a favorite spot for him and his college friends during weekends. We caught up for a bit before I continued on to Santa Barbara, another 15 miles ahead. There was a convenient bike path leading into Santa Barbara, which was a relief for my tired legs from the previous days.

Even on slight hills, I found myself pedaling slowly, initially thinking my tires might be losing air, but they were fine. My mom had ordered a new GPS device for me, which I picked up at the REI in Santa Barbara. However, I ran into an issue with the SIM card that wasn't populating the routes for Southern California. I resolved this by visiting the public library and using their express computers to load the routes, which only took about 5 minutes. I called my mom to let her know everything was set up and working.

Just as I securely mounted the device, the mount snapped. My mom suggested using zip ties through the metal ring around the handlebars, which surprisingly worked well. She also told me that she got her ticket to fly to San Diego on July 1st. I’m pretty excited to see her! I passed through State Street, as recommended by Stewart, and found it to be a pretty sweet bike-only roadway.

Setting up camp, I was joined by Elijah from King City, whose goal was LA, where he works as a freelance photographer. He shared how helpful Reddit was for finding suggestions related to places to stay and touring routes—a resource I wish I had thought of earlier.

I decided to stop in Carpinteria and use their state park, opting for a shorter mileage day. Upon arriving in Carpinteria, I ran into Elijah from last night and met a French family I hadn't encountered before. Elijah and I grabbed pizza at a local place where we chatted with the French family. They were a couple with two kids, between the ages of 3 and 5, who had been traveling for the last 6 months, starting in Europe and now in the US. They began their journey in Durango, Colorado, eventually making their way here in California. They kindly offered to secure our bikes together with a large chain lock, as four bikes had been stolen from the campground the previous night. Gratefully, we accepted their offer before heading to bed.