My original route plan didn’t have a rest day in it, not that I didn’t think I could use one (or three), but I had a tight schedule, plus I didn’t know how far I’d be able to go in a day or even how far I had to go in total. After making through the first two weeks and having more exact information about the rest of the route, I calculated I could squeeze in a day off with the Evans clan in Atascadero and still make it in time. I rode pretty well the past couple of days through Big Sur, but I knew I wasn’t 100% and some down time would hopefully do me some good.

Steve made a nice breakfast of cheesy eggs and about 10 pounds of bacon… my kind of breakfast. I spent most of the morning making some much needed improvements to the hack of a blog template I’ve had on my site since February. I had updated my blog software at the time and just threw something together in a few minutes, and hadn’t gotten around to cleaning it up. Someone had noted that I didn’t even have a way to get to older posts after they moved off the front page… whoops. Got that fixed.

We headed out later to swing by the bike shop and to pick up some tacos. I remember looking at the tires and both of us remarking how I didn’t need something like that, seeing as how I only had five days left and hadn’t had any tire problems so far. [insert ominous music here] I picked up some Shot Blox and Clif Bar crap for the next few days and we headed off to the taco stand. I wilted in the sun and Steve laughed at my low tolerance for hellish heat.

Later in the day Steve and Emily headed off to a meet-the-teacher thing as school starts here next week (something I don’t have to worry about for Zach until next year) and I took a nap. Afterwards we all headed down to SLO and hung out at the pier (I guess that’s what it was anyway), which had a farmers market thing going on. Beautiful weather. I had a couple of crepes and we chilled out with Emily’s brother and his girlfriend.

the only picture taken during the day, courtesy of Mr. Evans

We then headed off to watch Inglourious Basterds, which was in its opening weekend. I was dying to see it. The movie was great, made even more entertaining by Steve hiding his eyes in the gory parts. I laughed at his low tolerance for brutal violence, and it was good. I picked out a ridiculous amount of movie snacks, including the nachos that Steve had been talking about all day and actually didn’t want for himself. The chips tasted like cardboard, the cheese like paste. I only ate most of them.

Afterwards we hit some local sports bar for some post-movie grub. I had an excellent basque dog; still not sure what was “basque” about it, but I didn’t care, it was tasty.

All in all it was a nice, relaxing day with friends… couldn’t ask for anything more. Tomorrow it’s off to ride around Vandenberg Air Force Base and another night of camping at Gaviota State Beach… five days left!