9/9: in and out of the mist

We started the morning with mist again. We might have been visited by raccoons overnight. 

After an early morning series of climbs, we flattened out and benefitted from some tailwind again. 

A panorama from Sea Lion Cave, the world's largest sea cave. 

The photo doesn't do justice to the light filtering through the mist. We didn't go into the cave, but other bike tourists told us there was only one lion. 

Bigfoot was selling his sportbike. 

Off the shore, there's a bank with dunes. Everything was dune-themed:

[1 year anniversay note: somewhere on this stretch of road, we saw a fat, recently dead raccoon on the roadside. No visible wounds. We joked that this was the one that had eaten all of our Nutty Buddies from Gabe's pannier and had a heart attack.]

We're getting into the groove of navigating. No errors today. 

One more big bridge to walk:

I didn't know the Sizzler was a real restaurant:

From an overpass, we saw a scene right from the Andy Griffith Show -- two bare chested, be-overalled hobos walking down a tail bridge beneath us. One had a bindle stick. They had a dog ambling in front of them [they were so close that I could hear them calling the dog. His name was Rusty]. I couldn't get a picture in time. What an incredible sight. 

At dinner time, some gentleman gave us as much chili as we wanted.

This campsite has a ton of bikers. Lots of stories. The Montrealite who had been living in Australia for 8 years. The kid who's biking down the coast and skating at each skate park he finds. The two German dudes. It's a cozy community of strangers.

9/9 pics: https://picasaweb.google.com/105909573807230408134/BikeTour99?authkey=Gv1sRgCOHMpNPf1a7QsAE