We should start today with a little more information about the events of last night. We’ve all heard of that classic 1990’s psychological thriller, Sleeping with the Enemy, starring Julia Roberts and bunch of other actors. Well, we experienced our own little 1990s classic last night in our pine cabin built in the middle of the wild woods of Honeydew, CA. Not that our version is anything like a psycho thriller but more like the comedy horror, Arachnophobia. We don’t know about you guys, but Anthony hates mice and Kat hates spiders and we don’t know of anyone who likes hornets! So imagine our horror when at 10pm we realised we were about to sleep in the company of all three, plus the ‘hundreds & thousands’ (for those of you who know what Mouse poo looks like)! Being a sufferer of Arachnophobia obviously trumps any other intolerable concern, therefore Anthony was gently persuaded to construct a spider/hornet catching device using only what could be found in the room and remove said Creepers, thus facilitating Kat’s attempt to sleep …Kat didn’t return the compliment concerning the Mouse, but hey that’s a woman’s prerogative.
After a fitful sleep for the both of us, we awoke freezing our nuts off (figuratively speaking for Kat) and decided that taking a shower in this temperature would be beyond our pain and suffering threshold. So, straight out of bed we donned our sweaty cycling gear from yesterday, finally feeling like true campers and fried up 6 eggs and 10 rashers of bacon for breakfast …we felt a little ill after the 4th rasher, but we ate it all anyway.
Having a quick chat with our fellow campers before setting out on the 60-mile expedition past the Lost Coast and into the city of Eureka, we felt tired and Kat felt very irritated. We know this stage of the trip is starting to sound a bit like Jurassic Park with all this speak of Giants, The Lost Coast and Eureka, but honestly we are still in California and not on a film set, though the scenery has a tendency to make you question this fact. We started off with the compulsory steep hill climbs we have now become accustomed to over the past week, and eventually arrived at our first pit-stop: Petrolia. It’s a common believe that you’re only as strong as your weakest link. Funny that! Because, as we were powering out of Petrolia and about to attack another 3,000 ft of climbing, with Anthony’s little Chicken Drumstick legs putting maximum torque through Trusty’s Crankset, there was a sudden SNAP! and then a …whirr as his little legs were spinning frantically at 100 rpm. The chain broke violently, not able to maintain structural integrity when placed under such immense power!!! Seriously though, for all you cycling fanatics out there, you’ll be impressed to hear that the metal snapped in two and not the ‘chain link roller’ merely breaking.
15 minutes and many expletives later we were rolling back down the hill and into Petrolia to look for help. Enter stage left Oscar & Elizabeth who offered up their Dodge Ram 2500, put Trusty, Steed, Panniers and us in the back of their pick up and drove the 50 miles into Eureka. We know that many of you may now be getting a little jaded with our worshipping of American kindness, but Oscar & Elizabeth you have entered our list of “The kindest people in the world …ever”. Thank you again.
It was a welcoming sight to arrive at our hotel, minus rodent faeces and creepy crawlies as bedside accompaniments, and instead settling for the basic yet standard bedside lamps and alarm clock radio. Being here earlier than usual, we did our two loads of laundry and managed to get out for an early dinner, where we met Leah, our server, who is just beginning to embrace the Joys of Cycling .
Don’t forget to check out our photos! And a new helmet cam is coming soon. O’ and we’re having a rest day tomorrow.
Us x
No comments:
Post a Comment