San Clemente State Beach

We're almost done! It's only about 90 miles to the border, so we should be able to reach the border and then catch a train back to Santa Barbara on Wednesday.

Big Sur was awesome---we took it pretty slowly, but the hills weren't actually very steep, at least compared to the hills in northern California. On our second night in Big Sur, we stayed at Kirk Creek Campground, where we had an amazing campsite on the edge of a cliff right above the ocean. We had a great view of the sunset, and then we slept out under the stars, which were just awesome since it was so dark and clear out.

The next day, we randomly saw the King of Jordan---he and a some of his friends were apparently taking a tour of Big Sur on their Harleys, escorted by the CHP and a bunch of Secret Service agents. We were pretty confused when his motorcade passed us on the highway (and of course the police wouldn't tell us who it was), but the internet is really, really great (for... never mind), and we were able to piece it together after the fact.

Today started bizarrely, though. When we woke up (in Manhattan Beach) we found that it was raining! In July! We certainly didn't expect that... But the rain stopped before we left the house, so it wasn't a problem.

We stayed with our friend Daina last night, and she joined us for the first 27 miles of our ride today, until we reached her office. Unfortunately, that meant that we had to get up at 6:30, which is really early for us. (On a typical day, we probably wake up around 8:30 and then leave camp around 11.) It worked out pretty well, though, and once we reached the office, Ryan and I grabbed an early lunch (or second breakfast, depending on how you look at it) at the nearby In-N-Out. (Amazingly enough, this was the first In-N-Out that we had seen on the trip.)

We took the rest of the day pretty slowly, but we still reached camp around 5pm, which was great because it gave us plenty of time to go swimming. The ocean was quite warm today, so it was really comfortable, and the waves were even pretty good for bodysurfing. We spent a good hour or so in the water before cooking dinner. The only downside to this campground is that it's right next to the freeway (interstate 5), but it actually hasn't bothered me at all.

Total distance so far: 2098.6 miles