a cycling adventure: day thirty

July 9th
Half Moon Bay State Park to Santa Cruz
54 miles

Up at 6, made coffee and broke camp. Dark and cloudy, but almost no wind, thankfully. Wind switch must have brought this weather in. Thankful for it being dry too. Hit the road around 8AM.

Pretty flat ride down HWY 1 along the coast, with lots of shoulder. Lots of people riding today, no bike tourers though. Stopped outside Davenport for lunch.

Hit the road again, arrived in Santa Cruz around 1PM. Started riding through town towards New Brighton State Park. Stopped at bike shop and bought another spare tube to replace the one I had used. Santa Cruz looks like a cool town, wish I had more time to explore.

Passed a Safeway, Subway and Starbucks, all in the same complex, so I had to stop. Since I was early I decided to hang out at Starbucks and use their wifi. Stayed there for a while and had a coffee. Ate at Panda Express to switch it up a bit. Went to Safeway to get groceries.

Made my way down to New Brighton SP. Ranger told me hiker/biker site was full. I thought she was joking, in 30 days I've never heard of the biker/sites being full, ANYWHERE! I've also heard that rangers aren't supposed to turn away bikers, since they can't exactly just ride down the highway to the next state park. She said there was no exceptions. Pissed.

Left and tried to figure out what the hell I was going to do. It was around 6:30 now, getting late. Should have checked in first, then went back to the store! Frustrated with myself. Called all the RV parks and KOA nearby, all full. Started calling hotels. The ones that aren't all booked are going from $120 to $299!!! SHIT! Wishing I could just pull over somewhere but this is the city... no where to hide. Started riding around aimlessly looking for a cheap looking hotel or a place to set up camp. Eventually came across a shady looking hotel that wasn't listed on my maps. Don't even remember the name of the place, but it was $110 for a room. Devastated... Getting close to 8:30 now, not really having a choice. Paid the money, checked in. Disgusting room but whatever, its a place to sleep.

KICKING MYSELF for not checking into the state park earlier!!! Maybe I should have asked for the ranger's boss and complained more... oh well. $110 vs $5 puts a huge dent in my budget, was hoping to take a rest day in a nice hotel further south, not gonna happen now. Could be worse, I suppose.

Morale has taken another big hit today. Watched TV and snacked the rest of the night. Big Sur tomorrow.