Leg 3

After two long days of 7+ hours of focused, twisty, riding, it was nice to log some highway miles. Southward from Benbow opens up to Ukiah, Santa Rosa, The City, and then a quick cut out to Pacifica for more coastline.

For a lot of the same reasons as yesterday, I was looking forward to some nostalgia and new perspective of riding from Pacifica to Santa Cruz. I was genuinely torn between popping into my old stomping grounds of San Jose and lunch at La Victoria's just outside of SJSU, or sticking with the coast, but ultimately the allure of a world-renowned stretch of highway equally for it's scenery and infinite beach access pull-outs swayed me towards staying along the coast.

And that anticipation lasted 6 minutes. Once I re-discovered the CRUSH of tourist traffic along a two-lane highway, my visions of grandeur of ripping down the coast were quickly extinguished. I mean, admittedly, I was a tourist doing what everyone else was, and it's not for me to yuck anyone else's yum, but it was not a fun ride.

Quick layover at Highway 1 Brewing before arriving at Santa Cruz and a solid 2 hours walking the beach.

The highlight of the day, however, was spending time with a long time friend. Connection is what we will ultimately leave behind in this world, and my connection with a friend like Peter is simple in it's origin (we worked together), but unique in how we can pick up like yesterday after so much of our lives has changed.

I'm grateful for friends like Peter. Friends that would drop anything to help you out. Friends that are eccentric, but no more or less than you are, and accept you fully for who you are. Peter and I have shared a friend in common who unfortunately treated friendship as conditional and oddly, I believe it has made us closer.

Tomorrow cuts across California, with Death Valley as the stopping point. A good mantra for life. Death is the stopping point.