Nice People (Santa Cruz to San Francisco)

Afters riding 85 miles yesterday I made it to San Francisco. When I got here I felt as though I were going to die. Not only was it the longest day of biking that I have ever even came close to having, but I also didn't get a very good nights sleep two nights ago (I'll explain in a further). By the time I hit the city I was the closest to bonking that I have been on my entire trip. At the city limits it started to become clear that there were no camping options, unless I felt like sleeping with the bums underneath an overpass. Although this seems glorious, and a great story to tell I've been getting smarter, and now know doing things like that are not that awesome. (I wouldn't sleep, probably be murdered, and have my bike stolen and sold for the scrap steel of the frame.) Saying that, it was worth swallowing my pride and going to a hostel. Since I have no maps, and don't know how to really use my gps I was utterly lost in the city, and knew that the only way to possibly find a safe place to sleep was to ask someone. I asked the most qualified person that I could find, a very tall, skinny, dready that was standing on the railing between the board walk and the beach doing yoga. He answered my question with more information then I could have ever wanted, giving me every hostel in the city limits, its address, and phone number. When he was done giving me this information his what I took to be girlfriend came up and began explaining to me that they lived on a yoga farm near Sacramento. When I acted slightly interested they asked if I wanted to do a yoga section to revive myself. Of course I took this! My body has been in shambles and anything to help fix it is happily excepted. This was the beginning of my yoga training. The first thing they showed me was the corpse pose. I lied on my back in the middle of the Great highway board walk and slowly relaxed every muscle set starting with my toes and going to the tip of my scalp. To my astonishment it actually really worked well. I was to the point of bonking before this, and doing the corpse pose gave me enough energy to ride my bike up to the golden gate bridge and then back the other way about 4 miles to find the hostel and party really hard when I made it there. This would have been impossible without being given this little bit of assistance. Upon telling them how much better I felt a buzz of excitement ran through the two of them and they started to show me more and more. They did everything from a entire lesson I could do to stretch after a long day of bike riding, to have the guy put me on his feet and stretching out my back that way. These people helped me so much my back is for the first time kind of lined up. I need to keep following the ways of the master. If not I may become to tight, seize up as I ride my bike down a hill and run into truck, to get drug on the highway 30 feet. (No one would ever be that dumb! Haha). These were not the best people that I have met in the last few days though.
Two nights ago as I was riding away from Santa Cruz by default ended up in the town of Davenport California. The only reason that I stopped was because the town is consist of a bakery, a run down shack next to the bakery, and ten houses. I thought that if I looked through the dumpster I could find some thrown out treat. I checked and to my dismay there was nothing there. Instead of giving up, I decided to take the direct approach and just ask. When first asking the guy if they had any day only stuff that they were planning on throwing out he looked at me like come on, are you serious. Then softening up, asked why I would ask such a stupid thing. Upon explaining the situation his entire demeanor changed, with a huge smile he gave me not only tons and tons of old muffins, but also two loaves of fresh bread and butter to eat with it! I came out of the bakery very satisfied and went over to sit on a bench next to the shack. As soon as I sat down a scraggly looking, half Japanese, guy came up to me and asked if I was looking to by some drug. I told him that I didn't have any money, and his answer to that was "You're riding your bike against a head wind and I can tell you have been for days. This was enough payment for him." So I sat there, hung out with him for bit doing what people do, and to my utter surprise another guy burst out of the shack. It turns out that Nef is the ceo and president of Homergrown surf boards, which was based out of this small shack in a town of no more than 30 people. His friend Chris just kind of hangs out with him and tries distracting him from getting any work down. These guys where two of the biggest characters that I have ever met, talking to me about everything from world unification to Nef's newest surfboard which we cut by standing on top a massive piece of redwood carving the board out with a chainsaw. (Maybe one of the most dangerous things that I have ever heard.) The massive log washed up onto the beach about a month ago. Instead of planing the wood into boards and selling it to get money for the entire town, Nef put it onto himself to make a surf board out of it and when some yuppy from Merin buys it, the entire town would throw a party with the money. (I'm not joking this was the plan they were telling me.) As we sat there and became more and more inebriated other people began to come out of the woodwork. Eddy was the 1984 Mexico surf champion, he now is a proud resident of Devonport, and the self proclaimed surf king of the area. As he was telling me this all of his friend were giving him shit and telling me not to believe a word. Although I'm positive that we has dead serious. I also met a Harley rider with his 3rd grade son that would come along with him to where ever he travelled. They just happened to land in Davenport because the people there were just too nice. The entire town is full of characters and more or less devoid of the law. This makes it to be the coolest town I've ever been to. Everyone is friendly, accepting, and brings a different aspect to the town that makes it extremely unique. They also have a militia that's ready to protect the area in case of the apocalypse, when that happens this might be the first place that i head. Right when I was about to leave (it was getting very dark, night biking is scary!) they told me where to camp if I swore to tell no one. When I got there I understand not only was it a beautiful free beach that the cops would never find, but also there is a really great surf break that I'm sure is supposed to kept under wraps so it doesn't become over run with tourist. As I left town I asked Nef for the one Homegrown surf shop flag he owned. He gave it to me telling me to try and not become the grom that I probably used to be, and that I'm welcome to come back to Davenport as long as I was cool. Although the flag is huge and will give me lots of problems, I will fly it with pride. When I finally left and got to the campground the night sky was perfectly clear, and I was perfectly out of my mind, so I figured that it would be a great idea to sleep underneath the stars. I woke up at 2 am to being down poured upon. Thank god I had the common sense to set up my tent instead of trying to tough it out in the rain. It has rained since that night, and I don't think its supposed to stop for another couple of days. This is the beginning of the mess that is my vacation.
Tim
P.s. I honestly think the only reason that all of these people are down with me is because I am starting to become extremely fifthly, showering with doctor Bronners take the edge off but my base level personal hygiene is as low as ever. I think it make me less threatening, or just less appealing because this is close to the worst I've ever smelled. The only time that is has been worst was the first time that I went over to Matt Bakers house!