Day 28: Lompoc to Carpinteria. 67 miles.

It was so nice to get a good night of sleep last night!  Hank and I felt so ready to ride this morning!  We did sleep in a little bit though, so that was nice.

I got up a little before Hank and went and got some breakfast.  By the time I got back he was wide awake and super excited to get on the road.  I packed everything up as quickly as I could and we hit the road around 9 am.  It was already getting warm even that early in the morning.  In the back of my mind for the first ten miles or so was the last big hill of the trip we were going to conquer today.  It seemed like we were going up hill all morning.  At one point, about twenty miles in, I stopped and checked on my phone to see how much further the top of the hill was going to be.  I found that we were almost to the top already.  I didn’t even realize it but we were already at 800 feet and we only need to go to an elevation of 1,000.  Hank and I had a quick snack and water break since it was 88 degrees.  After our break we conquered the hill!  No more hills above a few hundred feet the rest of the trip! 

When we got to the top of the hill I saw what I thought was smoke up ahead blowing across the road.  After hearing about many brush fires in the area I wondered if maybe it was smoke from one of the fires.  I also thought it could be fog since we were heading down the other side of the hill back to the ocean.  I shot a video of it but I am unable to upload it tonight because I am in my tent typing this.  Anyway, after Hank and I rode up into the haze we realized it was fog!  This was a good thing!  It went from 88 degrees to 68 degrees in the matter of a few miles.  As you all know I don’t like the heat, so I was very happy.

The rest of the day was just a lot of time riding.  We rode for 6 hours to get our 67 miles today.  That’s a long time to ride so we are both very tired.  I just realized that not only was that the last big hill of the trip, but I think it was the last really long day of riding.  We only have five more days of riding and we are done!  We’re only about 60 miles from Los Angeles, but it’s such a big city it will take us two days to get through it.  Then we have a couple day before we get to San Diego where my sister lives.  I’ll stay with her for a night then Hank and I will ride the remaining 16 miles to the Mexican border.  We’ll have to do it as a round trip back to my sister’s apartment, so it will actually be a 32 mile ride.  Hank and I are thinking about leaving all our camping gear and everything at my sister’s and just riding there without all the weight.  It would be much quicker and a lot of fun.  We haven’t decided yet. 

We’re almost there!!