Fort Bragg to Manchester

Remember I said it was hard to leave Willits. It was not so terrible but it was sad to know we were leaving all of life's comforts for a bike seat....again. Lou was kind enough to drive us to Fort Bragg so we were back on route. We had all clean clothes and a shorter day of biking ahead of us.

We ate in Fort Bragg. Two funny things here. The first and funniest is Amber ate three cheeseburgers at McDonalds. Who does that??? Not either of us usually but our bodies were just eating up the calories. It was crazy. The best part is she felt fine afterwards. The we went and got ice cream and I ate two huge scoops. Who does that? Not me normally. I ate every last bite and it was delicious. Fort Bragg has the best ice cream. I love their black forest.

 To say we were happy to be back on the coast would be a huge understatement. The views are so much better and the temperature was amazing. It felt so good to be back in the 60 degree weather.

 This was also a shorter biking day. Just 43 miles so we had time to stop and enjoy some things. Like Medicino City. We really just biked through it but what a cute little town.

I really grew to love my touring bike.

Didn't grow to love all that gear though.

There were cute little towns all along the coast this day. We stopped at Navarro Beach. We used the restrooms and I got out my towel and laid on the beach.

It felt great until the wind started blowing like crazy. It was a nice break from the bike seat and we were half way done for the day.

We went through Elk. Most the little towns just had one small store. That was all Elk had.

 After Elk we had the steepest climb of our trip. It wasn't long but I had a hard time keeping my front tire on the ground it was so steep. We rested at the top of that hill.

 Such beautiful views.

 There were lots of picture opportunities.

 Share the road signs were everywhere. There were so many bikers and cars and not many wide shoulders.

When we got to Manchester State Park we were a little dissapointed. There were no showers, or running water, or real toilets. After biking all day I was MAD. I did not want to sleep in sweaty clothes. Luckily there was a KOA just down the street. We decided to go check out the pricing there. Best decision ever! $10 a person for bikers. Great. Oh and they had showers, a pool and a hot tub. The hot tub was pretty much the best thing ever!

 I could have stayed in there all night. Then we enjoyed a walk on the beach as the sun was setting.

It was a great day.