We were counting down the days. A new tour, a vacation, a chance to explore unvisited roads, to sleep in our tent, to eat extra portions of dessert, to be free.

For this trip we decided to ride down Highway 1 along the Pacific Coast to San Luis Obispo. We reserved train tickets with Amtrak to take us back seven days later. Otherwise we had no rigid plans about where we were going to stay each night since the coast has an abundance of campgrounds. The plan was to be flexible, to take it easy and to enjoy our time on the road.

Day One
We left our house in the early afternoon after a lazy morning packing and relaxing. Our journey, about 35 miles total, was on familiar roads to New Brighton State Beach, where we’ve camped a couple of time prior. New Brighton is a great spot. It’s close to the town of Capitola, so we had plenty of options for dinner. But the option we always end up picking is Dharma’s, a new age, hippy restaurant that serves large portions of vegetarian/vegan meals. Useful tip: if you happen to be riding through Santa Cruz on your way down Highway 1, stop and eat at Saturn Cafe. If you don’t order a milkshake, you’ll be missing out on one of your trip’s greatest pleasures. Seriously.

Photos and more story to come…