A much needed break today – for me anyway. Marc could probably just keep going with his Energizer Battery powered legs (and mind over matter philosophy). I’m still working on the “Shut up Legs” thing. Maybe we need some matching ‘Shut Up Legs’ jerseys.

Last night we met up again with the three American ladies – Alice, Mary and Leilani – who we had lunch with back on the Avenue of Giants! We’d gotten ahead of them due to different overnight stops and different distances travelled each day, and today they’ll have leap-frogged ahead of us while we have a layover. (Here is their blog – Leilani is doing a better job at blogging on her phone than I am with mine.) They have a bit of a backstory to this year’s trip – taking it up again from Coos Bay where two years ago on their border to border ride Leilani was hit by a truck towing a trailer on the infamous North Bend Bridge.  We were staying in the same place last night, and ended up at tables next to each other at the restaurant for dinner (and did a bit of loud chatting!) Would love to catch them again before San Fran.

This was the selfie we took with them back at Redcrest – just another photo that Marc has not put onto the blog on the appropriate day despite having the means to do so!

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The last few days we’ve chatted with several other bike tourers – as well as random, friendly people. (I really need to get back to each day’s post and expand on the detail before I forget. Yesterday someone asked where we’d ridden from that day and it seriously took me about 30 seconds to access my brain and recall which town it had been!

So this morning we slept in, wandered up the road and found a café, and decided it was time to try (on recommendation – Laura this is down to you!) pancakes with bacon and maple syrup.

It’s an interesting combo – sweet and salty. It appeals to Marc more than me, I think. This one came with eggs too. (and we’ve decided eggs over easy are the way to go here- because noone can do ‘sunny side up’ eggs like Marc can – even at home 😀 – crispy bottom is the key!) But I think I’ll stick to eating them separately in future!

Marc’s a big fan of the butter here, and I think I’m with him. It’s whiter (and probably whipped when served with maple syrup). More google researchimng to try to find out why our butter is yellow, and here it’s almost white. It seems it has something to do with the beta-carotene in the grass the cows eat (carotene making it more yellow). Don’t know yet about how that affects the taste but the whiter butter here is more mellow or creamy or something.

I found another alright coffee this morning! Only the second place I’ve come across that has had a cup sized cup! I got all excited and went for seconds in the ‘mug’ (aka standard US size), with the double shot, but again it was blandish. 😦  I’m running out of time to figure this out before I leave but I suspect it’s a combination of coffee quality (and you can get blah coffee at home too) and shots vs cup size. Still thinking first stop out of Sydney airport will be coffee for me 😀

After brekkie we went for a stroll along a waterfront trail here. Marc wants to get out to the water’s edge but it’s looking like a longish walk and my legs aren’t particularly interested – not after our 7k walk in Fortuna when my theory of using ‘different’ muscles didn’t quite work out, because a) we walked about twice as far as would have been sensible, and thus b) my legs still felt like they needed a rest.

Right now I’m feeling more like having a nap, but it seems to be lunch time already!

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Found our new fav nut bar in one of the two markets (they seem to leave off the ‘super’ over here!) in Gualala.  That should get us through at least one day of riding, if not two.  Marc doesn’t usually go for caramel, but he’s a new convert to this whole sweet/salty thing.
We’re wondering if we’d be able to take a box or two home, or whether Australian customs would deem them not ok.

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