Strawberry Fields Forever - Day 39

As we said, we camped right next to a huge strawberry field ripe with strawberries. We resisted the urge to take any and were rewarded this morning. Hispanic strawberry pickers arrived about 7:30 in the morning and began picking right next to our campsite. One of the supervisors then gave us a 2 lb. box of freshly picked strawberries. They are so flavorful and delicious.  As we rode today, we passed miles and miles of strawberry fields and also some artichoke and celery fields. We saw so many Hispanic workers in the strawberry fields with backs bent over picking strawberries. It made us realize that our country would probably have a problem harvesting the produce if it weren't for the Hispanics who are willing to do this back breaking work. We also noticed that they are hard-working, very friendly and seem happy to do it.

We only got 5 miles down the road when Ed got a flat in his BOB trailer. Patching didn't work so put on a new tube but then discovered there was a slit in the tire itself so we used the $1 bill trick that Steve at Full Cycle in Fort Collins told us about where you use a $1 bill to line the inside of a cut tire to reinforce it.

While stopped with the flat tire, Laura (from Toronto) came along. Laura rode with us all the way to Monteray even stopping with us for lunch. In Marine, the 3 of us happened to get our own personal guide. Larry rides his bike from Marine to Monteray every day and loves to direct people to the bike path which is confusing to find without help so he joined us, directed us and pointed out the sites. We rode 33 miles and arrived at the Veterans Memorial Park & Campground in Monteray. The campground is located  right  in the middle of Monteray up a very steep 1 1/2 mile climb. There we met another married couple, Tim & Leslie from Idaho who were doing a one month tour from Leggett to Monteray. There are more locals/transients using this hiker/biker area for a cheep campsite than there are actual bikers.