Side Trip and Bypass - Day 48

Before leaving the motel, we met a young gal from China. She quit her job in China, rented a car in U.S., and was touring mainly National Parks in Western U.S. She called us heroes when she found out how far we had ridden our bikes. She said in China they ride bikes to get to work...not for fun.

Ed was again amazed that after a 70 mile ride yesterday, Sharla was still willing to take a side trip to Solvang, a community founded by Danish people and has that feel with the architecture and even a few windmills. We had lunch there which we topped off with their famous dessert, Ebelskivers, a puff pastry dusted with powdered sugar and topped with a raspberry sauce. Sharla was also hopeful that this side trip would cause us to bypass the last big hill (900' elevation gain) of this journey which it did so Sharla was mighty happy about that.  There was still some climbs today but more in the under 500' elevation gain, so manageable. It was a sunny, pleasant day. This afternoon we were back on the busy Highway 101 . At times we had a tail wind but it was mainly pretty strong at our side.  Sometimes when big 18 wheelers passed, we would get quite a swirl of wind to deal with. We made it 45 miles today and are camped at Refugio State Park very close to the beach.