One thing I have learned on this tour is that I sleep a heckuva lot better in my tent than in a motel room.
But I had heard that the campgrounds around Arcata and Eureka CA can be a bit sketchy, especially for solo riders like me. So I booked my first motel in three weeks for tonight in Arcata, at the $145-per-room Motel 6.
Didn’t sleep well at all, alas, and am looking very much forward to crawling back into the tent ASAP.
I did see some elk on my ride down to Arcata from Prairie Creek, as well as some sea lions that were taking a siesta on a sandy beach south of Trinidad.
I also met Mark and Wally. They are 69-year-old pals from the San Diego area, who are riding together to San Francisco.
Unlike me, they’re not carrying any camping gear.
As a result, their entire kits (luggage) weigh seven pounds while mine, with water and food, weighs at least 40 pounds. (Their titanium bikes also are lighter than mine, which is made of steel.)
Their most important piece of gear is their credit cards, which they use to buy restaurant food and to pay for motels.
In the small-world department, Mark attended the University of California, San Diego, at the same time during the early 1970s that I did.
I guess I’d envy them, if I could sleep better in motels. But at least for the time being, I prefer paying anywhere from $5 to $12 a night to sleep far more comfortably in campground hiker-biker sites.
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| Mark, left, and Wally |
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