48 miles

We started the ride to Pismo with a climb up Harris Grade. We met two cyclists at the top of the hill who were coming home from a two-week tour. They had some good tips for us and told us we would soon be living in “physical debt”. They had just come from the north and assured us that the rest of the day’s ride wouldn’t be too hard. As it turned out, the hardest part was yet to come.

We rode mostly through farmland, which made us very exposed to sun and wind. We averaged about 6 miles per hour on flat land because of the headwind. After lunch in Guadalupe, Nick decided he needed a remedy for his windburned eyes. He found a hardware store and came out looking like this:

We arrived physically and mentally exhausted in Pismo. It was a long day and we all decided we needed to start riding much earlier in the day in order to minimize exposure to wind and sun.