Posted by mobile phone:
This morning we woke up at 5:30 am and high tailed it out of our campsite. We made it to the bus with about 5 min to spare and were able to put our bikes on the bottom of the bus.
An hour later we were in Santa Barbara. It was beautiful. While we were stopped outside of a bike shop, which didn’t open for another two hours, we saw the crazyest thing yet. I heard Jason say “Look at this guy…oh no… Oh no, he saw us” then from across the intersection “HEY! HEY! WHERE ARE YOU GUYS COMING FROM?” I turned and saw a midget with a huge pot belly wearing only tiny, tiny bike shorts on a midget sized bike pulling a child trailer with nothing in it. He pulled up to us, and we realized he was missing all eight front teeth. He was nice, and when he found out we were from the south, we had a new best friend. He was originaly from New Orleans and that made us practically kin. Well we struck it up with Fred, and he ended up taking us on a tour of the city. He knew every bum, and many of the attractive women as well. Everyone knew, and liked him too. He works in a bike shop, and his side business is called “Leprakon Bike Shine.” I don’t know if that is how it is spelled, but that is how he spelled it. He let us know that we could get a free meal at the homeless shelter at 11:30 because we kind of look -well- homeless…
Side note: We saw Faye Dunaway… She knew Fred. I had no idea who she was.
Anyway, got the bike fixed for $150 and three hours of work and we were on the way out of Santa Barbara. We got to Carpinteria and spent the afternoon on the beach and doing laundry at the laundry mat.
Tomorrow we ride for 40 miles, then get to LA and santa monica to stay with Eliz until saturday when we will head back to san fran.
Jason says he will post later, he is about to shower.