{"id":379,"date":"2009-06-22T02:00:35","date_gmt":"2009-06-22T09:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/liveforthepath.com\/?p=379"},"modified":"2024-11-22T13:21:16","modified_gmt":"2024-11-22T20:21:16","slug":"day-18-monterey-ca-veterans-memorial-city-park-capitola-ca-new-brighton-state-beach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/liveforthepath.com\/?p=379","title":{"rendered":"Day 18 \u2013 Monterey, CA (Veterans Memorial City Park) \u2013 Capitola, CA (New Brighton State Beach) \u2013 Artichoke Madness"},"content":{"rendered":"

55 miles in 6 hours<\/b><\/p>\n

I wake up before 6am and quickly pack up. There are even more homeless people in the bathrooms in the morning, all waiting to take a shower before they go to work, I guess. I mean, it is nice that they have somewhere to go, but squeezing through 5 people who are just loitering in a small bathroom at 6am was uncomfortable in more than one way.<\/p>\n

I head back down the hill and go to a Denny’s that I passed on the way up the hill the night before. I charge my cell phone there while I grab breakfast. With that out of the way I begin my trip around the bay to Santa Cruz. I first rode through a military neighborhood, and an old military base that was closed down. <\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>

An old barracks.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"More<\/a>

More old military base.<\/p><\/div>\n

I then rode through a bunch of random farmland for a while. <\/p>\n

\"Workers<\/a>

Workers in a field<\/p><\/div>\n

\"More<\/a>

More farmland<\/p><\/div>\n

I eventually head through the town of Castroville, which is the Artichoke capital of the world, allegedly. I really only know artichokes from Spinach and Artichoke Dip, which I doubt even has artichoke in it. But, for each their own I guess. Maybe they are really quite delicious, but today wasn’t to be the day I found out.<\/p>\n

\"Artichoke<\/a>

Artichoke Center of the World...<\/p><\/div>\n

\"They<\/a>

They like their artichokes.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Yup.\"<\/a>

Yup.<\/p><\/div>\n

Anyway, I go through some more remote areas and have to take some desolate back roads to try to get to Santa Cruz, since the PCH is a highway which bikes cannot get on. <\/p>\n

\"I<\/a>

I think that is Monterey in the distance!<\/p><\/div>\n

Anyway, despite some large hills I make it by around 2, and I roll up to New Brighton State Beach.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan I get a hiker\/biker spot?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can at around 4, so come back closer to then. If you get here five minutes early we will probably let you in though.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUh, thanks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Glad to know they would let me in five minutes early… she was dead serious when she said that. Anyway I rode through the downtown looking for WiFi, which I did not find advertised on any of the coffee shops down there. I eventually decided to ride a few miles across town and just go to Starbucks. I sat there for a few hours and updated the website, and then ate some dinner. I headed back through downtown Capitola so I could shoot my daily video there.<\/p>\n

\"Downtown<\/a>

Downtown Capitola<\/p><\/div>\n