Day 40 – July 27, 2001

Lompoc, CA to Carpinteria State Beach, CA

71.07 Miles
14.69 Average Speed
4:50:14 Ride Time
10:30 am Departure
4:30 pm Arrival
2504.16 Total Trek Miles

   Have you ever seen the movie “Best of Show?”  Andrew and I (Rocky) felt like we were in that movie this morning.  For those of you who are not familiar with this documentary, it chronicles the intricacies of today’s modern dog shows. 

  The city of Lompoc was hosting a large dog show the weekend we happened to ride through.  As we went to our complimentary continental breakfast we met some very dedicated dog owners.  Naturally, our conversation turned to the Lompoc Dog Show and we learned about the different categories of dogs and the common names used to differentiate the males and females.  You can imagine how we almost choked on our food when a total stranger started giving us a detailed run down of the competition her Shitzu faced.  How many dogs and female dogs (she didn’t say “female dogs”) her “little girl” had to compete against.  This early morning conversation was not only quite entertaining, but it opened our eyes to a whole new sector of society.

 Our ride today was a fairly routine one.  It is scary that I can write that, but on day 40 you are allowed to lump some of the similar days together.  We got a late start because it became necessary to fix a Joey’s rear wheel that had three broken spokes.  The bike shop opened at 10:00 am so that explains our apparent lazy start.  Because of the wait, we were able to watch Lance blow away the field in the last individual time trial of le Tour de France.  He beat the world’s best riders in a 61-km ride by over a minute.  That is unbelievable.  His average speed was 50 kilometers per hour!  That is almost 31 mph.  We get extremely excited when we reach 31 on our bikes screaming down hill with a tailwind.

  We rode through Santa Barbara today.  It is quite a nice place with its beaches and polo clubs.  It started the never-ending stretch of beaches that cover the Southern California Coast.  About 10 miles past Santa Barbara is a quaint town called Carpinteria. Wendy Davis, a friend of ours from Provo was camping with her family at the State Park there on the beach so we decided to go see her.  Our short visit ended up being our destination for the day as we couldn’t get ourselves back on the bikes once we saw the beach and prospect of a nice meal prepared by Wendy’s Family.

  The Davis’ treated us like royalty.  We ate Burgers and the best tasting corn I can remember.  Joey’s desire for a smore was also satisfied right before bedtime.  We had a great time “camping out” with the aid of the Davis’ Trailer. We realized for the first time on this trip, and in our lives for that matter, why people actually purchase Recreational Vehicles.