We woke up again to freezing cold temperatures. I think this was one of the coldest I have ever been ever in my life! Our only saving grace was that it was going to be another beautifully sunny day and it was only going to get warmer in the sun.
We quickly got on the bikes so that we could warm up as we peddled out of Santa Cruz. As soon as we were out in the sun and had been biking for a few minutes things drastically improved, and we had to delayer about 4 layers of clothes. We cycled through some beautiful farm land as we headed further South. Traffic was non-existent and we had a great time cycling.
We eventually had to reconnected with Hwy 1 for a short section. Traffic was quite heavy but we had a nice wide shoulder. We met the same touring cycling couple we had met yesterday. They also mentioned how cold it was this morning.
Later on we stopped at one of the few stores that was open on Thanksgiving day to have a snack. Once we were out of the wind by the side of the building and in the sun, we quickly warmed up.
After a short time on Hwy 1, we got off the highway onto a beautiful bike path all the way into Monterrey. We stopped on the side of the bike path to have a quick lunch. We had to layer up as the wind was a little chilly.
The scenery was spectacular as the bike path cut through ice plants of beautiful vibrant fall colours. Some were even starting to flower. The area looked very warm and dry, and as we cycled we ended up having to delayer to just a t-shirt and shorts!
As we were cycling into Monterrey, we met Trevor, who we had met way back at the Golden Gate Bridge campground. He had met up with his friend Ned, and now they were both cycling south together. The touring cyclist world is a very small world! Ned was having some problems with his non-touring bicycle back wheel, so they had some set backs recently but they hoped to manage their way through. We cycled together into Monterrey, and said our good byes as they headed a little further past the city.
We cycled up a hill to our campground, Veterans Memorial Park. It was a nice county park, and the best part of it was they had very hot showers! We are taking the day off tomorrow to do some sightseeing in Monterey, so we were quite pleased to be able to have another night of guranteed hot showers. 🙂 We met an interesting hitch-hiker at the hiker/biker site, but he was friendly and kept mostly to himself. Our guidebooks says that the further south we go, the more “interesting” people will be encountered at the hiker/biker sites. It doesn’t become a real problem until south of Santa Barbara, at which point the guidebook says it may be worthwhile to pay the full price for a regular site. Apparently some state parks further south had to close the hiker/biker site all together.
We fell asleep to the surprising sound of sea lions from the ocean, which was at least a mile or two downhill from the campgound.
Trip Around The World 
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