Tuesday 3rd June: New Brighton State Beach

New Brighton State Beach Rangers were obviously not aware of Tim's entry onto Interpol. When I begged them to let us stay another night (you can't extend a hiker/biker site - too many homeless people trying to live there apparently), they promptly gave in. Initially when I explained Tim was injured he told me I would have to pack up the tent and come back at 4pm to sign in again. I must have looked so confused and dumbfounded by this rule that he gave in. Either that or he surmised that I was not in fact homeless which is an achievement on my part as I stood there in the same outfit i have been wearing for the past two months!

Back with Tim, we headed down to the beach and looked through the rest of California and its cycling. Bizarrely we realised we have two weeks spare at the end which we have not thought of a great plan for yet. We considered flying over to the East coast and doing a bit of cycling but this route was described as hilly. Cycling to Las Vegas seemed a little bleak! Maybe we will go and sit on a beach in Mexico for two weeks ;-)

In the afternoon we cycled out of the campsite for lunch. Tim made a Stirling effort to pedal as slowly as is humanly possible to convince the park warden he was indeed injured. Only to be capped by his performance as we re-entered the park - he not only verified it was a serious injury (amputation imminent) but then he limped to the pedestrian path claiming he couldn't possibly cycle up the hill. The cherry on the icing was when I told them i would take him to a doctor. What a double act - eat your heart out the two Ronnie's and we didn't even have to mention fork handles..

Tim decided that after I had cycled up the biggest hill to buy us dinner, that I then needed to go in the ocean to soothe my muscles... We waded in a bit, and screamed and yelped and skipped, then a wave covered me after which I turned on my heels and ran out to lie in the sun. Tim, however, still had to prove his manliness - it took a while.

When we got back to the tent, more cyclists appeared - Mike who was infested with earwigs (I had the same problem the night before - DON'T stay under any trees at Half Bay Moon State Beach), and a couple who were doing as test circuit before they flew up to Vancouver to start in earnest. I didn't get their names and I have given up asking Tim such details - I'm just thankful he remembers mine.

Ooh and I mustn't forget the guy who served us in the camera shop. We needed a new memory card, and with great dryness he showed us 2 options: 'Why buy this one for $36 when you can buy this one for $30. Mind you if you were to shop around you would get it for $25'. For once we were happy to be a victim of our circumstances and bought the cheap card he suggested.