Our paths end and my journey continues south

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As we took another steady day going south, around 40 miles of only a few hills we passed through a town called Garberville which was full of young people looking to work on weed plantations and earn some fast bucks. Some of these plantations had reputations of being run by Mexican gangs and supposedly treated the workers pretty badly, not paying them properly or at all and giving them squalid living conditions, taking advantage of their situation of either being a traveler or destitute. Still, for someone who is one minimum wage the lure is there and people are willing to come from all over the US to chase some fast money. So this town had that reputation, and we being bike tourists were thrown into the same category as the trimmigrants running all over the place. We pulled into a privately owned campground that would be charging us double for a campsite, we were looking forward to the spa, Wi-Fi and maybe having a few beers. When we pulled in we got a cold reception as they told us they were no longer allowing tent camping, Matt putt up a bit of a fight with the staff but they said there was nothing they could do. It was night time, cold and we weren't in close range of another place to set up. We went back outside to get our bearings and figure out what to do when a car pulled up with a older man inside, he asked us about our situation and Matt told him he had stayed at this place 13 previous times and was upset to be denied access. It turns out this gentleman was the owner of this luxury campground and golf course opposite, he told us to meet him back at the reception and he would let us in. So we met him back there and he changed the policy, not only for us but for all future bike tourists. It was unfortunate that most of the travelers were not the kind they wanted coming through. I would find out later that the policy change affected at least two others cyclists coming through.



Our next highlight was a very small town made up of one restaurant with a state campsite opposite. The weather even this far into California was still pretty rough but on this day I was excited. Matt had been talking about this restaurant for about 3 weeks now, pretty much since I started traveling with him. It's name was the Peg house and they supposedly had some of the best chocolate brownies around...well anywhere. Brownies aren't popular in every country in the world so it's fair to say if they are done well then they could be the best on earth. Size wise like everything Matt seemed to crap on about they didn't measure up to expectation, I was expecting something that I'd need a knife and fork to feel comfortable tackling, but the taste was no bs. These brownies were made from organic/free range everything and I had 3 of them that day, and still for some reason didn't feel sick. We ate brownies and hung out with the owner of the place that also did amazing burgers and had an outdoor stage with a huge projector that I'm sure would have had some good bands play. It really was a cool place with no competition for miles, I could see how much more fun it would be doing a cycle tour in the summer.



The Owner, Ray his name was came off as a real character. He looked about 60 and didn't go with the usual formality when meeting new people but rather just jumped straight into talking about his adventures. He had me enthralled listening to his story about paragliding with a buddy in Costa Rica onto a beach resort full of beautiful women that he had anticipated seeing so he had spent a few hundred dollars on some women's underwear from a department store plus had a stack of US currency that he began throwing down onto the beach. The women had already started gathering when they saw two gringos paragliding in but he said they went completely crazy when he began throwing the money and underwear down. He said some of them were taking off their bikinis right there just to try them on. He said when they landed that this gorgeous lady of Amazonian appearance close to 7 foot came out of the pack and introduced herself as the resort owners daughter. They were taken to the owner who told them he had never seen anything like what they had done and they could stay there for free for a few days, plus have their pick of any of the women who I had to assume were 'employed' by the resort.



Totally random totally funny story in a random place, travel you have to love it.



After staying up late that night we ended up crashing on undercover tables in the campsite, we were both getting sick of setting our tents up all the time. It was uncomfortable but so much easier that morning being able to just roll up my mat and proceed. So our next big challenge was only half an hours ride away, the towns of Leggetts hill. I made sure that I had another brownie to eat on the way up and began tackling the giant mountain road, this time I cycled the whole way and didn't even need to stop too many times, progress was being made on my fitness as this was no small climb.



We traveled for a few more days, Matt and I knew each other pretty well by this point and I enjoyed his company for the most part. It is unfortunate though that I used to be friends with someone who lied compulsively and I was recognizing these patterns more and more in Matt, some of his stories just seemed wildly exaggerated. Like the time he was cycling with a girl who had fallen off the road into some razor wire and he had to sew the side of her body back together that he could see her internal organs through after this injury. Or the time he was in Argentina and had a car hit him and his friend off their bikes and the driver had then reversed over his friends head and killed him, the way he said this story so flippantly really bothered me. Up to this point Matt owed me around $300 US dollars as I had given him money to buy food over the last week, I trusted his character at that point to pay me back but I knew that I might be setting myself up for betrayal as their was nothing holding him to his word other than his word. I had grown suspicious when he had told me he was sending his camera to a pawn shop to get fixed through a partner pawn shop in a town way back north now called Eureka. I had lent him $200 at that point so that he wouldn't have to pawn the camera but instead could keep it and pick it up later, he had just something sneaky about him and when he come up with more money than he should have had at one point I asked him about it and he became defensive.



Matt had a bank card supposedly getting posted to the town of Eureka and also someone whom he could do cash in hand welding work for for a week to get some money back up so he planned on stopping there once we arrived. We had our final night of camping together and we smoked a joint, there was really nothing else to do with it getting dark so early and whatnot. The town itself was pretty nice, I think Matt and I grabbed a coffee and had a few cigarettes before we parted ways, at that point my lack of trust in Matt prevented him from being a friend in my mind. It was an awkward farewell, no handshake or anything and little did I know it would be the last time I would see him. I rode away feeling kind of sad, at being alone again and at having my trip slowed down so much on account of traveling with someone that didn't want to travel more than 30 miles a day. Matt had changed the whole course of my trip, I would have probably had been into LA some 600 miles south by that point. I wondered if I had made a mistake. I looked at all the things Matt had helped me out with, he had given me a cutting knife with a makeshift cardboard case, allen keys, a green chemical called slime that you put into your tires to have less chance of a puncture, knowledge on various subjects from making money to world events, ways to do my own repairs and a few others things. I was appreciative. I just didn't know if we parted that way because of me or because of him, was I being too cold?

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Photos

Coolest cat ever
This one campground we stayed at, right on the coast, had the cat pictured here hanging around the large open space and she was constantly catching mice. It was unbelievable, I saw her catch no less than about 4 mice in the short time I was observing her. Plus there was a large wooden post that had been scratched down almost halfway by this cats claws, impressive.