Day 29

June 20, 2011

Today I rested in Monterey, a very cool town. I woke up in the morning and saw a few extra people at the campsite. Two guys that I met earlier, John and David were sleeping on their tarp out in the open and a guy named Mike was in his yellow tent. I was the first to wake up in the campsite. As I started making my breakfast of oatmeal and coffee, Mike came out from his tent and came up to meet me. He is from Tucson and works part time as a montessori teacher and part time as a bike mechanic in a bike coop called Bikus (spelling?). The crazy old men started waking up too along with the cousins David and John. We had a good ole' cyclist breakfast party. The crazy old men were blabbing on about their nonsense while everyone else gazed at them in wonder. Soon enough they started getting annoying so one by one, the rest of us backed away and started putting away our stuff for the day.

I wanted to go down to the city for the day, so I packed up my stuff, said goodbye and rode down the hill to Monterey. The town is very cool. There's lots of little shops, cool looking restaurants, beaches, peirs, bike trails. I liked it. I found a visitor center and was able to get directions to everywhere I planned to go for the day-Library, Trader Joes, Coffee Shop, and Cool Places to Visit.

So I went to the coffee shop, used their internet only for an hour because they only allow you to use it for that long. They also didn't let you use the internet if you spent less than 5 dollars. Kind of weird coffee shop.

Next I stopped by the Trader Joe's grocery store for some food, then went to Denny's. The library didn't open for another 30 minutes and it was close to lunch time, so I thought Denny's would be affordable enough and a ton of pancakes sounded really good. They found me a seat, I orded all you can eat pancakes and sat for a bit, staring at my maps. There was a man sitting next to me at his table by himself and handed me a slip of paper. 20% off entire bill! “You look like you might be a hungry college student and could use some help.” Thanks. We ended up talking during my entire meal of 5 pancakes. Found out his name is Bob. He used to be a salesman and he was very interested in astrology. About 2 sentences into our conversation he asked me my birthday and then started describing me and my personality. Throughout the conversation and random times he asked when the birthdays of the rest of my family were. Kind of weird, but whatever. He told me all about the area and about how California guys are so dull. Their best pickup line is, “Hey you wanna go to a movie or dinner or something.” It was an interesting conversation. At the end of my meal he handed me a hotel coupon book and we left our separate ways.

I went over to the library to take care of blog stuff and paperwork for my trabajo. Very enjoyable experience. Also stopped by the post office and the dry cleaner. By the time my laundry was done, it was time for me to head back to the campground, eat dinner, chat with the crazy old men who were still there and then go to bed. There was also an interesting guy there that night who was homeless by choice and spent a lot of time meditating. I had a hard time understanding how he lived a life so dependent on various technologies and public services yet didn't feel guilty about not working at all. I didn't bother him about it though. I'm sure he's heard it a million times.

Bed time