New Friends in a New Town

Day: 87

I woke up excited today (and a little hungover), about my first couchsurfing experience. I was heading into San Luis Obispo to stay with a couple who told me I could sleep on their couch. Random, but should be an interesting day none the less.

I started my day at the Starbucks on the road away from Pismo towards S.L.O.; had a pastry, a cup of tea and got all my blogging in order so I could be free today for whatever the day brings without having to try to find time to get my blog up. I only had to to ride about 15 miles today so around 10 I called Charity and let her know I’d be there in a couple of hours.

The two hour ride was mostly uphill into the wind, and I had to get off a couple of times and push, but I made it to their quaint home a little after noon and we made some quick introductions and they sent my sweaty ass to the shower. After I was cleaned up they took me into town with their dog, Nero, to have lunch and talk about each other. It turns out that tomorrow they are having an “estate sale” and selling everything they own to move to New Zealand and open a winery in December. So they let me know that they couldn’t show me around all day because they were busy dragging their life into the driveway and selling it a dollar at a time. I am so excited for them, it makes me happy to here stories like this, it also lets me know that I’m not the only one out there who can drop everything and start a new life.

I actually didn’t really have big plans for the day, after the last couple of hard days riding I just really wanted to chill out and have a relaxing day. It relieved me when they said it would just be a normal day in their world. Charity, Spooner and I spent some time in the afternoon wandering around (a favorite of mine) and putting up “estate sale” signs all over their area of S.L.O. Charity even painted it all over their bus. These are big days for this couple.

Around five, they began to drag everything out and I headed off into town to get out of their way for a while and see what type of evening shots I could find. I spent a couple of hours just meandering and clicking, I even had a cup of coffee to pick me up, before I headed back to see how they were doing. Everything was looking good and over the next couple of hours they had a few friends come over (with wine!) to visit and take the cream of the “Estate Sale” crop. I just relaxed, took it all in, let the day pass, and my body heal. I don’t think I could have had a much better day.