Another cloudy, foggy, misty, overcast start to the day, as we cycle on to Monterrey. Our route takes us off Route 1 for the day, a blessing! (Well, there were 2 miles as we cycled on Route 1 along Moss Landing).

As we left Aptos, and crossed over Route 1, we were thrilled to be on the backroads and byways. Traffic was backed up for the regular morning commute.  After a few miles through the beach communities, we were passing through what I refer to as the Salad Bowl, acres and acres of strawberries, bibb lettuce, artichokes, romaine lettuce, turnips?, asparagus and even a mushroom farm – and other unidentifiable vegetables.

After the first 20 miles we were back on a trail that we had cycled a few years ago. The trail runs from Castroville (the artichoke capital of CA) to Monterrey through  Marina, the Fort Ord Dunes State Park

then along the Monterrey Bay through Seaside, and into Monterrey.

Our hotel for the evening was right on the route. We arrived early enough to take in a movie and after dinner on our walk back to the hotel we heard a voice echoing through the buildings in old Monterrey. We followed the voice to discover Bernie speaking from Colton Hall – where the first constitutional convention was held in CA in 1849. Pretty impressive crowd, speaker, and location.

Tomorrow we head to Big Sur!