Days 15, 16 • March 16, 17, 2012 • Playing in the Rain
As I write this we’ve traveled down the road a bit and experienced quite a few California parks, and Veteran’s Park in Monterey remains in the top two along with Pfeiffer Big Sur. $6 a head hiker/biker rate; free, hot showers; and a beautiful setting. Taps piped over the loudspeaker at 10 PM and 6 AM to denote quiet time was surreal but oddly comforting.
Last night we met our first of many hiker/biker campsite mates. He was a hiker on spring break from Wisconsin, considering a Philosophy degree. He wandered in even later than we did. We gave him a hand setting up his tent– I got the impression camping was a new thing for him—and we all retired to our respective tents. Next morning I was up about 5:30 blogging in the tent and heard him breaking camp. By the time Zoe and I surfaced from the tent he was long gone. When the ranger came by we understood why he left so early– he stiffed the city the $6 camping fee. He left behind Jack Kerouac’s book “On the Road”, maybe it was worth $6 to the city.
Our goal for this day was to spend it at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. For that we needed a way to secure our stuff so we flew back down the hill we had just climbed the evening before and relocated to El Adobe Inn. We tried the hostel but they were full. I’m guessing we came out ahead as the Adobe was a perfect place to stay for a couple days. Hema and Paresh were very accommodating, putting us in a room with completely covered trike parking right next to it. It was Saint Patrick’s Day and Zoe was hell bent on celebrating it. Hema overheard us discussing how we could acquire some green accessories and offered up some awesome St. Paddy’s tattoos!
The Aquarium was awesome as always with at least one new twist I hadn’t seen before– a huge touch screen plankton display. Multiple people could walk up to a portion of a wall showing a projection of tiny floating plankton, touch one, and see it expand into a detailed view which could be rotated by touch. Pretty cool use of technology. We wandered about Cannery Row learning about the long closed fish canneries and local favorite John Steinbeck’s take on them.
Our stay at El Adobe coincided with another wave of heavy rain so we stayed another day, spending most of the second day in the Monterey Library catching up on school work and blogging. And Zoe says: We had some awesome Tom kha kai soup at a Thai restaurant with the same monkey cups as I have at home.
TransAmerican Trike Adventure 2012 
Have been amiss at following your travels. Sounds like you two are keeping good spirits despite some challenge. LOVE LOVE that you aren’t getting tripped up over distance and just enjoying the adventure. Will link to our blog and facebook page!
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Glad you guys got to hit the aquarium there. Very cool spot. I’m jealous–that is one of the most beautiful parts of the country, in my opinion. Hope you start seeing some more sunshine. I am in New York City, so fairly near the end point of your trip. I’ll tell them to keep a cold beer ready for you, Kurt.
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Monterey is so wonderful. I am surprised you had the will power to leave. 🙂
During the tough days, remember, a bad day on an adventure is better than any good day behind a desk.
During the good times, remember, there are several of us living vicariously through you. Post! And post often!
Hope the wind is at your back, the sun is in your face and there are ice cream trucks every fifteen miles.
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As someone who has a quintessential desk job plus a number of recent wild adventures, you would know that well Rebekah. Great insight, I say.
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… Cannery Ron and Steinbeck. I have to wonder how “Travels with Charlie” would have turned out if JS and Charlie had done it on a Trice (very cool covered trike parking accommodations by the way). Thanks like always for the great blogs and the inspirations….
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