As we headed south, Paso Robles posed as the perfect place for us to pause and reset for a couple of days. With another atmospheric river forecasted, we opted to stay put for a couple of days. Paso was a great opportunity to take care of some bike maintenance, tackle some work, and explore the area a bit.
We went to the only bike shop in town, K-Man Cyclery. Cortney needed a fresh tire and I needed some new brake pads. Special shoutout to Forest, the guy running the show there. He was awesome.
If you’re shopping for a new bike, the decision tree makes it easy!
Next stop on the Olson Odyssey was Templeton and a stay with Warm Showers host Greg. (And his two dogs Hoagie and Lulu.)
En route we stopped at Tin City. It’s an cool “industrial market” that rises out of the middle of nowhere. There’s a brewery, cidery, winery, and places to eat. It’s pretty fantastic.
Our Warm Showers stay with Greg was a special one. He started hosting after his daughter rode across the country a few years ago, and he wanted to return the favor to all the kind folks and started hosting himself. (Great dad, right?) Greg is a prolific cross-country motorcyclist and RVer and is great to talk to about routes, must-see small town, and points of historic interest. Greg is also the unofficial mayor of Templeton, having run the show at founders day for many years, as well as being heavily involved in bettering his local community.
The morning of our departure for Cambria and the Central Coast, we were hit with a good amount of rain. Greg kindly let us hang out till things blew over and Cortney and I headed up Highway 46. (We were finally going to ride the Pacific Coast Highway.)
It was a beautiful ride.
In Cambria we were able to visit with Cortney’s aunt and uncle, S & J. In my humble opinion, Cambria is one of the best places on the planet. And one of the main reasons for that was because of the time we spent with S & J.
Our brief stay was not only restful and peaceful, but we were able to enjoy a wonderful visit with them and cousin M. We got to see S sing, they gave us a tour around town, took us out to a lovely dinner, and introduced us to local bike legend Aaron Linn and their olallieberry pie. (Heated up with a side of ice cream, of course.)
It was a beautiful visit. Thank you for everything, S & J!
Next up: Morro Bay, San Luis Obispo, and more of the Central Coast.
-Erik
