Day 45: Tent Poles and Touristing

The big to do items for today were to fix my tent poles and to explore Hayward a bit.

It’s easiest to mobilize the kids in the morning, so after some breakfast we all (minus Martha who was at work) piled into Kyle’s car to run errands and get a tour of town. We dropped off Rue at the groomer, then swung by a cute coffee trailer and got some excellent lattes. We did a loop of town, going through the Main Street, up by the hospital, to the lake where there a fishing museum, the lumberjack arena, and got a preview of my route out of town tomorrow. The grand finale was going to the bike shop where Kyle was picking up a new mountain bike.

When we got back, it was nap time for Liam, bike puttering time for Kyle, and tent fixing time for Izzy and I. The shock cord holding together my poles had lost all of its elastic, which made assembling them a real pain. The cord was additionally starting to fray and I don’t think it would’ve made it another two months on the road. I picked up the new cord at a sporting goods store on the way to the campground, so was ready to go today. The replacement went quite smoothly and Izzy was very helpful - passing me things and throwing away the trash as we went.

I cooked up French toast for everyone for lunch (gotta take advantage of the kitchen while I can). Then it was Izzy’s nap time and cleaning/laundry/prep to get back on the road time for Kyle and I. I was able to find sriracha at the grocery store yesterday, so topped up my supply. I also re-packed my food so it was in fewer packages and finished the dregs of a couple snacks.

We met Martha for dinner in town at Angler’s, a classic Hayward haunt. I had a brisket and Gouda melt, which was delicious. After dinner and getting the kids to sleep, we got in another game of wingspan. This one was pretty close and high scoring all around, with Martha taking the win.

I head back out on the road tomorrow morning. It’s been really nice visiting with Martha and Kyle, meeting Liam, and getting to know Izzy more as she gets more and more personality as she gets older. It will be nice to be out biking again, but seeing friends and family along the way of this route has been one of my favorite things.