Day 9: Layover at Cape Lookout
Taking a layover. Something so important on a tour. To rest, heal weary muscles, allow the mind to wander. Something I haven’t allowed much in prior tours, either. Sometimes I act like I’m on a forced march, cycling every day, not stopping, not pausing. So I planned this extra day at Cape Lookout, a park off the main 101, remote, quiet, beauty unparalleled by other parks along the Pacific Coast route.
I sleep long in my tent, get up lazily. It’s clear, skies so blue. Air is crisp too, a chill I wasn’t expecting. Long sleeves, rain pants to block the wind. I wander the beach, build tall stone balances, star into the distance, wonder at the vastness, the infinite depths of the ocean.
I cook lunch, and dinner, enjoying fresh greens, raspberries, dulse sea vegetable on a simple salad. Cous cous, oats, sautee, chocolate. East slowly, savor, pay attention, incorporate these gifts into my body, fall deep into this moment, notice my discomforts, my joys, my worries, my gratitude.
Another sunset, this time with a clear open sky above. The moon returns too, shining brightly through the shore pines. And the stars, so many stars, peppering the night above. How precious and brief these moments of beauty and presence. So grateful to be here, now. Doing nothing, finding everything.
Vintage Bicycle Odyssey 
You are in the moment as the wise teachers tell us to live. Thank you for sharing your presence. I feel the revitalized spirit.