Travel Journals: SLO - Week Four: Time To Move On

Bicycling is a part of the rhythm of San Luis Obispo.

Cal Poly students ride bikes to class. Workers on bicycles join the morning rush hour - young men and women in blue jeans and clean shirts heading downtown, the straps of pouches slung over their shoulders; laborers with tough, sun-darkened skin and worn, sturdy work clothes. Homeless men ride utilitarian hybrids, backpacks filled with everything they own. Going where? Moving so as not be be standing still? Squadrons of fit young men and women, bedecked in lycra shorts and brightly colored jerseys pedal swift road bikes out Broad Street into the countryside on Saturday mornings as the sun rises over the hills. They are as silent and graceful as a whispering flock of birds.

More streets than not, it seems, have bike lanes clearly delineated by bright white lines that leave no doubt in anyone's mind as to who belongs where on the road. Bicycles flow through the city more or less seamlessly with their four-wheeled counterparts.

Carol and I have joined the ranks of cyclists for the month, cycling all over town. I've never felt safer on a bicycle in an urban environment. At one major intersection near our home, I regularly join three lanes of left turn traffic across a vast intersection, confident of my place in the stream and confident that the cars moving with me are aware of my presence. Not that I'm not alert and and checking the moving vehicles around me at all times.

Bicycles seem to be accepted as part of the traffic here and have been given their place. One thing I've noticed is that bicyclists for the most part obey the traffic laws, far more frequently than they do back home. No running red lights just because they can. Pedestrians, too. I've waited at "Do Not Walk" lights at downtown intersections with other walkers who patiently wait for the light to change, even if there isn't a car approaching within a block. Drivers of cars, for their part, hit the brakes as soon as they see a pedestrian take the first step toward a crosswalk. It all just seems to work.

On our last weekend in town, we received a visit from Soren Bondesen, his wife, Andrea, and two-month old Isabella. Soren lived with us as an exchange student almost twenty years ago. He and Andrea now live in Los Angeles. We last saw Soren about six years ago when we visited his family in Denmark. This reunion and the chance to meet Andrea were a highlight of our last week in SLO.

(A double click on any photo enlarges it to full screen.)

Lunch at Luna Red with Soren, Andrea and Isabella

The day before our departure from SLO we toured wineries near Paso Robles with our friends, Tom and Lana Cochrun, whom we met last year at an arts event in downtown SLO. We traded contact information last year and promised to keep in touch. We kept the promise and ended up having some good times together this year. Tom and Lana know their wines and the wineries of Paso Robles and guided us to some fine winemakers - Le Cuvier, Windward Vineyard (exclusively pinot noirs) and Pipestone Vineyard.

Lana and Tom Cochrun at Pipestone Vineyard

Olive Trees at Kiler Ridge Olive Oil Farm

Tuscany? Or California? The wine country around Paso Robles.

Somehow the month went by and we almost didn't take the one hike I most wanted to take, the trek up Bishop's Peak, one of the hardest hikes in the area. We made it just a couple days before we pulled up stakes and left for Santa Barbara. The last hundred feet or so to the tippy-top requires a bit of rock climbing that demands some agility and daring. We did it three years ago, but I confess I wasn't so sure this time. Then Carol set off from our lunch spot and scampered up to the top. What choice did I have?