Day 38

Rest day! Yep, what's there to say? We slept in, did some life chores (of the digital sort mostly), and sat down to take a good look at the road south. Another two day's ride and we'll be at the border. From there, we planned out a rough sketch of the next 10 days from Tijuana to Guerrero Negro, the whole state of Baja California del Norte. We're off the Adventure Cycling Association route here, so we're making our own route. After some deliberation we settled on the Tijuana border crossing instead of Tecate, to cut off about an extra half day of riding and a good deal of elevation. It's going to be a very different trip from then on out, but looking over the maps got us pretty excited. Ready to quit talking about Baja and actually get to it.

In the evening we took a trip down to Laguna beach for to visit a bike shop and blow some steam by the surf. All this mental work got us just as exhausted as a day on the bike... We borrowed a skim board and gave it a go. It was a popular spot and the fellas there were good to watch and learn, even if they were a little intimidating. Perhaps more intimidating were the kids ages 8-12 that were absolutely ripping it up. Eventually we just sat back and watched.

The day went quickly, but we needed all of it. Linked up with a high school friend that lives in the area for dinner and stayed out a while, but crawled into a familiar bed at night and wouldn't have minded if the morning waited another day. To be in the care of folks who have been following along with the journey feels like pulling into a home away from home.