Oh . . . it is staying darker, later in the morning. Our ‘no headlight’ time now is around 7:10am. We will loose an hour of daylight in the morning between Bellingham and San Diego.

On the way out of Capitola there were some GREAT murals. Talented local artists . . .

. . . too long for only one photo.

What . . . did we take a wrong time and head to the ocean  . . . are those waves splashing in . . .

no . . . they are actually elevated rows for growing strawberry’s, and are covered with plastic. They have probably been fumigated to eliminate pathogens.

Some of the strawberries are growing in hot houses . . .

. . . and if you look the other way and they were growing all the way to the sea.

. . . many of these may be harvested during the winter and appear on our grocery shelves . . . usually they have a nice deep red color but not much flavor.

. . . the Brussels’s Sprouts were just coming on and will be harvested in a month or so . . .

. . . oh and the artichokes were almost ready to appear in your local market!!!

. . . most of the workers in the field were Hispanic and the data sheets for chemicals were posted in English and Spanish. As I rolled past them in the fields, I wondered about their lives and if they hoped to someday ‘work’ their way out of the fields into another line of work. It is hard work.

About half way to Monterey, roadside produce stands began popping up . . .

. . . with great deals on local produce.

. . .  oh, and the locals are also excited about another product coming down the line!!!! The stacks in the graphic . . .

. . . actually represent the ‘desalination plant’ stacks in Moss Landing.

Further down the road more fields were full of workers harvesting strawberries . . . .

. . .  the workers use a type of one wheel cart to wheel along the rows and fill their boxes. Paid by the pound!!!!

. . . here was some butter lettuce growing in rows as far as the eye could see!!!!

I designated this quarter mile of road as the ‘worst of the trip’ so far. Reminded me of Hwy A, out of Paoli, before it was paved.

Brussels’s sprout fields running all the way down to the ocean . . .

Here was a guy, dressed in a Halloween costume??? harvesting celery.

. . . most of the workers are fully clothed in order to protect their skin from the sun. This guy, with three chops of a machete, cut the clump from the ground. trimmed the bottom of the stalks and lopped off the top. The finish product is laying behind him on the ground ready for bagging.

. . . there were shipping facilities nearby for the Big Names . . .

. . . and some of the more local harvesting companies. Semi trucks were parked outside with names on the sides of their truck indicating they were from MS, ID ND and AZ among many more states but  No WI!!!!

. . . along the way there was also what the locals call ‘Ice Plant’, an exotic, growing along the roads. Usually dark green, these plants had brilliant colors . . .

. . . and some were starting to flower. Nice!!!

The last 10 miles into Monterey were on the Monterey Pacific Coast Trail. Nice paved trail that got us off of Hwy 1. Anne and Liz heading toward Veterans’ Park Campground, our home for the night

. . . as we got closer to town, and the beach, the blowing sand was becoming a problem!!!

the Monterey marina on our left . . .

. . .  the trail passed under Hwy 1 three or four times in the last 3 miles, BUT it kept of us off the freeway!!!

I rode on a separate trail through Fort Ord Park where more areas were closed for butterfly habitat protection.

At the end of today’s ride it was a 400 foot climb up to our campground. We are in Group Camp 2, big enough for us each to have our own picnic table!!!