We went to the Eel River Brewing Company. We ate a lot. We started with some kind of log thing that was basically a doughnut filled with chicken and cheese. I had a salmon alfredo and Eric had [CHECK]. We also had fries. Dessert was butterscotch pecan pie a la mode. I remarked that the porter wasn't quite as full-bodied as the porter at Jupiter in Berkeley, and Eric pointed out that it cost less than half as much.
We had a good night and a sweet, relaxing morning, reveling in our our success together. We actually managed to get out of the room by around 11:40. When checking out, I asked the clerk for a recommendation for a full breakfast. We really wanted some protein.
The food was great. We had omelets with vegetables and some very good country potatoes. It was a very enjoyable breakfast.
We thought about the fact that we had managed not to have any flat tires on the trip. Eric said that he thought perhaps we had appeased the tire gods by replacing my tire before we left Friday. Maybe it's not that they necessarily want us to have flats, they just want us to replace tires. Replacing a tire at home, with the convenience of a floor pump, was good enough.
We stopped to get some chocolates from a chocolate shop.
Eric found that someone had placed a new geocache out by the beach. We decided to drive out there rather than trying to do any more riding. We were out of clean cycling clothes, in any case. We weren't particularly sore, though--just a little soreness in our inner thighs.
On the way out to the beach, I found myself spontaneously smiling. I told Eric this, pointing out, "I haven't been on a BART train in four days!"
We looked for the cache for a long time, hoping to be first to find, but eventually had to give up.
We found one more cache in a little park. On the way back to the car, we met a guy with a recumbent bike bearing a sign saying, "Powered by 100% solar." He explained that all of his power ultimately comes from the sun. While this is true, by that definition, fossil fuels are also a form of solar power. He told us that he had retired at 55 and spent the last 12 years driving around with his wife in an RV. He had cut their expenses down to $1300/month by putting solar panels on the RV so that they didn't have to stop in places with hookups as often. It sounded like a fantastic life, but even if we sold the house, we couldn't survive for the rest of our lives even on $1300/month. We figured it was time to go back to work.
On the way home, Eric told me that, while the training had been very difficult and annoying, he was glad I had made him do the trip. That was very gratifying. The whole trip was very gratifying, and it was nice to end it with a relaxing day.