Day 16 - San Simeon to Lompoc (165.9 Km)

After the fun and games of yesterday and the realisation that I am actually ahead of schedule, today was supposed to be a gentle and short spin to Pismo Beach.Once again no breakfast at the motel, so in fitting with my day plan I decided to stop off for a relaxing breakfast and coffee at the first place I could find. After an hour I passed through the perfect town, so racked up, ordered and received what was honestly the best breakfast bagel I've ever had!You really can't tell from this picture, but this bagel was insane. Believe me, over the last 16 days I've had a lot of 'fast' breakfasts and this blew me away. Anyway.After gushing to the waiter/chef for longer than he was comfortable, I headed off. Pismo was only a total 50 miles, so I only had another two hours in the saddle.As I pushed along my favourite road (1), I saw a cyclist in the distance, siddling up beside him, I met Kevin. We got talking, he was on a cheeky pre work jaunt and in no particular hurry, it turned out he was the owner of his business. He offered to buy me a cup of tea, so once again and in keeping with my day of almost rest, I accepted and we stopped for a good natter. He had participated in and was still training for some really serious cycling endurance events (PDP etc), I was in awe.After taking me past his lovely store, Kevin gave me the directions to get back on route and over to Pismo. Game on. Not much longer and I was there, day finished at 11:45. As I ordered my unnecessary and very early lunch I started looking at motels. Unbelievably they were all very expensive! Who would have thought a seaside town in California in mid August would have expensive accommodation?Knowing tomorrow was also supposed to be a short day I flicked through my schedule to see exactly where I was going, how far it was and crucially, how much the motel was going to cost! I found a motel 6 for pennies, back on the bike.80 KM to Lompoc, with the wind on my side and full of energy, I was making great progress. Then I was hit with the most ludicrous section of roadworks of the whole trip. Only 200m long but with a militant, jobsworth of a road coordinator, I was made to wait 15 minutes and for all the traffic to go through both ways before it was considered safe for me to ride.On I went and the rest of the afternoon was epic. I had almost an hour of straight, smooth road, with a tail wind and hardly a car travelling either direction. Ending with a couple of hills and finally the motel, with a massive grocery store directly opposite. Fruit! Clearly I walked in to KFC!Without tempting fate, all seems to be on track and if the weather keeps up, I may even return to England with a tan.