Bike Tour in the USA (2007), Part 21

Sunday, Sep. 16, 2007

Beaches and Missions

Oceano Dunes → Morro Rock

Distance: 84.20 km, Time: 5:50:36 hrs, Total: 710.62 km

The next stop on the Highway 1 was San Luis Obispo. This place started, as some long time reader rightly guessed, as a mission outpost. Mission San Luis Obispo was the 5th Junipero Serra founded on the original land of Chumash Indians in the ‘Valley of the Bears’ on Sep. 01, 1772. The church and the housing of the priests were built in 1794; first out of wood but later, because of fire hazards, built with adobe bricks. 

San Luis Obispo County Historical Museum

With the Mexican War of Independence from Spain (1810-1821) the importance of the mission faded and the Mexican government took the mission with the inventory in their possession. In 1840 the buildings deteriorated as a result of missing funds, in 1845 the Mexican Governor Pío de Jesús Pico (1801-1894) sold the Mission San Luis Obispo including the land, the church and the Laguna Ranch to Captain John Wilson for US$510. After California became a part of the United States in 1850, the first Californian bishop, Joseph Sadoc Alemany y Conill (1814-1888), petitioned the Government to return some parts of the Mission and its lands back to the Church. The buildings were used by the government, one school, a prison and for the first court house of the county.

Mission San Luis Obispo

I rode directly into the center of the town and encountered my first and only traffic jam. In this case a bike comes very handy because I could pass the cars easily. As closer I came to the mission as denser got the traffic.

 On today’s Sunday there were many activities around the mission building. There were refreshments offered, artifacts for sale. On one road anyone could use chalk painting or drawing on a closed road surface. From children to old pensioners, from ordinary people to artists everyone wanted to express himself.

Street Art in front of the Mission

I enjoyed just to walk between the people, sometimes leaned my bike on a nearby tree just to watch the fun and laughter around me. Colored fingers and even some faces could be seen everywhere. Sometimes it is strange how few things people need to be happy! In my own service to the Lord with the homeless and low income families in Taiwan I had the most Christian joy by serving them with my hand brewed coffee while they chatted with their neighbors! I took my time to absorb this ‘easy way of life’ and wondered why I could not see more of it on my tour. I had to push myself to leave this environment but it was time to move on…

On my way back to Highway 1 I bought a salad in an American fast food chain, the plastic bag was dancing on my handlebar while I was riding. On my map in the simple tour guide I found the Morro Strand State Beach, as a part of the California State Parks I planned to stay there over night.

After I left Highway 1 at the S. Bay Blvd it became suddenly very quiet, I was the only one riding beside a very dense forest; no car, no motorcycle, nothing...I thought it might be a wildlife sanctuary, between the trees I've discovered several natural lakes or ponds indication the existence of wetlands giving an environment for different species of wildlife. As I looked up into the treetop I could discover a Californian Condor with its red shriveled face in a treetop watching over the land.

The California condor (Gymnogyps californianus) is a New World vulture, the largest North American land bird. This condor became extinct in the wild in 1987 (all remaining wild individuals were captured), but the species has since been reintroduced to northern Arizona and southern Utah, the coastal mountains of central and southern California, and northern Baja California (wikipedia). 

California condor (Gymnogyps californianus)

For me as a foreigner this success story is contrary to many other ‘efforts’ by different and especially the current Trump administration to cut spending on environment protection and to join forces with other polluting countries (India, Pakistan, China) to torpedo permanently international environmental agreements. Which each abolition all previous efforts have been in vain...

Standing there and taking a picture of the California condor I could not help to think that this specie feeds on rotten carcasses and that I should move a little faster not be accidentally taken as its predatory food for dinner…

(to be continued)