Fear of Heights

Since I left San Francisco, I've had my eye on what started out as the hills and have since become the mountains to the east. I've been nervous about crossing over them to get to the desert, but today, tired of getting lost on alternate routes which avoid the freeway, I faced my fear and rode Route 150 from Carpinteria (30 feet above sea level) to Ojai (700+ feet above sea level.) The climb was steep but fairly gradual, and I made surprisingly good time for me at least; I made the climb to Ojai in about an hour and a half. I was treated to great views of the valley below, and took a picture of a lake halfway up the mountain, Lake Casitas. That might have been the last large body of water I see for a long time, like until the Gulf of Mexico potentially - yikes!

I had lunch in Ojai, and then started to climb out of Ojai valley and down the other side of the mountains. The climb out was a little steeper and took a little longer, but my reward for facing the mountain was a lightning fast 12 mile descent into Santa Paula, northeast of Ventura and directly south of Bakersfield. It took about two hours to get from Ojai to Santa Paula, so not bad for a climb over a pass I later heard the U.S. Olympic bike team used to use as a training run (though they probably went from Santa Paula west since it's a steeper climb; and probably went a whole lot faster.) But I conquered my fear of climbing the big hills, and equally important to me, I've made the turn east and am starting the second leg of my trip, which I think of as the road between here and Phoenix. Oh, and my legs don't feel broken, wohoo!

Stopped over in downtown Santa Paula for a coffee and a snack at the Santa Paula Coffee Company, a great little cafe (but not really a little space at all; I can't get over how much space - at a much better price - is available to people off the coast. It's been awhile since I've lived outside of The City, I guess.) I met a woman named Hillary there; she'd overheard me talking about my trip to the cafe owner, so we chatted for awhile about my trip and my blog, and her new job as an editor for a textbook publishing company - she was at the cafe to do some work on a textbook the company was hoping to publish. She said if I needed an editor I knew where to find one; if you were serious send me an-email!

She also pointed me to another great cafe in Fillmore called Coffeeboy. A bunch of Thomas Aquinas college alums were going to be there for an art showing, and she said I should check it out while I was in town (another hotel stay, argh!) Thomas Aquinas college is on Route 150 between Ojai and Santa Paula; I saw part of the campus as I was beginning my downhill run. The college is building a new chapel, and it is beautiful. The dome of the chapel looks like it's bursting through the trees toward the sky, and with the backdrop of the surrounding mountains it is both startling and breathtaking. I certainly didn't expect to see anything like out in what felt like nowhere; and it has a certain old country style that makes it look like it belongs in Italy or Spain. The alums are proud of it and I can see why. I'm like to visit someday to have a look at the finished product, though that would mean climbing that hill again. In a car next time.