So a map and an iPhone walk into a bar........

Today was just like any other day, I clicked the left turn blinker and looked over my shoulder just like I always do when I merge from the 41st on ramp into the number two lane of highway 1 south, but this time it was slightly different - instead of playing that little game of cat and mouse with all the folks who are trying to exit off to go to Carpo's Restaurant (I know that's where you people are going) I had to do a double take as 4 cyclists pulling trailers with panniers flew past me in the number two lane of Highway 1. The minute I saw these guys I claimed 1 of 3 scenarios: 1. Trying to make up time (not with 2 large blue tubs strapped to a trailer) 2. Possible transient cycle-tourists (nope, too clean) 3. These guys are probably using a freaking iPhone, BINGO!

I waited for them at the top of the riser before Park Ave and gently encouraged them to meet me on the frontage road. This groupeto of Canadians could not have been nicer and don't think that I didn't consider offering them the backyard as I have many times to cycle tourists. The last Canadian who camped out in our yard happen to beat me home before I could grease the skids with Mama WÜleur and that conversation evidently went something like this,  stinky Canadian cyclist, "Hi I'm Gabriel" Mama WÜuleur, "Ok...., hi Gabriel" stinky Canadian cyclist,  "He didn't tell you did he?" Mama WÜuleur, "No, he did not, but he's going to".

I did not offer the back yard as these folks were still trucking to Monterey on a Portland to San Luis Obispo trip. People who have traveled with me know that I love maps and happen to carry quite a few with me. I pulled out a couple of jems from my personal stash once they told me that their "smart phone" guided them to highway 1 south. They told me that they hit up multiple bike shops in the area who could not help them out with maps - that is a sad fact to our electronic world. It has got to be a generational thing, but when I was dialing them in on the map, they would take photos of it instead of writing down every turn. I decided to part with my Monterey Bay and Central Coast AAA maps once I realized that they were seriously handicapped by using a damn phone. The guys were overwhelmed with joy when they saw exactly what route they were going to take. You should be impressed as I paid good money for those maps, oh wait,....they are freaking free from the AAA with a nominal annual membership ($1.week). I will swing by the Capitola office tomorrow and pick up a dozen or so of the Monterey Bay maps for the next batch of folks.

For the record:
The super skinny one perked up a bit when I asked him if he had ever heard of a Canadian racer named Eric Wholberg. I polished my fingernails on my uniform shirt when I told him that I got dropped by him once (or twice). When I say dropped, I mean dropped! When I pedaled from Santa Cruz to Santa Barbara for the first time in 1988, I was sans phone yet miraculously made it there, although I was armed with some fancy AAA county maps (free). One last thing, does anyone else feel obligated to apologize to foreigners for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?

I can make out the Monterey Bay on the map from here, but I can't see much on the iPhone in his hand