TwD-2007

Here is a rough route (we collect the bikes on Saturday 12th May 2007):

We currently intend to go around in a Clockwise route.  The main highlights for me are crossing the Golden Gate Bridge, riding the US1 Pacific Coast Highway North of San Francisco and the Avenue of Giants US254. Up to Eureka and East on US299 to Redding, I5 down to Red Bluff and SE on US99 to Yuba City, US20 to Truckee, to South Lake Tahoe.  Our Southerly limit is Los Banos where we head West towards the Coast and Santa Cruz and then North back to SF.

As of today, 3rd January 2007, the route is: TwD-2007 020107 and opened in MS Streets & Trips 2006.

 

As of today, 8th May 2007 everything has changed!  Well not quite everything but the route has changed significantly following advise on the MTF.  The new route is up and down the PCH, North and South of San Francisco.

The route may not look as challenging, which it's not, it may even look boring but I'm sure it's not, but flower sniffing and lazy days it is; and that is just what the Doctor ordered for this LD Rider.  Once again Lillian and Peter, although retired, have helped to ease the trauma of 21st century travel by making the executive lounge and a good seat at my disposal.  What guys!

 

Everything is in place for a few days of riding Nirvana, what could be better than riding the PCH, on a Harley as the Summer is unfolding?  I'm even going to try out my Garmin Zumo 550.  Had a bit of trauma yesterday when uploading the routes to my 2610 and Zumo 550.  Firstly the 2610 was registered with Garmin with the incorrect unit i/d number so the un lock code would not open the North America v8 I'd bought specifically for the trip.  Then onto the Zumo and I could not get this to upload either!  It turns out the unit appears as a lettered memory storage device for the maps but as a Garmin device for the Routes and Waypoints, once this was figured out (with three calls to the helpline) and a bit of thought it worked.  The beauty I now see with the Zumo is if I install a 2gB SD card then I can get the detail maps for all USA in and its own memory holds the European v9NT.  The 'NT' on the end is important.  I thought I could upload Europe v9 to my 2610 but alas no.  The new technology means that the latest upgrades for maps are not backwardly compatible.  So what extra do I get for the 'NT' that means I'll have to use Europe v8 on my 2610?  I don't know?  I bought USA v8 and it works for both units, but am I losing something?

During the trip my plan is to introduce Lee J.Curcio, my riding buddy from Houston, TX, to GPS, so this trip I can report on his experiences at being introduced to 21st Century technology and my experiences with the Zumo 550 that so far have been very favourable.

Perfect.  Just perfect.  All day I've been trying to think of an adequate adjective to describe my feeling today.  Perfect gets no where close but what else can I say, all day things have been just perfect.  It all started at 4am local time, well really about noon UK time, so I have an excuse for such an early rise.  Millbrea Pancake House didn't open till 06:30 but we used the time well decanting our luggage into two pannier and one Tour pak bag each.  It is our preferred option for Mom & Pop stores rather than the Cookie Cutter outlets and we struck one out of one with Millbrae Pancake House; perfect.

Using the Zumo 550 in the Taxi we soon were one hour before opening at Dudley Perkins, smooching around I found a guy in a forklift who was also playing ball with his Retriever, "Morning, are you for a Fly 'n' Ride?"  "Yes sir" says I "and what do you do around here?"  "I'm the boss" says Tom Perkins, the third generation at Dudley Perkins with generation four currently working sales!  Tom was the first in, getting the coffee and cakes ready for the Saturday Staff.  The sign said Dudley wanted to be the Best H-D Dealer, I've seen the biggest (square feet), the biggest (sales), the biggest (inventory), the most Northerly and now I can confirm I've seen the best.  We were made to feel like family, and even when Thomas, our Fly 'n' Ride rental agent arrived, fifteen minutes early he got us on the road before he sampled the coffee Tom had been preparing.  With concern for the customer like that they are bound to be the best.

Today's focus of the day was the Golden Gate Bridge, perfect!

Luckily for us Ollie, from the Motorcycle Tourers' Forum had told us the best view point from which this picture of the two memorable United States Icons (H-D and Golden Gate) was taken, on Conzelman Road, from the Suasalito exit.  Sausalito is the place to live in the SF area and it was easy to see why.  We also took some shots from the official vista point, which was an active area!

Then onward North to Route 1.  The PCH North of SF towards our overnight stop at Fort Bragg, perfect.  The road twists and turns, winds upwards and downwards through forest and valley, hugging the coast and swerving inland, perfect.  All the way up are Recreation Areas, hundreds of cyclists took advantage of the route, lots of specialist cars, I saw a GT40, Cobra and Corvette Stingray to name a few.  A Matchless 350cc 1932 vintage all taking advantage of God's playground, perfect.

Points Reyes National Seashore at Olema and the Farm House meant two out of two with Mom & Pop eating venues, perfect.  Now ordinarily I do not care for Oysters, but we had a dozen between us that were the Farm House special.  Cooked with Blue Cheese and Pesto Sauce, perfect.

We only did about 195 miles today but on these roads it was a big day, the daily focus of the Golden Gate Bridge lived up to its World Class billing, perfect.  What to end the perfect day?  Fort Bragg Best Western with a Pacific Ocean view and this sunset from our room window, perfect:

The Avenue of Giants is Sunday 13th Mays focus, will that be perfect too?

You guessed, it has been.

Signs are there for your knowledge and three signs meant a lot to us today.  Firstly Beware Deer in this neck of the woods it does actually mean that, beware because there are deer.  On the MTF deer are referred to as forest rats and the first Buck I saw could have been a forest rat, he just stood still in the road as we thundered past, and no, loud pipes do not scare them away, in a heartbeat they can ruin your whole day, plus re-arrange the shiny bits on your bike.  But the second sighting of a Doe eyed Doe and her two Fawns would have made a pretty picture indeed, they could also have wiped you out had Lee not been leading and taken notice of our second sign Curve 15mph actually means please do 15 mph or you will be sorry and the last one has to be this one:

I do not know if it is the $1,000 fine or

the fact that Arnie Schwarzenegger has all prisoners in the State of California picking up litter or they don't eat which has everywhere spick and span, I think it is the later; but for me the signs in this beautiful place are in fact the litter!

Our brunch was a recommendation for The Peg House at the junction of Route 1 and US101, at Leggit.  It was in Leggit that I achieved a 42 year old dream.  It was at Grey Court Secondary School where in my Geography book I saw a picture of a car going through a Giant Redwood, I wanted to do that and today I did!

A guy also rode into The Peg House on a Road King, he'd ridden up from Panama, Central America, not today of course, but he'd done it.

Where Route 1 darts and dives everywhere, 101 meanders, for a Glide it is perfect.  Out here a spade is a spade and this stretch had been called Shoreline Highway, which is what we had been doing, following the Shoreline North and our next adventure was the Avenue of Giants, we could have taken any amount of pictures that looked just like our trip logo, tall trees, rays of light and a Harley, like this really:

 

See what I mean.  So for about the last forty miles of today's ride we were enjoying the Humboldt Redwoods State Park.  US254 runs alongside 101 and looks like it used to be 101 before they improved it to two lane with central dividedfreeway.  It was so good we are doing it again tomorrow heading South.

Eureka has given us meal four out of four where we got real lucky.  Lee approached a local cop in his parked cruiser to ask for a food recommendation and we were told Avalon on Third and 'F' (not very creative in street naming, West to East are numbered and North to South are letters!).  The seafood was to die for and I can highly recommend the Avalon to you next time you're passing.

As I wanted to ride the Avenue of Giants for all 32 miles Lee elected to run down all the way to SF on 101, so we arranged to met at The Peg House near Leggit at the junction of CA1 and 101.

It was an ethereal ride through God's own created cathedral.  Redwoods stretching for the sky and the morning sunlight beaming down that could compete with stained glass light from the most magnificent of any of mans created Cathedrals.  This natural Cathedral of God spoke to me; alone twisting and turning that Glide, with the burble of the V.Twin as my church organ, it was inspiring.  Impossible to capture so you have to come and do it; as not only the Daily Focus but also the Trip Focus, it lived up to its high billing, and then some.

At The Peg House I found Lee talking to Dave Verno Jnr. of Jackson Stone Band, Dave was in a generous mood and handed us two CD's and a DVD of his band in action.  I got the full benefit of 'Sweet Home Alabama' as we continued South towards our overnight back in Millbrae, CA (a suburb of San Francisco).

As SF got closer the road got bigger, from one lane to two, from two to three, from three to... you get the picture I think we got up to eight lanes but counting them was the last thing on my mind as afternoon SF traffic requires all the faculties of a motorcyclist.  Getting a turn wrong we had to cross downtown SF and experience the dramatic inclines, just like the ones you'll have seen in Bullet.  But before that as we approached the Golden Gate from the North this time we had the Bay Fog roll in and a more dramatic temperature change you could not imagine, we later found out from 85 to 58 degrees Fahrenheit, a 27 degree change in minutes.

Today's focus had been the Avenue of Giants and retail therapy, the second objective was at Dudley Perkins but unfortunately the Screaming Eagle jacket I had set my heart on was not available in the United States market; I'll have to lust after something else now.

All day running down 101 we spied pieces of heaven, whether you call it Nirvana, Valhalla, or indeed Heaven then California has these places on Earth.  One guy told us he could not understand why anyone would want to live somewhere other than California.

Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) was today's daily focus but Lee did not want this:

as I'd said previously the signs really do mean what they say here and I can vouch for the twisty nature of the PCH.  But I wanted to stick to the plan, firstly we had to fight our way out of SF, this time it started at eight lanes and ended as country lanes.  Having a strategy for connecting again we parted at about 40 miles South of SF and I got straight into vanishing points and looking through the bends because half way up a cliff an error could be costly.  Lee had a good run South on 101 taking in all the agriculture and the stuff that goes on with that but my run, besides being a challenging ride, was more to do with nature.  I first spotted Pelicans, an easy spot for me (it is the beaks you know, they can hold more than their belly can!).  I then spotted a group entranced by soaring birds and my enquiries gave the reason for their rapture, a flock of Condors were soaring from the cliffs.  My 3x zoom was not up to it so one of the 'twitchers' promised to email a picture from their 20x zoom equipped camera - when I get it I will post it here.  Coincidentally we had seen her grand daughter crossing the Golden Gate on Saturday for her 'crossing' from Girl Scouts to Cadets, small World.

As an aside just got this picture and information from Rosemary and Daniel Jagt of Cedarpines CA:  "Picked a good one for you.  Just a little trivia too!!  By 1968, there were only 10 (Condors) left.  They were then captured in 1987 (27 of them) and had intensive breeding in captivity.  They were reintroduced at several sites in California and the Grand Canyon, Arizona in the 1990s.  The California Condors are 46 inches long and have a wing span of 109 inches; weighs 10.5 kg. When my bird book was printed in 2003, there were fewer than 100 living in the wild.  You can see how special it was to stand on the cliff and view these magnificent birds."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo courtesy of, Rosemary and Daniel Jagt

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo of, Rosemary and Daniel Jagt

 

Whilst watching the birds I noticed some Sea Lions in the water at the cliff foot but nothing could prepare me for the three beach's of Elephant Seals!  I got that close you could smell their fishy breath!  There was not a square inch of beach left, they were sunning themselves, it could easily have been a scene from Benidorm!  Even arguing over beach space!

Our overnight in Best Western San Luis Obispo had a fast internet, a Jacuzzi and the best steak house I've been in.  The steak was one inch thick of Prime Corn Fed Beef, mmmmmmmmmmmm!

Wonderful ride West to East on 58 and we only saw a handful of cars in all 130 miles.  Wildlife was again prolific and I saw a Wild Turkey, a Coyote and Deer.  We arrived in Bakersfield early and hooked up with Ron from the MTF and a business colleague of Lee's, Mitch Gordon.  Mitch treated us to dinner at Wool Growers which is a homely family restaurant that Ron also sang the praises of.

Had a lovely surprise receiving the wonderful Condor picture from the couple I met on the PCH - added it to the report above (in blue).

Mitch treated Lee and I to a meal at the Wool Growers, a Basque (of the Northern Spain variety) meal in a wonderful family restaurant.  You get a set menu of Salad, Pickled Tongue, A Meat Course, Soup, Spaghetti, virtually all you can eat.  Back onto weight watchers from Tuesday next week!

Bakersfield to Los Banos is about 200 miles and we took Californian State roads as is our wont, mainly CA33.  This road is arrow straight for miles at a time, up to 30 miles in a dead straight line and all the time you are traversing fields of crops.  Fruits and Nuts; and this time I am talking agriculture.  Agriculture on an unimaginable scale.  Even the cow stockade had tens of thousands of cows in it.  Whilst in Texas I was always being told everything is bigger in Texas but the pure size of these fields is almost indescribable.

The heat was on, up to 94 degrees, but arriving at Best Western Los Banos at 2pm meant an afternoon poolside, a little Jacuzzi, a little swimming; you get the picture.  Last day for Lee tomorrow and the Focus of the Day is Huevos Rancheros, the reason we picked Los Banos was the Mexican food and Eddie's is THE place for Huevos Rancheros.

I can recommend Eddies to you in Los Banos, good food better service and starts your day right from 7am.  Next was Casa de Fruita, well I'd seen California is full of fruits and nuts, and this time once again I am talking Agriculture and all of those fruits and nuts are at Casa de Fruita on CA152 after dropping down from Pechaco Pass which is a brilliant ride, but the resevoir is low reinforcing the climate change issue.  But Casa de Fruta has to be experienced:

Whilst we were there a hot rod car club came through with some very cool cars, but always onward and upward it was time to collect my Ulysses seat from Corbin in Hollister, just a few miles further West on CA152.  The gut in dispatch remembered me from my ride in in 2003!  I had sent him a Manchester United Shirt last time and it was now a key item in his clothing wardrobe.

Back to our California home of Best Western El Rancho and a welcome like a home coming!  We had wanted to do Fisherman's Wharf but the $75 taxi ride almost took the edge off it.  Pier 39 was our drop off and as we contemplated our return ride we found Crab House at Pier 39, and what a find that was.  Food was delicious and not too expensive for the venue and we soon got our holiday mood back as we heard a strange noise.  It was these chaps:

What a strange sight inside the bay at the city centre a Pride of Sea Lions (collective noun for sea lions?) and their honking was only eclipsed by the free street entertainment in the form of a smokin band.  Not such a big financial hit on the Taxi home.  That was it, had it been a full 7 days since we set out on TwD-2007?  Time had flown by and of course that is a sure sign you've been having fun, Lee was headed on back to Texas in the morning but Colm from the MTF had other ideas for me.

A 6:45 meeting at the lobby and Colm was dead on time, it felt strange saying my farewells to Lee but all good things come to an end and of course living in the moment is important.  Colm's only question was did I mind 'Hauling Ass' (which I think refers to transportation of Donkeys?).  We hit Sacramento in double quick time having met up with Colm's riding buddies on the way, Chuck and Dan, then we were soon at the San Francisco Motorcycle Club House for their charity ride to Fort Bragg.  They accepted my MAG card as AMA membership and I was signed up, a good fund raising idea was to give us self adhesive targets to stick where we wanted and the best Bug Splatter at the rides end would win, brilliantly simple but effective.

Riding was as group normally is; and my three buddies had other ideas for me and more Hauling Ass (I'll really have to find out what that means) so we turned off and started on some Canyon Twisty's - Yi Ha!  I'd not had this much fun with my clothes on in years, boy those cruisers could ride and they soon coaxed me into the grove with the promise that CHP (California Highway Patrol) would not normally stop four bikes at one time unless they were really being stupid.  So with this in mind the limiting factor on speed was the four S's, Safety, System, Smoothness and with that came the Speed suitable to test the 96" six speed Electra Glide, I was getting to understand Hauling Ass!  Not a lot of tourist stuff or picture taking but plenty of Hauling Ass. 

I got back to the motel about 11pm, after having left at 6:45am, we did 450 miles, had lunch and dinner and enjoyed the ride.  I think I did more bends in that one day than I had done all the previous week.  Basically north of San Francisco on CA101 you can go west to CA1 on the coast and these West/East roads cross the coastal mountain range, the further North you cross the quieter the roads are.  The best canyon run we did in my view was Skaggs Road which we did from Greyersville to Stuarts Point running past Lake Sonoma, I've given up naming my best rides as they were getting ridiculous in that any exceptional ride became 'The Best', but this ride was definitely one of the best, four riders doing my newly acquired skill of Ass Hauling, think I know what it means now.

A 18:55 flight home meant I had another half day and the bike was mine 'till noon and Alice's Restaurant was on my must do list.  Tough day yesterday meant a long lie in to 6am.  I took a road due west to the coast, ran down the PCH to CA82 then ran to the junction with CA35 better known as the Skyline Boulevard and Alices Restaurant.  It was early and I'd already had porridge and juice but it would be rude not to sample what Alice had to offer so I'll admit to a New York, double egg steak breakfast (diet starts Tuesday!), it was wonderful and so cool to people watch.  Stereotypical bikers abounded from the Long Distance guys in their Aerostitch, to the crotch rocket riders in their one piece leathers and of course us Harley riders in what else but black!  There were many cool bikes too and I bet latter in the day they would be wall to wall with bikes.  The Skyline Boulevard was a good ride but cyclists, other bikers and cars meant a sedate return to Dudley Perkins.

For your information Alice's has an acoustic music night every Thursday between 7-9pm, I bet that's cool and a lovely ride back down to San Francisco.

I got back to Dudley Perkins 15 minutes before noon, my designated check in time, so I picked up 15 minutes early therefore had my full eight days hire to the minute.  Luckily the check in guy did not notice the redesigned floorboards!  They'd had a few millimetres ground off on each side - not sure how that happened but I think it has something to do with that Hauling Ass!

Hope you enjoyed the blogg any questions or comments I'd love to hear them, just click this link and let me know:

Dave Badcock

Later, Dave

 

 

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