When we stepped outside this morning and looked outside a fog had rolled in and it was a bit chilly. So we walked over to the restaurant had some Blueberry pancakes an then headed back to our room to pack. Between the longer than normal breakfast, time wise, and our long winded conversation with a local about our travels, it put us an hour behind our normal 8am departure time.
By the time we rolled out of the parking lot and fueled up the bike, the fog had burned off and we were riding up the PCH with mostly clear skies and mid 50’s. Lori was all cozy testing out her heated suit for the first time this trip and she was all smiles. We arrived at the Hearst Castle and that bad boy was tucked away on top a hillside and there would be no taking pictures of this place so I proceeded to focus on the new problem we had. 30 miles up the road the PCH had washed out and we had to reverse course. There was a construction crew working near by so ask best route to get around. He said that I had to back track 6 miles to HWY 46 then pickup HWY 101 northbound and the intercept PCH in Salinas. I wasn’t to happy about it but at least I didn’t travel the total way up to the dead-end or washout to figure out there was no pass except behind me.
The ride on 46 was great, swooping around corners and climbing and descending terrain and dotted with an occasional Vineyard. Then we turn north on 101 and let me tell you, there is a lot of veggies grown in this area and it wouldn’t surprise me to hear that your eating some right now from California. Looked like Dole was a big investor in these parts. We stopped at a rest area on 101 and got caught up in another motorcycle conversation with a local that took another 20-30 minutes of time. So now about 1.5 hours behind schedule. The re-route cost me another 20 or 30 minutes, so I knew that we would not be doing wine country on todays plan.
We stopped in Salinas at a Subway for a quick sub and when we stepped outside, rain!! Oh no, someone is raining on our parade!! The other thing I changed was my choice of gloves and off we went. One of us was dry and warm and the other was dry and a bit chilly, we will not mention names. I got a little frustrated with the traffic we hit in Watsonville because it came to a stand still. Nothing like sitting in traffic in the cold rain. I jumped off the primary route, scouted through town and accidently found my way around the traffic jam. We traveled for about another 30 minutes in the rain and I was considering highly just setting a direct route to our destination and we suddenly broke out of the rain. I’m glad I didn’t do that because the scenery once again was awesome.
We finally bounced off of the PCH and into San Francisco heading toward the Bay Bridge, not the Golden Gate, and talked about a ZOO. Cars zooming everywhere and you better know what lane you want well in advance because there was 6 lanes and sometimes they came to a stop in a hurry. Housing! It looked like toy boxes stacked on top of each other and now it makes more sense why there is so much damage when there is a earthquake. It just didn’t look safe. Crossing the bridge was kind of cool knowing you had one level going one way and another level going the other way. Once we crossed the bridge, I set a direct course for Hotel La Rose.
I didn’t think I was staying so far outside of San Fran but we are about 45 miles outside of town. Apparently someone’s dog got lose on the Interstate and cars were swerving, stopping, people from different cars jumping out trying to catch the damn dog. Only in California, on the east coast I’m afraid that dog would have been a pancaked and no human lives would have been put at risk. Let’s just say I made one evasive maneuver to avoid a rear-ender.
Finally at our hotel it was another pleasant surprise on a non-name hotel and the details to decoration are very nice. Once again, Lori had to take pictures before I was allowed to enter the room to unload luggage. After dinner, we headed back to the hotel so I could do some real work.
We cancelled our reservations at Crescent City and Crater Lake due to rain, snow, and freezing temperatures and Mark was not willing to risk life an limb to see a lake and the redwood forest. I will fly back another day and catch them. Quick story, when I called Crater lake reservations they told me just this morning that a hearty motorcyclist made the trip the day before, stayed the night, and then had to wait to follow the snowplow out because of snow and ice. No thank you and you can just call me chicken.
So I just spent the last 2 hours planning, re-routing, an making reservations for our new route. We still will have cold weather issues because we have to cross the Sierra's somehow eventually. Tomorrow we get up, ride down to the Golden Gate Bridge and then turn around an tour the Wine Country we missed today. When the day is done we will end up in Sacramento. We will stay there 2 nights and either goof off on day 2 or do a 400 mile ride I laid out with the help of Road Runner Magazine.
So today could have been just an over all bad day but it wasn’t. The west coast actually looks pretty cool with clouds sweeping in off the ocean. Then we could have either pushed it or pouted about the weather in Crescent and Crater, but we didn’t, we just made a different plan on the fly.
Todays run was 359 miles, and our total is now 5222.
Click here for todays pictures:
Tomorrows route is pictured below:
The Picture below shows what we have completed and what we have left. The Red is complete and the Green is what is left.
After 45 miles of Interstate riding, we finally dropped off onto what I considered the Pacific Coast Highway and the mood and scenery changed dramatically. One minute your in the city doing 25 mph mixing with cars and people and the next minute your doing 65 mph all by yourself. We also skimmed by Camp Pendleton and they were playing war games along the hillside when we drove by. Didn’t get any pictures of that and was thinking I might get shot at if we did. 
