In what turned out to be the last day of our motorcycle adventure, we woke to more rain and decided that if we could, we would try and make it through Oregon to Rod and Linda's place in Montesano, Washington. Despite the weather, the journey through the Redwoods was just gorgeous. Not only are the redwoods magnificent, but autumn had hit this part of the US and the colours were stunning - lots of yellows and reds as well as the various shades of green. It was a shame we could not do this journey on a sunny day but even so, parts of this journey were great. We knew we would not see too much scenery because of the rain so joined the I-5 freeway to get in as many miles as we could. We became temporarily geographically embarrassed in the freeway system at Portland and had to call on Nagging Nellie, the GPS to help us out.
After 480 wet miles, we arrived at Rod and Linda's just after 6.00pm tired, a little wet and also a little sad that this two wheeled part of our big adventure was over. The Gold Wing had performed magnificently and only went lame once - and carried us in comfort for 9000 miles from sea level to more than 10,000 ft, from near freezing to 40 degrees C plus (over 104 degrees F) conditions, and from cities to deserts.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Wear Some Flowers In Your Hair
The hotel in Fremont was about 30-40 miles or so from downtown San Francisco. Rather than risk riding the motorcycle in San Francisco traffic, we rode to the local BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) station and caught the train. The first thing we did (of course) was to ride a cable car to Fisherman's Wharf. It was to be one of many cable car rides we took and Ric rode standing on the outside for all of them. He figured he may not get the chance again and besides, where else in the developed world can you legally ride on the outside of public transport? In the two days in the Bay area, we spent more time waiting in line for a cable car than we actually spent riding them. As you'd expect, they are very popular with tourists as well as being part of the normal commuter transport system. We learned too late that it is easier and faster to walk one or two stops from the ends of the line and then catch a car - they can almost always squeeze a couple more on and people are getting on and off all the time. We walked along Fisherman's Wharf (including the famous Pier 39), rode a tram, visited the Cable Car Museum, and experienced the Aquarium on the Bay. Jenny shopped at Bloomingdales (but passed on the $57 G-string) and we had dinner at Lori's Diner - a 1950's themed restaurant. We also walked up Hyde Street to Lombard St (supposedly the world's steepest street with the most sharp curves in it) and walked down Lombard St. It was about four blocks along from the waterfront but felt about 20 blocks up. It was a steep, steep walk!
We left fairly early the next day, continuing north as the forecast was for more bad weather. It was morning rush hour but thanks to the carpool lane (which we could use) we managed to navigate our way through the freeway system pretty easily. We even rode across the Golden Gate Bridge and Jenny did not scream all the way across.
Shortly after leaving San Francisco we again hit rain which continued for the rest of the day. We knew it was not going to get any better so pushed on and arrived in Crescent City near the Oregon state line wet through after travelling more than 400 miles. Our worst incident of the trip ocuured this day. We were travelling through a small town which had disused rail tracks anglng across the main street. We hit these tracks and both wheels started sliding sideways. It was a nerve racking fraction of a second before Ric managed to get the bike under control but it was the closest we had come to having an "off" in the whole journey. Once at Crescent City, we put on dry clothes, dried out our wet gear and decided to order in pizza!
We left fairly early the next day, continuing north as the forecast was for more bad weather. It was morning rush hour but thanks to the carpool lane (which we could use) we managed to navigate our way through the freeway system pretty easily. We even rode across the Golden Gate Bridge and Jenny did not scream all the way across.
Shortly after leaving San Francisco we again hit rain which continued for the rest of the day. We knew it was not going to get any better so pushed on and arrived in Crescent City near the Oregon state line wet through after travelling more than 400 miles. Our worst incident of the trip ocuured this day. We were travelling through a small town which had disused rail tracks anglng across the main street. We hit these tracks and both wheels started sliding sideways. It was a nerve racking fraction of a second before Ric managed to get the bike under control but it was the closest we had come to having an "off" in the whole journey. Once at Crescent City, we put on dry clothes, dried out our wet gear and decided to order in pizza!
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Castles In The Air
From Bakersfield, we followed the Coastal Highway north via Hearst Castle. Hearst Castle, built by William Randolph Hearst and now a national monument is a huge property comprising a number of structures including the main house, some guest houses, a huge outdoor pool, an indoor pool which is just as big, gardens and goodness knows what else. It is at around 1600' elevation and only about a mile from the coast so the views should be wonderful. Regrettably, we were in the clouds the whole time so did not see much of the estate. Jenny and I took one of the four tours but unfortunately, the weather was terrible – it rained the whole time. The "castle" is about five miles from the Visitors Centre on a road that winds its way steeply up the side of the hill. Jenny didn't like the trip much - nor the trip back down. The ride from Hearst Castle north was in dreadful weather along the Pacific Coast Road that had lots of sharp curves and at times climbed very high along bluffs on the coast. Again, this was not a favourite part of the trip for Jenny, not helped by knowing that Ric's visibility in the driving rain was pretty marginal at times. We stopped in Gilroy for the night, soaked to the skin despite our wet weather gear.
The weather was better for our brief journey to San Francisco and we checked in to a really nice hotel the AmeriSuites at Fremont, about 50 miles out of San Francisco.
We are having troubles uploading photos just now so keep checking and we'll get them uploaded as soon as we can.
The weather was better for our brief journey to San Francisco and we checked in to a really nice hotel the AmeriSuites at Fremont, about 50 miles out of San Francisco.
We are having troubles uploading photos just now so keep checking and we'll get them uploaded as soon as we can.
California Here We Come
On the trip from Las Vegas to Bakersfield, California, we suddenly came upon some road works. Normally, this is not worth mentioning but in this case, it was a case of mayhem on the I-15. Road workers were working on the large median strip and had closed off both inside lanes on the four lane highway. Something we have noticed throughout the States is that road construction crews regularly close off sections of the highway for a long distance, even if they are only working on a short section. This is understandable as road crews are hurt or killed by vehicles quite often and they deserve to have a safe working environment. However, having such large areas of road closed and dealing with the resultant snarled traffic can be very frustrating for drivers.
The I-15 is a very busy stretch of road and the traffic, which had been traveling steadily at about 75 mph, came suddenly to a near halt, backing up very quickly. We tuned the CB to Channel 19 to see if we could find out what the problem was (we could not initially see the road works). We spent the next 30 minutes or so being thoroughly entertained by the truckers who were talking on the CB. They were hilarious and it was clear that they too were frustrated at the lane closure but it was also clear that they were contemptuous of the behaviour of some of the car drivers some of whom were doing some very stupid and/or inconsiderate things. A couple of times, we heard some truckers organize a rolling block to prevent some idiot car driver from doing something stupid but they also used the CB to warn others of the approach of a police car so the officer would have a clear passage through the mayhem. It was all very entertaining.
The I-15 is a very busy stretch of road and the traffic, which had been traveling steadily at about 75 mph, came suddenly to a near halt, backing up very quickly. We tuned the CB to Channel 19 to see if we could find out what the problem was (we could not initially see the road works). We spent the next 30 minutes or so being thoroughly entertained by the truckers who were talking on the CB. They were hilarious and it was clear that they too were frustrated at the lane closure but it was also clear that they were contemptuous of the behaviour of some of the car drivers some of whom were doing some very stupid and/or inconsiderate things. A couple of times, we heard some truckers organize a rolling block to prevent some idiot car driver from doing something stupid but they also used the CB to warn others of the approach of a police car so the officer would have a clear passage through the mayhem. It was all very entertaining.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
