The Nomads

Temp: 18 degrees C

Sunny and Cool \

An early start today in cool weather, we had all our layers and leathers on.

Denis has decided to “bee-line it” for home with concerns about medical benefit eligibility after being out of province for more than his “allotted time”; he has a place in Florida for the winters.

We are continuing up the #1 with the intent to camp as much as possible, which had been the original plan for most of the trip, but circumstances alter the best of plans…

And since Susie’s employer has recently let her know she will not honour the agreement they had to keep Sue on as a casual employee during her absence, there is no longer any compelling reason to rush home so our sense of time has suddenly become very elastic!

There were long stretches of road near the surf today that had very strong buffeting cross-winds that literally displaced the bike by two-three feet! I would just get the lean adjusted to counter the force when it would suddenly momentarily let up and my angle would launch me across the road into the near lane just as another gust would push me back over to where I had previously been without my doing any correction whatsoever. What a nerve wracking experience! Susie wasn’t saying anything in back but she was muckled on to me like there was no tomorrow! (and Susie not saying anything is…. Well, if you know Susie….!)

We pulled into another state park (Humbug Mountain) at supper time for the night, with an early picnic supper consisting of a loaf of crusty sourdough bread, a nice chunk of Jarlsberg, and a delicious California Gewürztraminer!

I have never been much of a fan of the California wines(the new kid on the block, don’tcha know), but this wine is wonderful, in a sweet, full bodied, aromatic sort of way that makes it a perfect wine for cheeses, spicy food, or just sipping cold.

If you get a chance to see it pick some up, you won’t regret it!...vintage 2006..Fetzer Vineyards…Valley Oaks Gewürztraminer…Wonderful! Easily as good as some of the best I’ve had from Europe.

Kilometres - Daytrip: 219 km total: 23,174

Gas: $19.23 Tolls: $0

Lodging: Humbug Mtn. State Park $ 14

# posted by Richard and Susie @ 12:33 PM 2 Comments

Temp: 20 degrees C

Sunny and Cool

Started out late headed for Eureka hoping to pick up bags there that I had ordered from Kawasaki in Santa Maria.

The highway was a rollercoaster the whole length of the coastline with some scary high cliff edge turns and strong cross winds but amazing scenery! One of the things that will always stay with us is a memory of the heavenly, ever-present aroma of the redwood cedars and the blue-gum eucalyptus that permeates the air and mixes with the salty sea fog and mist! It’s a heady perfume and a treat I will most definitely miss!

We stopped at the Redwood Forest Visitor center and had a nice long chat about travel and trees with the folks there, but I had to leave when they started to complain about how all the impoverished Mexican people were sneaking into the country and living off their tax dollars.

Another lasting impression I have of the California coast is looking around and seeing that all the hard, thankless, demeaning, dirty, miserable jobs were all being done by those same Mexicans everywhere we went!

On the same note:

What a shame that all along the coast we constantly saw logging semis rolling along with huge redwoods , barely able to get a whole tree on one trailer, every load another big hole in the historic old growth forest!

When we got to Eureka, there was no “Eureka!”.

The bags had been back ordered and the dealer didn’t bother to email us to notify us like he had agreed to do. We cancelled the order and moved on to the state park were we camped for the night.

Kilometres - Daytrip: 266 km total: 22,955

Gas: $18.34 Tolls: $0

Lodging: Patrick’s Point State Park $ 15

# posted by Richard and Susie @ 12:27 PM 0 Comments

Temp: 20 degrees C

Sunny and Cool

This morning was a cool one. We packed up the camping gear without even working up a sweat, and we were wearing extra layers and all our leathers on the road. I would have put on gloves if they hadn’t been buried deep in the pack!

The drive was a magnificent rollercoaster of a road with some really challenging turns and some of the most spectacular scenery; a lot of fun!! …but slow going compared to a couple of days ago.

We stopped into a supermarket in Fort Bragg for supper groceries and went up the road about five miles to the MacKerricher State Park.

First, set up tent, second, supper, third, hike down to the beach to watch the sunset, fourth, back to the campsite to tuck in for the night.

Kilometres - Daytrip: 241 km total: 22,689

Gas: $25 Tolls: $0

Lodging: MacKerricher State Park $ 31

# posted by Richard and Susie @ 12:21 PM 0 Comments

Temp: 20 degrees C

Sunny and Cool

We had a late coffee and headed back up the Pacific Coast Highway towards San Francisco. We were riding through areas that were burnt out with charred trees right down to the roadside in places and had to detour on to the 101 about 2 hours before Salinas because the PCH was closed due to the wildfires.

We got into San Francisco around two and headed straight to the zoo where we spent the next three hours. A fun time!

Once the zoo closed we were back on the PCH right through the city and up across the golden gate bridge towards Marin county. The crosswinds from the bridge clear through to Olema were really throwing us around!

Along the way we saw fox and quail and deer.

We pulled up for the night at the Olema Campground around seven.

Kilometres - Daytrip: 285 km total: 22,448

Gas: $14 Tolls: $0

Lodging: Olema Campground $ 33

# posted by Richard and Susie @ 12:11 PM 0 Comments

Temp: 20 degrees C

Sunny and Cool /Heavy Crosswinds in the pm

We hit the local “Roasted Bean” for dark roast then headed back on the PCH towards Monterrey.

The folks in Buellton were in a fix with all the raging wildfires from Santa Barbara on down the coast, they were evacuating a good part of the homeowners.

We had hoped to go all the way up the coast on the #1 but whole sections of it were closed off from Santa Barbara up to the Monterrey Peninsula. The 101 is more of an interstate type of divided highway with much less interesting views. Oh well…

We stopped in at Thorsen Motorsports in Santa Maria hoping to find Vulcan Dayliner bags for my bike. Chris Thorson is the Kawi and Yamaha dealer there. Unfortunately he didn’t have them in stock and offered to courier them in but we couldn’t wait the couple days so he personally did his best to find and call the dealers on our way that might be able to order them in by the time we got there. In spite of the fact that he wasn’t making a dollar off us he really went out of his way to help us out. Great service , super great guy!! ….Your efforts were much appreciated Chris!

Today’s treat… rolling hills and vineyards, and a trip to the Monterrey Pier and Beach and Cannery Row for some great clam chowder!

Horrible crosswinds and COLD for two hours between Santa Maria and Salinas! Susie had both her fleece and her leathers on and was still shivering. Big change from the heat in Big Sur when we went through(wildfires everywhere) and the extreme heat we had in the Mojave desert four days ago.

We pulled into Seaside outside of Monterrey for the night at 7:30.

Kilometres - Daytrip: 356 km total: 22,163

Gas: $29.50 Tolls: $0

Lodging: Economy Inn $ 72

# posted by Richard and Susie @ 12:04 PM 0 Comments