Woke up early and keen to be on the road. That is not to say
that I really wanted to leave Lee and Gary but as I had, to let’s get it over
with. Strange how at the point of
setting off anxieties that I had forgotten over the last few days returned – as
I’ve said security wasn’t the issue I thought it would be but with nearly 4000 miles still to go those little things that
could go wrong niggle.
I had a fairly longish haul ahead of me, I wanted to get to another
Friend, Becky, in Seattle for Monday afternoon and that was 1100 miles away – do-able easily I suppose if I
hopped on to the Interstate and shot straight there but that was not the plan
for this trip. Between Pismo and Seattle are
miles of wonderful coastline – The Pacific Coast Highway - of three
States, California, Oregon and Washington.
I wouldn’t get to see it all but wanted to give it a good go.
It was a wonderful morning, none of the fog associated with that
part of the coast, bright but not excessively hot. The first leg was up Highway
1 to Monterey. And now the superlatives will come pouring out again. I cannot
adequately express how exhilarating, that journey was. Starting in Morro Bay
and then riding along almost at sea level, helmet flipped up - on a bike you get all the sounds and smells, usually good, stockyards excepted – with the higher land in the distance just nudging the clouds.
Then came these beauties....
I know in the photos they look dead but I assure you the noise proved they were not!
As I approached Carmel – of Clint Eastwood fame – and Monterey
I suppose of Steinbeck fame – the weekend traffic got silly, all the State
Parks had signs saying Parking Lot Full and the queues into the towns were
horrendous.
So what to do, well as flexibility is the 4th
dimensional of planning I changed direction.
I had heard that Salinas had eventually cottoned on to the fact that John Steinbeck was worth acknowledging and had built a Steinbeck Centre so, as his work was so integral to my trip thought I ought to go and pay homage. What a great joy that was.
It is a really well laid out “museum” not only dealing with Steinbeck’s life but expanding on all the events and circumstances which led him to write both fiction and non-fiction, including of course the Dust Bowl Migrants...
AND, having seen all the vintage trailers at Pismo – joy of joys there in the Centre was Steinbeck’s own camper truck, “Rocinante”, his home for the 11000 mile journey chronicled in "Travels with Charley".
I know there’s a lot of scepticism about whether he actually did all the things he wrote about – see why I like him now!! - but if you haven’t read it, it certainly is worth doing so. Charley is a dog and there’s even a model of him in the cab – at least I think it’s a model, I don’t think he was stuffed and mounted like Roy Roger’s Horse Trigger – who incidentally I thought I had missed seeing because that Museum in Victorville was closed remember, but he was apparently sold from there by the family presumably to raise funds – made $266,500 – more than Findus would have paid I bet.
Apparently Rogers' son Roy Jr. cried at the beginning of the sale as he spoke of the family's decision to auction Roy's belongings. "We hope you get a piece of Roy and Dale and take it home and you'll get to pass it on to your children," he said. I didn’t know Roy and Dale had been stuffed and mounted too – but there you go!
Anyway, I digress, on the way into Salinas I pulled
alongside a guy, David, on an American model of my bike and chatting at the
lights I asked if he knew were the Steinbeck Centre was. He said he would take
me there and that so that he “could visit with me”. Admit I really didn’t want
to share the experience but then realised he didn’t mean that. Gary thinks we
Brits have “quaint expressions – pillion above being one of them – but the American
use of visit, i.e. chat informally/socially is really quite quaint too ain’t
it.I had heard that Salinas had eventually cottoned on to the fact that John Steinbeck was worth acknowledging and had built a Steinbeck Centre so, as his work was so integral to my trip thought I ought to go and pay homage. What a great joy that was.
It is a really well laid out “museum” not only dealing with Steinbeck’s life but expanding on all the events and circumstances which led him to write both fiction and non-fiction, including of course the Dust Bowl Migrants...
AND, having seen all the vintage trailers at Pismo – joy of joys there in the Centre was Steinbeck’s own camper truck, “Rocinante”, his home for the 11000 mile journey chronicled in "Travels with Charley".
I know there’s a lot of scepticism about whether he actually did all the things he wrote about – see why I like him now!! - but if you haven’t read it, it certainly is worth doing so. Charley is a dog and there’s even a model of him in the cab – at least I think it’s a model, I don’t think he was stuffed and mounted like Roy Roger’s Horse Trigger – who incidentally I thought I had missed seeing because that Museum in Victorville was closed remember, but he was apparently sold from there by the family presumably to raise funds – made $266,500 – more than Findus would have paid I bet.
Apparently Rogers' son Roy Jr. cried at the beginning of the sale as he spoke of the family's decision to auction Roy's belongings. "We hope you get a piece of Roy and Dale and take it home and you'll get to pass it on to your children," he said. I didn’t know Roy and Dale had been stuffed and mounted too – but there you go!
From the Centre I drove across town and looked at Steinbeck’s
grave – there was a note book on it and visitors from all over the world had
made entries – I added my own.
David had given me some advice about a good route from
Salinas to San Francisco and so I had
another great ride along the Hills overlooking the City AND THEN – I crossed
the Golden Gate Bridge – again, on my own bike what an amazing feeling.
Road works, traffic and a horrendous temporary road surface
caused me to miss the turn off to the hills from where I could have got that
iconic photo so this one isn’t all that great – except to me!
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| Alcatraz... |
