Sunday 19th May - On to Oregon

 The experience of yesterday caused me to have some thoughts as to plans.  I could continue to go along Highway 1 by the coast and no doubt see more spectacular scenery but I had a long way to go so alternatively I could cut straight across to Interstate 5 and zap up that. In the end I took the middle route, literally, Highway 101 diagonally North West up through the mountains and across to the coast at Eureka. 

Turned out to be an excellent decision – haven’t really read much about the 101 but it was probably one of the best bike roads I’ve been on – and for such a great a distance - the sat nav directions that said “turn right in 138 miles”!  A mainly two but sometimes four lane road with long sweeping cambered turns and clear edges that allowed you to see for miles. Hardly any traffic -   like having the Nurburgring to yourself – non- petrol heads look it up.

Immediately I left Willits I saw deer down in the dapple shaded valley bottoms and numerous wild turkeys and their more able but equally aesthetically challenged cousins, turkey vultures.

It was a lovely cool morning - more like early English summer time – remember that – and when I wasn’t up in the hills on those curves I was haring along perfectly flat, straight sections on the broad based valley bottoms with mixed land use of what looked like dairy farms and vegetable crops but  mixed with cherry orchards and strawberry fields.  If it is sounding just a bit idyllic – well, it was.

Then the Redwoods came. They are magnificent – at one point The Valley of Giants parallels the 101 for 32 miles – part of the 53,000 acres of the Humboldt Redwoods State Park – and so another detour called for.

Not part of the park and just fun was this – had to do it didn’t I.

 

So much for new plans - by the time I had reached the coast at at 2.30 I had only done 155 miles – and wanted to get some 450 in today!

 

 

 

 

That meant travelling further up the coast wasn’t on – I just wouldn’t do it. So the Oregon coastline will have to be for another day. I cut back east along a road heading for Grants Pass and I’ll have to bore you again by saying that this was another 60 miles of heaven – I know I go on but riding through those trees with a cool breeze but bright sunshine filtering  through the foliage was just perfect.

 

Went past the Smoke Jumpers’ base but too late to go to the museum there. Talk about putting your life on the line – these guys, and I guess guyesses  - jump out of planes to fight fires in remote areas before they get too big a hold – now, already that’s two things that nature is telling you not to do – can’t imagine how they manage that but a lot of people in the area are glad they do.  (Another recommendation – The Smoke Jumper by Nicholas Evans of the Horse Whisperer fame! )

Don't know what this was all about...

 

Know the bottom one is a clumsy tribute to James Earle Fraser's End of The Trail Statue 

 

On through the woods I passed over into Oregon

 



 

Through the wide flat bottomed valleys again...

Then I saw this "Architectural Feature" I'm hoping to copy at home....

That brown line is about 200 yards long and in detail is.....




 

 

Get the picture, know just the field, Watch out for "Rusty Tractor" .......

 

I hit the Interstate and then had an uneventful slog for miles til I got to Eugene – what kind of name is that for a town?

 

Saturday 18th May - On the Road Again - San Francisco and beyond

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.

Discovered that not only had they named a town after me but a Ridge too.....

Then came these beauties....

I know in the photos they look dead but I assure you the noise proved they were not!
 

Slowly the land rose and pushed the road over to the sea – The Big Sur – making it raise and fall and cling to the cliff edge – a great bike road although any pillion rider (pillion -a seat or place behind the rider of a motorcycle, scooter, horse, etc. for the benefit of my American host!)  may have leapt off  early on.

 

 Had to stop off at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park and walk down to see this waterfall - a ribbon of fresh water falling on to the beach.

 

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 4^th 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.

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!



Alcatraz...

I’d pre-booked a hotel at Willits on highway 101 so that I was sure I would make enough progress today and although I’m glad I did, all the side trips and stops I made meant I didn’t arrive until 9.30pm, twelve and a half hours after setting off and with 436 miles and heaps of memories under my belt.

 

Friday 17th May - Still at Pismo

Spent another day at the Trailer Rally. Admit I’m not into the finer points of refurbishing but have to say I love the colours on the older ones – think they just look so good

 

 

 

 

ok, enough already!

Went out for Lunch with Gary, Lee and their daughter Jami in San Luis Obispo which is a beautiful town but has street art reaching both ends of the spectrum of taste in my humble opinion - one end quite literally.

Apparently the good Burgers of SLO - possibly to try and compete with Beverley Hills - decided to let students decorate Utility Cabinets around town - this one was done by one of Jami's frinds and is - again in my humble opinion - really very good ...

 

 

 The other end of the spectrum is occupied by this....

 

Can you see what it is yet   (sorry Rolf!)    ......

                   yep, bubble/chewing gum.... made my skin creep!

However Jami more than made up for that by introducing me to a Cookie Icecream sandwich ...

 Got to spend a bit more time on the beach with Lee...

One proud mum!

 In the evening just sat around with Lee and Gary’s family eating and drinking and discussing life in general and my trip in particular.

Got talking about the areas I’d been to where the people appeared, without exception, to be odontilogically challenged. Apparently this is not something I imagined but an accepted fact. Bruce, one of Gary’s friend’s, who I hope to meet later this trip refers to such areas as having a high tattoo to tooth ratio – harsh but true. Gary’s brother in law asked me if I knew that the tooth brush was actually invented in that area. Ok, I fell for it and asked how he knew that – “because if it had been invented anywhere else it would have been called a teeth brush!”

I also raised the matter of the strange “street lights” along the route and wondered what they were.

 Well, first of all they are not street lights, they are mission bells!  They are there to mark El Camion Real – heard that tem before, so have I and raved about it didn’t I. Was so excited to be following its path. Except I now know that the phrase El Camion Real means Royal Road – ok, you knew that – and the one I followed in New Mexico was actually El Camion de Tierra Adentro – or the Royal Road of the Interior Lands – now they tell me, in very small print.  Another El Camion Real is celebrated in California and is a loose, in fact apparently a very loose – interpretation of the route - initially just a footpath - begun in 1769 by the Franciscans linking the Mission I’ve mentioned before from San Diego to Sonoma.

The greater portion of El Camino Real is now Highway 101 in California. Over seven hundred miles in length and marked by the unique and picturesque Mission Bell Guideposts and which I followed from LA to Pismo Beach and will then be following all the way through north California. The 101 then drops the fancy tag and continues on through Oregon to Washington State and Seattle. I’ll be following that tomorrow!

And just because I could – I went back to the beach at sunset!