Advertisement
Salinas Valley
Every field in a different processWell we are headed towards San Fransisco and the Frisco Bay in this blog. We have been there before, but just briefly with the kids about 10 years ago.. This time we will be there longer so we think we'll do some ......."sitting on the Dock of the Bay". We'll watch "the tide roll away" and possibly even "waste some time".
Mon-May 16, 2011
HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our Cyndi. Our beautiful middle daughter turned 26 year old on this day. We woke up in sunny Bakersfield California. Well we really didn't sleep all that well. It turned out that the motel we stayed at recieved most of their patronage from long haul truckers. Good for them, but I heard the last trucker come in to his room at about 1:30 am and then I started to hear the first one leave about 3:30 am. Noisy bunch!!! We should have known that something would be different in this motel as the gal at reception informed us that the continental breakfast was served from 2:00 am to 9:00 am. Anyway, we left Bakersfield at about 10:00 am and headed towards San Luis Obispo. We found a hostel there and booked in for
Salinas Valley
Vineyards in the valley the night. Not too much exciting on the ride, other than it was fairly cold and we had to be on the Interstate the whole way. We arrived in SLO (San Luis Obispo, affectionately named by it's residents) at about 3:00 pm. We weren't able to check in until 4:30, so we parked the bike, took our leathers into the house and then went for a long walk to the grocery store. We came back about 5:30, made some dinner and had a pretty quiet night as it was pouring rain.
Tues-May 17, 2011
We woke up to still more rain and cold in SLO, so we thought that we would find a different motel and stay another day, wait out the rain and hopefully the cold front that has been hanging around for the last couple of days would move on. As well, one of the guests informed us that Highway 1, the highway along the coast was closed due to a wash out and that our route to San Fransisco would need to be more inland. The hostel manager told us we could stay another night, but that during the hours of 11:00 am and 4:30 pm
Monterey California
Looking at Pebble Beach the hostel was closed to guests. That was really not great news for us as we were on our bike and rain is just no fun. So, we left at 10:30 and by then the sun was out. It was still only about 55 degrees, but with the sun shining we decided to carry on our way towards our next destination, Monterey California. We jumped on California Highway 101. A big four lane highway. Now, we work really hard to stay off the big highways, but because the costal highway was closed we really had no other options. We were kinda bummed that the highway was closed, but as we roared along this great highway, we were pleasantly surprised with the scenery along the Salinas Valley. This is a huge valley that is sometimes called"The Salad Bowl of the World" for the production of lettuce, broccoli, peppers and numerous other crops. The climate is also ideal for the floral industry and grape vineyards planted by world-famous vintners. It was thriilling to ride through this valley, as every field smelled different. While riding past one field, we would smell strawberries, then the next field we would smell brocolli, then basil, then
onions and on and on it went. We also saw the field work going on. The year round temperature is pretty much always the same in this valley and all the fields are irrigated, so the producers can manipulate what happens and when things happen in each field. For example, some fields were just being planted, then another fields right beside that one was in the process of growing, others were being harvested, still others were finished the harvest and the soil was being prepared for another crop. Certainly something we can't control at home like this. The smell and the sights were fantastic. We ended our day saying how thankful we were that the coastal highway was closed and we were able to see the operations of the valley. Funny how those things keep happening for us.
We arrived in Montery California about 2:00 pm. We spent the rest of the afternoon, reading, doing computer work and at 5:00 pm Rene was able to find the hockey playoffs on T.V.
Wed-May 18, 2011
We woke up to a wonderul sunny morning, but it was still quite cool out. We had a lazy morning in our motel room in
Big Sur
The ride there Montery California and about 11:00 we decided that it was warm enough to ride and check out some sights. One of the things we wanted to do was to check out Carmel and especially Pebble Beach and the 17 mile ride around the peninsula. We got our first glimpse of the ocean and then a couple blocks to the drive. We rode up to the entrancce where there was a kiosk set up. The lady in the kiosk told us that no motorcycles were allowed on the drive. When we inquired as to why this was, she said the residents don't appreciate the loud noise of the bikes.
Well...we were a little put out as our bike is not one of those loud Harley types, but still we weren't able to enjoy this ride. I guess we can't blame the home owners as some of those bikes are very loud and if allowed I'm sure there would be loud bikes on the 17 mile road day and night. Too bad for us though!!
After our disapointment we decided that we wanted to check out Big Sur. Big Sur is just a little community on the ocean's edge. The ride out
Big Sur
The ride there!! to BIg Sur was breath-taking. We had been riding in the desert now for the last 2 weeks so the ocean air, smell and views were a nice change. We rode up the coast (this is the same road...highway 1, but.....65 miles up, that was closed due to a wash out) for about an hour, stopped at a little road side resturant and sat in the warm sun sipping on strong coffee and a glass of ice cold lemon water. It was glorious!!! After just sitting and enjoying the warm sun, we jumped back on the bike and drove back to Monterey. As we were driving back in and thinking about how we would spend the rest of the day, we saw a sign directing traffic towards Cannery Row and Monterey's Fisherman's Wharf. We decided to drop the bike at the motel and walk to these sights. We then walked about 1.5 hours and found Fisherman's Wharf. It was a great little Wharf where all the resturants were giving out samples of thier Clam Chowder to lure people in to eat in thier resturant. We found one chowder we really liked and decided we would have a seafood dinner there.
Big Sur
A piece of the road washed out. First we did some more adventuring. There were all kinds of sea lions lounging and sun-bathing near the fish plant. We stopped and watched them for a while and then went off in search of Cannery Row. We had both read John Steinback's "Cannery Row". A fictional book about this exact place that revolved around the people living and working around the sardine canneries during the Great Depression. We found the row and were quite disappointed. All of the fish packing plants and canneries had been turned into hotels and parking garages. We expected things would look different, but it really had changed totally. Oh well...the wheels of progress and change!!!
After walking through the few blocks of cannery row, we came back to Fisherman's Wharf and stopped at our chosen resturant. We both ordered a sea food dish and mine was horrible!!! I thought it tasted moldy, but Rene said it didn't, so I kept eating it when I think I really should have sent it back!!! How disappointing!!! After dinner we walked back to our motel and Rene watched the end of the hockey game and I read my book.
Thurs-May 19, 2011
We wanted to get
an early start as we were heading to Yosemite National Park. We thought we would leave about 9:00 am, but when we rolled over to greet the morning it was 9:00 and we were still cozy in bed. We got up, got ready, packed out gear and were rolling by about 9:40 am. Off we went to check out some California mountians. Yosemite is not really on our way home, but it is somewhere where we wanted to see, so we turned inland and road for about 4 hours to check out Yosemite National Park. On the way to the park, about an hour before the entrance we passed the Yosemite Bug Hostel and Spa, where we had booked a "tent cabin". We were shocked as we thought the hostel was inside the park, but it was quite a ways out, which meant we had to go into the park, check it out and then come
back out to our accomodations. As it turned out, we had plenty of time to explore the park. We rode alongside the Merced River all the way into the park. It was a lovely ride. The park reminded me of Jasper National Park in
Big Sur
Enjoying the warm sunshine Alberta. Big snow capped mountains with lots of different waterfalls, pine trees, huge rocks and a raging river. It was truly beautiful, and again, seeing the sights and smelling the pines and the spring flowers from the bike convinces us yet again that we picked the right mode of transportation for this adventure.
After exploring Yosemite as much as we wanted to (the one pass we wanted to go over, called the Tioga Pass was closed and will be, they expect until about mid June) we headed back to the Yosemite Bug to check into our digs for the night. We arrived about 6:00, ate dinner, talked with the kids on Skype and went into a large dining, lounging area and read, worked on the blog and just relaxed until bedtime. It turned out to be a wonderfully warm day with lots of sun, some clouds and cold crisp air, high in the mountain passes.
Fri-May 20, 2011
As we were sitting for breakfast on this morning I looked at Rene and he had this most surprising look and smile on his face, looking past me. I turned around and there standing beside me was Madu. Madu from Flagstaff
here now at Yosemite. What a pleasant surprise!!! We sat and chatted for a bit. He had always wanted to come to Yosemite and now here he was and so were we!! We were checking out of the hostel, so we had to pack our gear and carry on. He had driven all through the night, so he was tired and needed some sleep. We said our goodbyes yet again and headed on our way. We left about 11:00 and took highway 49, back towards the coast No one told us about this highway and how lovely it was. It was this very un-travelled beautiful mountain highway. Winding several times high into the hills and windy down again. A motorcyclists dream highway, with lots of twistees to keep the ride exciting.
We went through a little town called Couterville where they were having thier annual jumping frog jubilee, the following week. Just past Couterville we spotted a ranch called "Hillbilly Heaven". Sounded like the back country to me. At one point in the road, we saw a sign that pointed to Mark Twain's cabin. We needed to stop for lunch and decided that Mark Twain's cabin was a perfect place
to stop. Up the hill we went. We stopped at this little cabin and took out our lunch. As we were eating, we heard and saw an elderly couple banging with a hammer and chatting. Rene went over to see what they were up to. I guess thier dog kept jumping over the property fence since "Adrian's cows" got loose and wrecked the fence. They were busy putting up some new barb wire to keep the pouch in and Adrain's cows out. Rene offered to help and within 10 minutes the new wire was up. We never did find out who Adrian was, but I sure hope he keeps his cows penned in from now on. That couple should not be having to
fix fences anymore!! Once we hit kinda level ground again, we started to feel like we were going the wrong way. There were all kinds of motorbikes meeting us and going the opposite way. There must have been some sort of bike rally or something happening. Maybe something we missed in Couterville!! Sucks to feel like you're going the wrong way.
Anyway we have a few more Featured Rides (from the Harley Davidson Map) to explore and
one was in the Sacramento Valley. So we found the ride and it was a little road on top of the levey. We thought if we were back in The Netherlands, this levey would be called a canal. Same but different. We followed the road only for about 20 minutes and it turned out to be a horrible, very much in need of repair highway. As we continued on it got somewhat better, but we choose not to continue bumping along. So another bust for the "Featured Rides" We have been on some amazing "Featured Rides and some not
so amazing "Featured Rides" Anyway we ended our day going through Napa Valley and checking out the vineyards. Miles and miles of wine grapes!!! We stopped to inquire about accomodations and were told there was a huge wine trade show happening and the cheapest room would be about $150 or so. We chose to continue on and see if we could find anything else a little more to our budget, you know about $35 or $40. Sure enough we stopped at a Motel 6 in Vallejo California (just about 45 minutes outside of San Fransisco) and got a room for $45.
Clean beds, clean towels, TV, Internet, and quiet. What else does one need??? Ordered in pizza for dinner and spent the night chillin.
Sat-May 21, 2011
We left the motel about 9:30 (we were both up early I guess) and were over the Bay Bridge in San Fransisco about 10:30am. We found the hostel that was right on the bay just a couple blocks from Fisherman's Wharf. We had booked the hostel the day before and although we weren't able to check in, we could store our gear and check in later. After our gear was off the bike and safely stored in the "pack room", we went exploring San Fransisco. We walked all along Fisherman's Wharf, stopping to have a bowl of freshly made clam chowder. We also stopped to watch the sea lions on Pier 39. We meandered around Fishermans Wharf for several hours and then because we knew there was a baseball game on, we walked over to the AT&T Center to see if we could get tickets. We ended up buying tickets after the 1st inning from a scalper for cheap. We found our crazy good seats and watched the next 8 innings with
the
Fisherman's Wharf
Monterey, California other 42,000 or so fans. It was a great game as it was a "Bay rivalry" game. San Fransisco Giants against the Oakland Athletics. What fun!! The Giants won the game and the crowd went wild. We joined in with the wild cheering too. We stopped on the way back to the hostel to have a huge plate of Calamari and a beer to celebrate and watch more of the fans and the after celebrations.
When we finally got back to our hostel, we were exhausted. The walk just from the ball park to the hostel was almost 2 hours, never mind all the walking we had done on the Wharf.
We sat in the common lounge reading and chatting with other travelors and hit the sack about 10:00 pm.
This hostel is the largest hostel we have stayed in yet and our bunk beds (they had no private rooms when I booked) were 2 beds of 24 beds in the room. I have NEVER slept in the same room as 24 other people. I knew it was potentially going to be an interesting night, but I was prepared with my earplugs, my eyemask and a small litte sleeping pill
Fisherman's Wharf
Monterey California (all natural and organic of course). Sweet dreams for me (and Rene) I hope!
Sun-May 22, 2011
Well, it appears my sleeping aids did the trick, as I heard very little in the night and slept well until about
6:00 am when for some strange reason, people were getting up. Maybe travellers don't sleep in? Anyway, Rene also had a good sleep and we were out of bed about 7:30. We spent the morning just hanging around, reading and working on the blog. At noon, we went down to the hostel "theater room" and watched the 4th game of the NHL finals. There was just one other guy watching and he was a San Jose fan. After hockey and a load of laundry we were back outside to see more of the San Fransisco sights. We walked up some of the steepest streets and avenues in the city, and then we walked down the steepest streetsa and avenues. Not sure which way was the most difficult, up or down?? Then we stopped and jumped on the old fashioned cable cars for a ride to the shopping district. We still don't have any room for "stuff" so we didn't "shop"
long and caught the cable car back to the Fisherman's Wharf area. We walked out on this very long pier and watched some more boats cruising around the bay and Alcatraz Island. Back to the hostel we went and had a great dinner in the hostel cafe. When dinner was completed we sat in the lounge area and read our books until bedtime.
We are headed north now and that means the road is now heading home. It's exciting to be heading for home. The challenge for us for the next few weeks will be not to rush through the sights because home is close, but to enjoy them just as much as we have enjoyed the last 40 some weeks.
And so we remain....
In the Grip of Grace
Rene and Crystal
Advertisement
Tot: 0.175s; Tpl: 0.027s; cc: 11; qc: 48; dbt: 0.0718s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Jodi
non-member comment
Nuttin honey
I love how you find a song for everything. Love your blog! Take your time......