2010 Mid Life Crisis Tour

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MONTEREY, Calif. - It’s 8:30 a.m. and I’ve been up since 6, but I’m not heading down the coast for a few hours.
Why? Because of the Marine Layer. That’s ocean fog to everyone who lives more than 50 miles inland. It shrouds the coast much of the day this time of year. If I want to ride in sunshine, I have to wait for it to burn off and that may not happen until noon in some places. The first time I visited the Big Sur coast, back in July, 1986, I rode up from Burbank on a Sunday morning. I made the whole ride without seeing the sun. The road blew my mind anyway. When I came back a day or two later, I was absolutely enchanted. And I still am.
So I’m sitting here in Room 120 of the Monterey Motel 6 updating my trip log and sipping free coffee from the office. Upon reflection, it’s about the same number of steps from my room to the office as it is from my upstairs office to the coffee pot in our kitchen. But at least I have Sweet & Low at home. All they have here is sugar and even with two packets, the coffee tastes nasty.
I see that I’ve covered 3,240 miles since I left home on July 11. I’ll probably do another 2k by the time I get home. Who knows, I may actually earn a 10k award for 2010 from the Indianapolis BMW Club. It would be my 14th overall, but my first since 2004.
Today’s mileage will be low, but the smileage will be high, since I’m riding down my favorite road. My destination for today is less than 100 road miles from here - San Simeon. There’s a very nice motel there where I can get a good night’s sleep. I’ll need it on Saturday because that’s when I take on the heat of the Central Valley and the Mojave Desert on a 430-mile ride to Las Vegas to see Steve, Nicky and Lisa. I’ve done the Mojave in July before, back in 2002 when I rode my old ‘91 K100RS from Kingman, Ariz. to Monterey to meet Maria for a few days of California fun. I remember it was pretty damned hot and I drained my Camelbak twice. I have a bigger Camelbak this time and now I wish I’d bought one of those water-cooled hot weather vests they were selling at the rally.

SAN SIMEON, Calif. - I waited until noon to head for the coast and still was in fog all the way to Nepenthe. I took so long to clear the room that my magnetic room key timed out and I had to get it reset to get my helmet and jacket out of the room.

I felt tight and tense all afternoon and never did relax into the ride like I wanted. Even so, it was fun.

I had a mocha and a pastry at the Cafe Kevah, chatted with a Canadian MotoGP fan and a guy from Arizona and his son on a Harley. “Did you ride all the way from Arkansas?” the kid asked. “Well… yeah,” I said.

The massive bell that’s been a feature of the Phoenix for as long as I can remember remains unsold at $3,595 but the price tag has been amended to say, “1/2 price if you can haul it away yourself.” At $1,797.50, it’s almost a bargain.

I pulled over at the turnoff just south of the Big Creek Bridge to take pictures and enjoy one of the best views on the road. While I was there, a father and son on BMWs rode in. The son had just broken the clutch cable on his red K65S and they asked if I had a set of vise grips. Sorry, don’t carry them. I suspect they had to call for road service. While you can shift a motorcycle without a clutch, it would be a nightmare to try it on that road.

As I expected, there was a steady stream of northbound sportbikes and not much southbound traffic. The winter storms appear to have beaten up several parts of the PCH south of Lucia. I encountered three places where traffic narrowed down to one lane and was regulated by stop lights. The southernmost one advised motorists to “Expect 5 minute delays.”expect delays

I spent the last 12 miles or so behind a slow moving truck, descending at last to Ragged Point where I treated myself to the first chocolate malt I’ve had in years.

The rest of the ride was coastal sweepers as I cruised on down to San Simeon and the Motel 6.

I just consulted my GPS and find that it’s supposedly a 6 hour and 25 minute ride from here to Steve’s place in Las Vegas. It’s also supposed to hit 111 there tomorrow.

SAN SIMEON, Calif. - I had dinner tonight at the Sunset Grill.

Not the one from the Don Henley song. The one attached to the San Simeon Motel 6. The food is overpriced and the service is so indifferent as to cause me to omit the tip. I ate there because I was too lazy to get on the bike and go find decent food at a reasonable price. Serves me right.

I spent most of my time there poring over The Cambrian, the local paper published in Cambria and serving the north coast of San Luis Obispo County.

It reads like any other local weekly paper. Except they have an Elephant Seal News column.

Elephant seals are a big deal here. They haul out on the beaches and tourists flock to stare at them. Maria and I spent part of an afternoon photographing them back in July of 2002.

Columnist Joan Crowder is a volunteer docent for Central Coast Friends of the Elephant Seal and she devotes about 12 column inches this week to a gaffe committed by some hack writing for an airline magazine. The writer opined that a tourist traveling down California Highway 1 might want to “finish the day by communing with walruses at the Hearst Castle.”

Well, as any halfway bright person knows, there are no walruses here. Those big animals on the beach are elephant seals. And there is no way in hell any of them are going to haul their 3 ton bodies five miles inland and up the 1,600 foot high hill where newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst built his absurdly lavish mansion that was the inspiration for Citizen Kane’s Xanadu.

I hope the airline magazine didn’t pay much for that piece of fluff.

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Photos

Taking a break at Ragged Point
They make a great chocolate malt.