Gremlin's Tall Stories

The next few blogs at least are going to be a bit shorter… time seems to disappear faster than I can count, and now I am a few days behind (still posting them on the correct dates though). I’ve also decided to abandon the idea of videoing pieces of the route with a camera I borrowed from GiJoe. I spend all the time photographing, blogging and actually enjoying the holiday, without more top.

Anyway, onward with the blog.

7am, the usual bloody alarm. Reached for the delicious cereal combinations, had a quick brekkie. Got packed and geared up, somehow miraculously being ready downstairs with the rest of the group at 8am.

The road trip with full complement of bikes (17), starts with a bang. Literally. One of them thar tractor’s (my roommate Murray) blows its belt, and he’s not going anywhere. The whole group is trying to leave, now they suddenly can’t and it gets chaotic fast. I’m parked behind cars planning to be the last to leave, now what’s happening etc. It’s quickly arranged that the van, with Ernie (a Mexican enjoying a road trip) will stay with Murray to get a new belt sorted, so the remainder of the bikes that hadn’t left (two others and I) leave.

I guide them from the rear, but we get split up by the constant lights. Just before the bridge we re-group, and the other two take pictures and video of us crossing the Golden Gate Bridge. The bulk of the group has already assembled in the vista point, so group photos are taken of the bikes and people in front of the bridge, before continuing up the road.

We stay on the 101 briefly, before turning off onto the CA 1, which hugs the coast a lot more, and it’s less boring. As we turn off to CA1, I spy a handy gas station, so take on my day’s load of fuel, as I was getting quite low after travelling from Morro Bay to San Fran (230 miles) plus running around to AdvDesigns and then over the bridge. This puts me behind the group, but a breakfast is planned further up the coast in Reyes Beach.

Sure enough, the group are parked up, so I say hello. Ken says the group will be splitting up, so I say my goodbyes and head off in front, as I don’t need to sit around mid-morning when I could be riding

Shortly down the road near Inverness, Karen (my GPS, after the voice name… Australian Karen) throws a tantrum, turning off. Very odd, I power it back on. Starts up, as soon as it gets a fix and starts routing, it powers off again. I’m fiddling with it and riding, not a good mix, so stop and try pulling out the memory card and powering on etc. and still no luck. Can’t navigate with it, so I carry on, powering it on each time it powers off, trying various things as it powers up.

Eventually I try clear the trip log, and this seems to fix the problem, so it could be a space issue with the internal memory.

I continue on, stopping here and there for pictures, until I get to Stewart’s Point, where my suppressed desires surfaced. Passing a side road, I notice bikes turning into it, but it seems tiny. Carrying on, on the main route it takes me less than 30 seconds to decide I want to explore it, and set after the bikes.

The road is bumpy, no centre lane markers and not wide enough for two cars to pass easily. I continue cautiously, but catch up to the bikes before the top. They stop, I don’t see much to stop for, so continue down the other side, coming to a tiny bridge and crossing it, find more sealed road. It ends up being a loop through a little town called Annapolis, with the cutest post shop you’ve ever seen and leads back to the main route… after covering several more miles. Awesome diversion and well worth the time, not to mention the break from the relative boredom of the coast (which is still a massive improvement over the Interstate).

I return to the coast and the Shoreline Highway, which is quite simply, spectacular. The open coast line was reasonably tight, but varying between flowing and some switchback curves. I caught up to the ST1100, and stopping in Fort Bragg for lunch, I struggled to find any bikes (including the ST1100 I had dropped). Found one couple, and together we had nice sandwiches from a small deli down a side street. Ken rocked up, having already had lunch, and we all set off north, up the coast.

North of Westport (not the NZ one of course) the road descended into a tree canopy for miles and miles of some of the most spectacular scenery I have ever ridden through. This was the Milford Road on steroids. No mountain ranges, but seemingly never-ending tight corner after tight corner, great surface, great view. I tried to find a break in the trees to photograph the vista over the forest, but no luck. The BMW’s suspension was set for 2up, stiffening the rear (and slightly the front), and on sport mode. I still touched down both sides of the centre stand several times, leaning the bike through corners. I likened it to having the three hottest women in the world, at once, and they all wanting you… just really awesome roads

We had to return to US 101 to enter Garberville, and I spotted the ST1100 on the roadside just after heading onto the 101. They were happy to see me… they weren’t sure they were going in the right direction, so either I was also wrong (but heh, they trusted me!) or we were OK.

I led up the 101, two lanes each side to Garberville, checked into the Best Western Inn, and confirmed to the manager on duty that no, there was no tour bus for the massive area you coned off, but yes, 17 bikes will be arriving. As it was, some were told later not to park in the coned off area

Waited for everyone else to arrive by jumping in the pool for the first time in ages (I specially bought a pair of swimming shorts for the trip), which felt fantastic and a great way to cool off after the temperatures had topped out at 30 degrees in the afternoon. Then I got lightly burnt lying by the pool drying off.

Spent the evening writing blogs, grabbed a desperate pizza at 10pm (right on closing) from the Italian themed restaurant on site. Expensive, but not too bad, and a delicious piece of carrot cake.

Murray and Ernie finally arrived at 10pm, having only left San Jose at 3.30pm, got stuck in San Francisco traffic until 6-7pm and then came straight up the 101. Murray had a shower, had a piece of the remaining pizza I left and went straight to bed. I followed shortly after.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/oiB7GyDDqVAbTW6J8