Friday 31 August 2012

 
Had a long day yesterday travelling along Highway 1 - left San Simeon at 8am in thick fog and it was very chilly. Took a couple of hours for the sun to break through and by the time we reached Los Angeles it was very hot. We don't like cities when riding on a bike, so just looked at the famous parts and moved on before the roads totally jammed up with rush hour traffic. The only saving grace is that you can filter through the traffic which you can't do in any other of the US states. Whilst stopped at a fuel station having a welcome cold drink, a local police motorcyclist stopped to check us out and we ended up having a good chat. Interestingly, he was carrying a pump action shotgun on the back of his bike! He did say that he had never had to use it.
 
 
I think the above rates as the worst meal so far! I ordered a caesar salad with salmon - the salmon was ok but I have never seen so much foliage - wasn't quite sure what might crawl out of it!

 
Today we are in San Diego where John had booked his bike in for a service - we have now completed just over 6000 miles. Spent a good few hours there talking to some very interesting people. A chap called John Hermann came into the shop to have a new tyre fitted and it turned out he has written a book called 'The Alps and Beyond' which the store had in stock. He gave me a copy to look through and he said that he has travelled to Europe twice a year for the last 20 years documenting all the alpine passes. He is now 83 years old and still riding a BMW.
 
 
The Russian Ural sidecar is still alive and kicking. The added accessory on the front of the sidecar would be useful making a path on the M25 during rushhour:-) We were assured it was a toy:-)

Wednesday 29 August 2012

 
While in Monterey, we took the opportunity to visit the Mazda Raceway track at Laguna Seca.

 
 We walked to the top of the circuit to see the infamous 'corkscrew'. It really is quite high and below shows the overview of the track.


 
On to Carmel - a beautiful beach with hardly anyone on it. There was a cool breeze, probably the reason for the couple below needing a blanket - more reminiscent of a British beach!


 
Carmel is a lovely quaint town, which runs down to the beach.  Surprisingly, no parking charges! 

 
 Had a wonderful ride along Highway 1 today.  Stunning views and the road seems to go on forever.



 
On Saturday we rode North along Route 1, following the Pacific coast, finishing the day at Fortuna. It was cold and misty but we had a great ride full of twists and turns.

 
 There are a lot of fires burning in California at present. The fire we saw in the above photo is believed to have started by a lightning strike, so the firefighters are watching it but allowing it to run its course. Spent Sunday night at Weaverville.
 
 
Its a scenery overload here, you could be taking photos all day.

 
We had lunch in Ferndale, a Victorian village which attracts many visitors.

 
 Wes led us through the Redwood forest areas, to complete our ride of 925 miles in 3 days, of mainly tight, twisty, very taxing and attention grabbing roads. This was a complete eye opener to the wonderful Northern Californian roads. The ride was made all the better as we didn't have to worry about police, as Wes had his radar detector mounted on the front of his bike!

 
Many thanks to Wes and Lauren for a great stay. It was a wonderful 4 days!

 
From Calistoga we headed towards Monterey following the famous Route 1 along the Pacific. What a difference in weather from last Saturday. We had clear blue sky and sunshine all the way and it was fun to be able to cross the Golden Gate Bridge again in San Francisco.