Half Moon Bay, California

On the ocean-no photo's yet but we are just 30 miles out of San Francisco. Drove from Salinas to Big Sur today and back up. CA 1 was closed 30 miles south of Big Sur so we rode up to the slide and back tracked and came around up 101 and then back down to Big Sur and back tracked out of there today.

Windy riding - 20-30 mph winds with 40-50 mph guest and it was cold 40 degrees along the water. 70 degrees inland a few miles. Wind was the big issue on the narrow roads.

Carmel by the sea along 1

More of water in Carmel

Looking north from 1 about 10 miles south of Monteray Bay, Very windy and nearly blew over the bike on its stand. Highest point on this part of the ride.

 Down town Big Sur

South of Big Sur on 1 we rode across this twice today. This was the longest of about 8 bridges we rode across twice today.

Another view south from 1

View from our table at lunch in Big Sur

Another shot of lunch view.

I should have taken a lot of photos of the flowers here. They are all in bloom and they are everywhere.

Light house on the point near Half Moon Bay.

130 miles south of San Francisco

130 miles south of San Francisco.... another long day but not a lot of milage.

Oceanside, CA

Coast to Coast accomplished today. We arrived on the beach in Oceanside at about 4 pm today.

 Left our Hotel at the Arizona California line on I-10 at 9 am

 Very chilly in Oceanside- 65 degrees. I am on the beach and got my boots in the water here.

Photo taken from the Oceanside Pier looking south. Water temp. is about 60 and there are people in the water and also a bunch of surfers.

More to come took lots of photos and need write lots about them.

Saw some really cool things today.

Lake City, Florida to El Paso, Texas

 Ryder 2 arrived later that expected on Friday and we didn't leave Lake City, FL until 11AM but after we arrived in Mobile, AL at 4 pm we decided to push on to Baton Rouge, LA and didn't arrive there until 8 pm

These first two photo are of the Best Western in Lake City. Nice place to stay at a reasonable price and a great pool.

Below are two photos taken at the Eastern Shore HD just outside Mobile, AL. I needed to add to my collection of t-shirts. This HD shop was just down the Highway from the camp ground that we decided not to use because it was so early in the day.

The below photo was taken Saturday morning before we left Baton Rouge en route to San Antonio. I can not recommend this "Days Inn and Suites" It was located at exit 2b on I-12 just east of Baton Rouge and it turned out to be a dive among other things.

 The next photo was taken from Bobby and Nancy's deck in Helotes, TX (a community just west of S.A.
Our hosts were so kind to let us stay in there home in the "Hill Country" of TX and they over look S.A. We had a great meal and a wonderful visit with our family. (Even did our first load of laundry for the trip) Can't thank them enough for their hospitality.

We left Helotes and took the scenic route up Rt. 16 through the Hill Country of TX over to I-10 and west to El Paso. The photos below was taken at our gas stop along the way. It was very Windy in Texas on Saturday and Sunday made the ride a little more difficult as riding as 70-80 mph and having to lean into the wind made it tiring.  We hit our first rain shower and got a little damp but rode out of it before we had to stop and put on our rain gear. We arrived in El Paso at 6 PM local time (8 PM EST) checked into the Red Roof Inn and when to a restaurant called BJ's for beer and pizza. And now it is time for me to get some sleep.

Well, Day 2 begins at the Best Western at Savannah just down the street from the Savannah HD. HOG members get a discount at BW and they are supposed to be Biker friendly. This place was OK the room was clean and it was quite but had to park the bike a little too far from my room and had to lug all the stuff a ways to get it in the room. Sort of a pain in rear.

Was on the the road by 9 and rode around Savannah a little. Nice city and need to come back when I can take the time to really explore.

 

The is a rest stop in Georgia near Brunswick, one of the nicest rest stops/visitor's centers I have ever been at. I had been on the road for well over an hour and my now numb butt needed a rest, plus I had to get rid of some of the coffee I had at 7 am. Saw a man and a woman both with red hair and guess what their little girl had red hair too, cool side observation. I can't remember seeing two red headed people together before and with a kid with red hair.

This is Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island in Florida. The East Coast (Ocean View) of my Adventure. The next picture is of the same beach just a little further south. Nearly got stuck in the sand here though, I won't be going on the beach with the bike again any time soon. But it was fun!

I didn't ride for too long of a distance today just did the tourist thing in a couple of places and stopped by Golden Isles Harley Davidson in Brunswick, GA to get a t-shirt for my collection. After stopping by Krystal's I headed out for Jacksonville via the scenic route, turned west on I-10 to get out of Jacksonville and got on to US Hwy 90 west bound and made it to Lake City, FL where I got a room at the Best Western in Lake City. It was right on 90 and boy is it nice. The weather here is 93 degree for the high today and the pool was just what the doctor ordered for my overheated head.

I made several stops today at Civil War Battlefield sites in Florida (yes, there were actually a few battles here and a lot around Savannah.)  Interesting visits. 

OK, now for the weird thing of the day. Yesterday night my room number at the Savannah BW was 134 and my room number tonight at the Lake City BW is 134 . What are the odds?

Well Ryder2 will be here at about 9 am tomorrow and we head out towards Mobile, AL and camping!!!

It is supposed to be in the mid to upper 80's tomorrow with a chance of late day thunder storms. Hope we don't get wet. And I really hope the camp ground has a pool???? or  I at leas,t will be taking a long cold shower to cool off with.

The adventure begins

Regnar is ready to roll out at 0630. Ryder2 sent photos of his bike loaded.

I made 580 miles today. Rode to Savannah, Georgia in about 11 hours. This included stops of about one hour total for fuel, food and monkey butt. I only stopped for gas three times, once to top off at the start in Catlett, VA and once in NC and again in SC and I am about 2/3 of tank used now. Ate lunch in Fayetteville, NC at a Cracker Barrel-unusually bad service for a CB.

According to the GPS I averaged 65 miles an hour???? I think it is a little off. Unless it does count the time that the unit was turned off for my meal and breaks.

Only had one mechanical issue so far. Fortunately the Savannah HD dealer is at hand. My oil was blowing out onto the air cleaner and then out onto the bike. I was worried I'd blow a head gasket. But lucky for me all I needed was a fresh air filter. Mike at the service Department of Savannah HD checked it out drew down some of my oil and change my filter all with only 20 minutes before they closed. Talk about service.

Can't thank them enough for their help.

Checked into the Gateway Best Western off exit 94 in GA just minutes from downtown Savannah. I think I will have a look around before I head out in the morning.

Well, gotta hit the sack now. Going to be another long day tomorrow .

t-2 days

Ryder2's wheels before loading.

Only two more days until I head out. Looks like the weather may hold off until the afternoon.

t-3 days

All is ready for the big trip. Just have to load the bike and its on the road I go. Sure do hope the weather hold up for the first couple of days. Weather.com was saying that it would be good for the end of the week but now the TV weather people are suggesting "unsettled" weather for the east coast at the end of the week. Sure wish I had a job where I could be wrong at least half the time and still get paid. I guess you just can't predict the weather, only report on what is outside your window. Well at least it should be warm.

t-7 days

One week from today, I will be on the road to Florida to meet up with Ryder2. Ryder2 reports that he is having an issue with his Yamaha (Road Star?) and it's gas mileage. Ryder2 changed out his exhaust and re-jetted the carbs and his mph went from over 200mpg to 115mpg. Ouch! Ryder2 advised that he took the bike back in and had smaller jetts installed and that didn't help. The Carb has been checked and nothing obvious seems to be the cause. Not sure how stopping for gas every 100 miles or so will impact our ride. I generally like to make regular stops on the bike when I make long trips but with gas prices where they are 25-30 mpg on a bike will be expensive. The HD gets 50 mpg and I can go well over 200 miles on a tank. So we shall see how this impacts the trip. (He emailed that he may consider taking his Nija sport bike, but I can't imagine how that would work our on such a long ride and covering 500 miles a day. I don't think Ryder2 will last long riding that way for 30 days.) I suppose luggage will be an issue as well on the Nija.

t-9 days

Wish the weather had been this warm on Sunday when I made the test run fully loaded. It wasn't bad but had to wear a jacket and it was still cool until the sun came out in the afternoon. Everything on the bike worked out fine fully loaded and only little glitch was one of my lids on the hard side cases came open while riding. Will have to be certain to always lock those down from now on. Otherwise, it was smooth riding and loading went better this time than last time. (I found a you tube video that gave a really good explanations on securing the Kuryakyn luggage to the bike and it was a great help.) I have a solution for riding in the rain but I would still like to find a way to cover the exterior of the bags for that added protection. Just can't find a can liner or plastic bag with a mouth opening large enough to go over both bags and the back rest. Now all I have to do is hope there is no rain for the first few days of the trip. It is getting close and I am excited about the whole experience.

t-11 days

Well, today I pack all my gear back up and tomorrow I load it on the bike weather permitting for a major test run with the bike fully loaded.

How about that, our Congress has agreed to fund the government for yet another 5 days. These clowns are holding the people of the United States hostage and running our government into the ground. I still think they all should be deemed as criminals and terrorist then locked up in Cuba and tried for something. We need to hold a "Constitutional Convention" and modify the powers and responsibilities of Congress so that they can be held criminally accountable for not doing their jobs. Like passing a budget on time and learning how to work in the best interest of the all citizens of the United States not just special interests or for their own political/party benefits. They waste more tax payers money than ever now. It is time for a social revolution in how we elect and who we send to represent us in our government. I think none of them should be re-elected but, nobody thinks it was their congress person or senators fault. It was their fault ,all their fault, and none of them are fit to hold office any longer as far as I am concerned. They really don't care about any one or thing except themselves. If you think I am pissed off about this crap, you would be correct in your assumption. I have been a registered voter since I could be and have voted in every election that I was able to since I came of age and I have had enough of this crap. I really don't know what else to do but bitch about it. I did write my congressman Gerry Connelly and he didn't even have the courtesy to acknowledge receipt of my comments. (Yes, I was polite and respectful when I wrote.)  The Congress, the President have all postured now and trying to shift the blame onto someone else. Funny, how no one will step up and say yes we are responsible for this we have not accomplished what we were elected to do and you should hold us all responsible. We will do better. They have no back bone they all are slime balls in my opinion. Slick two faced lying politicians to the core every single one of them. OK, enough of my ranting. But, I still think the President should have them all locked up and tried. Then we should elect a new Congress. And that is one man's opinion. Too bad 350 million more of us don't all share that thought??? Maybe enough of us do that we could vote them all out of office in 2012. I wish.

Sorry, about that, but I really needed to get that off my chest. Besides, I don't have much to write about otherwise until the trip gets started.

t-12 days

Nice afternoon yesterday, in the 70s but today was 50s and rain and tomorrow won't be much better temperature wise with cloud cover too and with some rain. But, Sunday is supposed to be sunny and in the 70s. Yea!!!!

Well, what do you think about congress letting the government shut down? I don't want to go political on anybody but, you know these guys get paid better than most of us and they still screw us all over. They will not do the jobs they were put in office to do and then they play games with the budget. If any other person or group of persons placed this country in danger like the US Congress is doing now they would be declared terrorist and arrested and sent to Cuba. They should all be fired or arrested and sent to jail for this foolishness. Then we could elect a new congress and give them 90 days to complete a budget and if they don't send them to jail too. Maybe we need to make it automatic that if a budget is not approved by July 1 of every year, we put the Congress that did not pass a budget in jail and what ever budget was submitted by the president goes into effect for 90 days until new elections are held and a new group gets to try.  Passing a budget and keeping the government working is Congresses primary job and they are obviously not capable of doing it. I for one will not be voting for anyone currently holding US office in the next election regardless of party affiliation. OK, I will get off my soap box. But, I sure would like to know what change the clowns were talking about.

Pretty cool analogy follows:

If you start with a cage containing five monkeys and inside the cage, hang a banana on a string from the top and then you place a set of stairs under the banana, before long a monkey will go to the stairs and climb toward the banana.

As soon as he touches the stairs, you spray all the other monkeys with cold water. After a while another monkey makes an attempt with same result ... all the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water. Pretty soon when another monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try to prevent it.

 Now, put the cold water away. Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new monkey sees the banana and attempts to climb the stairs. To his shock, all of the other monkeys beat the crap out of him. After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs he will be assaulted.

 Next, remove another of the original five monkeys, replacing it with a new one.  The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment... with enthusiasm.

 Then, replace a third original monkey with a new one, followed by a fourth, then the fifth.  Every time the newest monkey takes to the stairs he is attacked. Most of the monkeys that are beating him up have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs. Neither do they know why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey.

Finally, having replaced all of the original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys will have ever been sprayed with cold water. Nevertheless, none of the monkeys will  try to climb the stairway for the banana.

 Why?  Because in their minds... that is the way it has always been!

 This, my friends, is how Congress OPERATES...... and this is why, from time to time, all of monkeys need to be REPLACED AT THE SAME TIME.

t-14 days

Well, got the bike out to the shop and back in one afternoon, Joe Benoit the Service Director at Whitts HD came through in flying colors and delivered as promised. Actually better than promised. Said the bike is in prime condition for the trip. So, now to reload everything on the bike for a couple of hours riding and highway speeds to be certain that everything loads and tie downs operate as expected. Then all there is left to do is wait until Wednesday the 20th to head out. I am so ready for this vacation/trip/adventure. I can hardly wait now. Sounds like Ryder2 is excited as well.

I can't help but wonder about how this type of trip would go if there were a couple more ryders making the journey. I am sure that it would increase the odds that something would go south and likely take longer to get everything together and make the most of the daylight for riding but still could be fun with a large group on this type of ride. I'll have to try it some day. (If I ever get to do something like this again.)

t-15 days

Well, it is sunny and in the 70's today but back to the 50's tomorrow. Should have ridden the bike into work like the other 4 bike riders did this morning, but the weather reports said rain possible in the afternoon and figured this would be the day they got it right for a change. Wish I had a job that I could be wrong 50%++ of the time and still get to keep my job and get paid for being wrong. Two weeks and I will be hitting the road. Time to get my bike in for the pre-ride service and check up. I will have to do that regardless of the weather this week or early next. Good thing the Service Director at Whitt's HD said he'd make sure I was done before I had to go. Good people there. Not much else to write about today but wanted to keep in practice so that I will stay in the habit of posting while on the trip.

t-16 days

 Rear shot

These are photos of my first test load of my gear.

 Right Shot

Left Shot

This morning the weather finally took a turn for the better. Temperatures are supposed to be in the upper 50's today and near 80 tomorrow. It was only about 40 this morning but since the sun was out I took advantage of it and loaded up the bike and made a slow and local test ride to check for balance of my load and to be sure nothing shook loose. Everything seems to be fine but I will need to make sure that I get the extra length of the straps either cut back or secured so they won't drag off the bike of flap around and damage the paint or get tangled up in something. Turned out the the camping gear fit better on the seat and the Kayakyn Bag sat better on the luggage rack. The plus is, that I now have extra room for another bag if I need it. I am getting really excited about the trip now. Still want to work on the packing of stuff into the bags so that they won't get wet when it rains while we are riding.

t-18 days

Moved departure date up one day to Wednesday, April 20, 2011. Since Ryder2 and I want to try and make it to New Orleans by Friday evening, I felt that it would be safer not to attempt to make it a 16 hours ride on Friday. So, I will leave NoVa in the AM and ride as far as I safely can (weather and traffic notwithstanding) and stay over in either SC or GA and then ride on down to Jacksonville on Thursday and then stay in Live Oak Thursday night and meet Ryder2 there on Friday and ride the 480 miles to New Orleans once he arrives. I should be well rested and with any luck we can make the first leg together a lot safer.

The plan is for now is to ride from New Orleans to San Antonio in a day and from San Antonio to El Paso in a day. The next leg from El Paso may end up at either Tucson, Phoenix or a little further west on I-10 in Arizona. From Arizona we will head over to Palm Springs for a stop and visit with my sister who will be vacationing with her family there at the same time we are traveling through. We haven't seen Gayle in a few years now and we are looking forward to the visit. Not sure if we are staying over there for a night or not, Depends on how much time we took to get this far. Ultimately, we plan on ending the Ocean to Ocean part of the trip in Oceanside, CA. This is the one place in California that I must see. (My place of birth and have never been there since I was 3 months old.)

Our next leg of the adventure is the ride up the Pacific Coast Highway to at least the San Francisco area. And we will spend some time in the Sonoma/Napa Valley, Giant Red Woods, etc. in California. The only plans for the return trip so far is to stop over in Santa Fe, NM from there who knows. At some point Ryder2 and I will take seperate roads back to our respective homes NoVA and Central FL but haven't gotten that far yet and we want to be flexible on the ride back. So we shall see where we end up.

Keep checking back after the 20th to see the pictures and comments about our trip.