day fourteen: Ukiah to Klamath, CA

Today was fun.  Mike and I got up and went to a small church in Ukiah.  The people were friendly and welcomed us like brothers.  This put us leaving town and getting on the road a little late but hey, we’re Presbyterian, it was meant to be!  We traveled up Hwy 101 to the town of Legget.  Some of you may know this but if not, you’ll immediately enhance your store of worthless trivia by storing the fact that Legget is the town where the tree lives that is in all the pictures with cars driving through it.  I’m not sure my syntax is exactly correct here but you English majors can correct it in your head to have it come out properly.  We didn’t actually get to see the tree because it now costs five dollars to drive through it and have your picture taken with it and I’m just too cheap for that!  Legget is also the town where we thought Hwy 1, we referred to yesterday, took off to go further north.  We took its winding, twisting way for about 10 miles before I lost traction on some gravel and shot off the road into the bush and ferns and gorse and trees.  (Does northern California have gorse?)   Thankfully both the bike and I were unhurt and the crash did actually have a purpose.  We got to meet a really nice guy named John, who not only helped me back on the road, but also explained that Hwy 1 only went one way at this particular point and that, unfortunately was south!  Since Oregon was our destination and Oregon, last time I checked, was north of California this seemed an appropriate time to turn around.  Hey, I said we were Presbyterian!  For those of you who may be worried that I seem to be dumping my bike excessively, don’t let it bother you.  I’ve found that picking up this @600 lb beast is a particularly good way to work out the hams and glutes.  I try to dump it about every three days whether I need to or not.  This is also a great way to meet people who come by to stare and shake their heads and watch a great workout!  Finally, it is an absolutely perfect way to maintain my humility, a quality some have suggested I have need to develop more fully.  In any event, Mike and I got turned around successfully and headed in the right direction up Hwy 101.  We passed through a bunch of towns with great-sounding names like Weott, Pepperwood, Scotia, up through Eureka and McKinleyville (sounds at lot like our South Carolina contraction-esque Rutherfordton!).  After McKinleyville, we came to a really cool little town called Trinidad.  We ate at a little café and had fish and chips.  I’d love to recommend the place but I forgot the name and didn’t get a picture.  Here we also met an equally really cool girl named Ana MacKinnon.  Anna is a horse and flying tomboy who also just happens to own and ride a great 2000 BMW 1150 GS.  She’s actually been featured in the BMW owner’s magazine for having taken a trip from San Francisco to Vancouver and back . . . by herself!  No kidding!  We talked with her for about an hour and used a few southern “y’alls” to make her feel back at home (she went to high school in Charlotte, NC), took some pictures and gave her a parting hug (we’re still from the south) and boogied down the road for parts further north. The evening turned cold and foggy and the sighting of an Elk on the roadside helped us decide to get off the road at Klamath to camp for the night.  Anyway, that’s where we are tonight.  We’ll let you know where we get to tomorrow.  See you then.

 

day thirteen: Lessons on Highway 1 (Salinas to Ukiah)

The word for the day is “profusion.” Why profusion you ask? Well profusion is defined as “a large quantity of something or the quality of being profuse.” Some people accuse me of the second definition as opposed to being profound. I say anyone can be profound but it takes a special person to be profuse! It’s also defined as an abundance, a large amount, and excess and a plethora. I said that profusion was the word for the day because Michael and I experienced everything in profusion. We saw wild flowers in abundance. I’m not a horticulture specialist but I saw incredible varieties of flowers not present on the east coast. Bromeliads grow here voluntarily. If you don’t know what a bromeliad is, look it up. You’ll improve your level of knowledge and at least appear more culturally sophisticated simply as a result of reading this blog! There were a plethora of dairies as Mike and I traveled up hwy. 1, California’s true coast road, complete with twisting, winding turns. Now, some people don’t care for the smell of silage and manure and new-mown hay and cows in general, but to me these are special smells, which evoke old feelings of time spent with my grand-dad on his farm in Belton, SC. There were a large amount of bikers. These included the two-wheel kind which have designer labels- you know, Harley-Davidson, Yamaha, Kawasaki and BMW, as well as the two wheeled kind which require pedaling and persistence. Bikers were everywhere along the coast road and generally appeared to get along without undue animosity all day long. You’ve probably realized by now that I’m trying to use each of the definitions of “profusion” in my record of the day’s events. The only one I’ve left out is the word “excess” which certainly describes my verbosity, gregariousness, conviviality and exuberance!

The route Michael and I took today started in the Salinas graveyard viewing John Steinbeck’s gravesite. I have to say that, for a Salinas great, his grave is certainly understated. Maybe there’s a lesson for us all in this. From here we traveled to San Francisco and above up hwy 1 through small towns with names like Inverness and Bodega Bay before cutting over to Guerneville (which had a profusion of inns, pubs and bed and breakfasts) to hwy 101 north which led to Hopland (that’s right, “hop” land like the hop that goes in beer) and Ukiah, our ultimate destination for the day. The route we rode at the last was roughly a square. Mike suggested that we might want to ride it with our girls and tell others about it. To sell it properly I suggested the name of “the California Square Route.” (you know route like root- it’s a math joke!) In all, we covered about 298 miles and are coming dangerously close to the 5000 total mile mark.

For supper mike and I walked about 30 minutes each way to go to a local"organic brewery and pub." We couldn't stand the thought of mounting up again! We met a cool guy named Sean who was riding a new Kawasaki 1400 cc bike scouting a route for an upcoming ride. Good luck with that Sean. Well, I'm done for now- no more profusion-see you next time.

day twelve:

OK so day twelve is in the books!  We actually did a little catching up on rest today and only covered a total of 168 miles, the distance between Merced and Monterey and the return trip to Salinas.  Here’s your worthless trivia for the day.  What famous writer grew up in Salinas?  Many of you English majors will know this right off.  Another hint?  OK, he wrote the book Cannery Row (after the actual place in Monterey/picture included), which featured a character named Ed Rickets but referred to in the book only as “Doc.”  A second short novel titled Sweet Thursday features roughly the same set of characters including “Doc.”  Give up, or are you just tired of the English lesson?  The answer is (drum roll please) John Steinbeck- Michael’s favorite writer and one of Salinas’ favorite sons.

 

Mike and I rode to Monterey and, in reaching the city, accomplished one of our trip goals, that of reaching the West coast on our motorcycles!  It was cool.  I think there are some pictures.  We ate at a small café associated with a swanky hotel.  I would visit this place just to go to the bathroom.  I’m not kidding!  Mats at all the stalls, warm water to wash the lotion soap of your hands and cloth towels to dry them.  Now that is up town in my book.  I think I might install one of these in my home when I return!  As we walked around we noticed some really neat architecture.  One home looked like it belonged in “Lord of the Rings” as a hobbit house.  Like all of the things God makes, the beach was stunning- the water a vivid blue with the sun behind it and the floating kelp moving in large sinuous waves (Sorry, the spirit of Steinbeck made me wax eloquent for a moment!).

 

Mike and I chose to ride back early today probably because He was afraid that I would turn crabby and mean again today if he let me stay out too long!  We are staying in Salinas tonight with plans to get up and hit it early tomorrow.  We plan to visit Steinbeck’s grave in the morning before traveling north through San Francisco across the Golden Gate bridge to Sausalito before pushing on to end the day around Mendocino.

 

For those who are following daily I have a few corrections to make- actually only two.  First is my spelling of Nevada.  I don’t know how many of you also follow Miriam’s blog which is intended to encourage Michael and me and nauseate Megan, Mike’s sweetheart, with pictures of Clancy, our Labrador retriever.  In the latest post on her blog, Clancy is reading Webster’s Dictionary and is “disturbed” over my spelling of Nevada as “Neveda.”  Where is spell check when you need it!?  Anyway, I stand corrected.  Secondly, Michael said that my quoted mileage of 3000 miles was incorrect and that we had actually logged over 4000 miles at present.  These are the only two things that I’ve been wrong about over the last twelve days and I am gratified to be able to correct these minor errors.  Special thanks to Mike and Mimi for pointing them out!  That’s it for today.  We’ll see you again tomorrow.

day eleven: out of Utah, through Nevada and into California

Well hello sports fans!  I think that’s the way the Great Santini addresses his family in the Pat Conroy book by that name.  Robert Duval plays a great character in the movie . . . but that’s not the subject of this post.  Some how I have gotten off my day count so I am correcting it.  This is for day eleven but written on day twelve.  Michael and I were so tired last night from the distance covered he didn’t even do his crunches and push-ups.  He had me doing them but not as consistently and not as many.  I keep telling him that I’m an old man and staying on the bike is enough exercise for me on any given day!  And yesterday was a humdinger.  We woke early having traveled late to Caliente, UT.  If you have any Spanish at all you know how to say this town’s name.  However, if you are from this thriving metropolis you pronounce it Cali-any.  Anyway, we left Cali-any headed across the rest of Neveda.  We went through towns with names like Hiko, Modena, Warm Springs and numerous others.  The highlight of the day in Nevada was coming into Tonopah to eat some health food at McDonalds.  As we were eating, kids from the local high school started coming in.  Mike and I noticed that their school mascot name was the “Muckers!”  I kid you not!  It evidently has something to do with mining but Mike and I decided that the name was subject to some serious abuse and went on to abuse it some ourselves.  We had to take it to the parking lot we were laughing so hard.  We were afraid some local Mucker might overhear our crass humor and choose to “muck us up!”  Anyway we left Tonaopah, home of the Mighty Muckers and rode through Coaldale and Basalt before coming into California and our 13^th state.  I forgot to mention Neveda as our 12^th one the day before.  Somewhere over the last two days we have also logged our 3000^th mile on this trip- pretty cool!  As we rode in CA we came to a road which we add to our list as one of the prettiest in America, hwy 120 toward the town of Lee-Vining and Yosemite.  It passed through Inyo State Park which was beautiful and also subject to some seriously bad jokes- “So, what’s in-yo state park?”- things like that.  Hey, when you’re talking on headsets all day you have to do something to lighten the day!  Highway 120 led into Yosemite and I’ll apologize to all the Yosemite fans.  We took this one on the run due to the time of day.  We still got some beautiful pictures but Michael said that he could easily spend two weeks there, which, in itself is an understatement.  Snow was still on the peaks and some of the valleys.  Run-off made the streams fast and roaring.  These places truly defy description and my supply of superlatives is running low as a result.  After the park I made the stupid decision to make it to Merced, CA.  This ended up being about 80 miles too far for me.  I was worn out and mean by the time I got here to the Comfort Inn (Mike and I had camped out for the last three days and figured it was time for some soft beds, warm showers and good rest).  Our total ride today was 516 miles.  We didn’t think yesterday’s haul was as big as some of our initial ground-eating rides but it turned-out to be right close—which was too much!  Today we’ll hopefully be able to spend a little time at the San Jose BMW Motorcycle shop getting oil changed and a few things looked at before riding on to Monterey.  We’ll let you know how that works out.

 

For those of you who are following, send us a line.  It’s really fun to hear what you have to say.  Some of the comments have encouraged, harassed, cheered and made us laugh.  Keep them coming!

day ten: Bryce Canyon/Zion to ??

Mike and woke this morning after what was truly the best night of sleep either of us have gotten on this trip- and camping no less!  We broke camp after playing with a little female Australian shepherd/Cattle dog cross who needed a friend (and some beef stew we had left over from last night).  We rode to Bryce Canyon and followed the park roads to the look out places.  This is truly a beautiful park.  That is probably as empty a statement as the time I told Miriam that John Steinbeck really was a good writer.  She said, “You think?”  Regardless, this is one to see if you ever have the opportunity.  While we were there I met a man who looked like OD’s uncle Knotty.  I remember asking OD one day why he was named that.  OD’s response was “Look at him, what else would you call him?”  In any event this man looked like uncle Knotty whose real name I never knew (ask OD when you next see him).  The other interesting thing about him is that he talked like Elmer Fudd.  No kidding!  He said that as we traveled we needed to watch out for “bad weavah.”  (You know, snow rain, hail, etc- bad weavah)  As we left the park Michael made an interesting observation about Smokey the Bear, which I will leave him to develop in his daily highlights.  We rode south on hwy 89 to hwy 9 into Zion National Park.  This was the most awesome park by far that we have seen on this trip.  Michael said it looked almost pre-historic.  It was hot as the hinges and the 1 and ½ mile long tunnel made it seem as if you might be traveling there.  After leaving Zion we rode toward Cedar City to decide whether to push on, camp or get a room before pushing on.  Mike and I are pretty tired even though we have only ridden about 180 miles so far today.  We did pass through a town with the interesting name of La Verkin.  This was good for a few minutes of entertainment at the town’s expense- things like, “I’m shirkin” my workin” in downtown La Verkin;  the coffee’s perkin in the town of La Verkin- well you get the idea.  As I write this we are sitting in a Starbucks drinking a mocha frappachino.  The staff says, “Hey.”  Stay tuned for more as the day develops.

day nine: Moab to Bryce Canyon

  Mike and I began the day already worn out since neither of us slept almost at all the night before.  We set up in a great camping area but about midnight the wind began blowing.  I don’t mean the gentle desert zephyr but the more feared Sahara-like sand moving wind.  Mike and I attempted to sleep with the vents closed which meant a hot tent alternating with the vents open which meant eating and laying in grit.  But like intrepid the adventure-loving boys we are, we pushed on.  We had breakfast at the Moab Diner.  It sounds kind of like something out of the Old Testament but that is not actually the case.  After breakfast we trekked to the Arches National Park, yet another awesome display of God’s handiwork. (See pictures!)  After the park we headed north on hwy 191 to hwy 70 west.  This was some of the ugliest landscape I personally have ever seen.  We went through a small town called Mesa Luna.  My Spanish is not so good but I’m pretty sure this means Moon Table-land.  Never were words more appropriately spoken!  The entire area looked like the surface of the moon.  Our helmet to helmet radios stopped working and no people were to be seen.  We thought we’d entered the Twilight Zone.  From Mesa Luna we went to Hanksville.  Now America is a country predicated on having at least some choice in where you live, work, etc.  If you live in Mesa Luna or Hanksville I’m sorry- not sorry I said these things; sorry you have to live on the surface of the moon!  Right as I was getting wigged out about having chosen the ugliest road through the most barren terrain imaginable, we turned onto hwy 12, possibly one of the absolute prettiest roads in this country.  The day was redeemed.  Mike and I were happy for the high mountain road with winding curves, alpine meadows and a new kind of huge pine mixed with aspen.  We rode into Bryce Canyon at the end of the day to eat a quick supper and rode back to the town of Tropic (yep, Tropic) to camp for the night.

 Mike can give you his usual highlights of the day but I want to give mine as a pre-emptive strike.  For the second time on this trip I dropped my bike!  It was Mike’s fault for taking me off-rode.  His bike is much more agile off-road than the beast I ride.  When I went to put my foot down it was in a deep rut.  God did not make me with long legs and He certainly did not enable me to compensate for the black beast after stepping in a hole.  The good news is that it was soft ground and I was able to pick it up myself.  Boy am I proud! 

Well I’m done for the evening.  Michael is talking to his sweetheart, Megan while I slave away keeping up with our adventures.  His work of putting pictures on the blog and posting his comments about the day’s highlights is yet to come.

PS:  We met a nice guy named Paul who’s here with his family camping in Escalante.  He had a sweet BMW GS1100 Mike and both admired.  Hope you and your family have a great trip if you’re reading this!

day eight: Durango to Moab

Mike and I just completed day 8 of our journey and are camped out at the Moab Rim campground.  It was about 95 degrees when we arrived but it has begun to cool.  At present it’s a balmy 85!  We have high hopes for lower temps.  A quick note before I forget.  Today is my mom’s birthday.  If you see Linda Lee give her a hug and sing to her in my absence.  (No I won’t tell you how old she is!). 

 

Mike and I woke this morning at a great Quality Inn in Durango and prepared to ride after a big breakfast.  As we were leaving we met Lewis and Earl, both members of the Circle B Chuck Wagon out of Branson, MO.  We told them our story and they encouraged us to complete the trip and enjoy the time.  Mike and I are going to try to catch their show on our way back.  If you’ve never experienced a western chuck wagon you need to remedy this part of your musical education.  The performers serve you the meal (just like old chuck wagon cooks) and then put on a great show.  Miriam and I saw the Bar D Chuck Wagon about 25 years ago.  Mike and I tried to see them in Durango but couldn’t get tickets.  Anyway, put that on your list.

 

Mike and I left Durango headed for Mesa Verde National Park.  It is a continual feast for mind and eye to experience what God made in almost careless abundance.  (Yes, that was almost lyrical!)  We left the park about 2PM and traveled to Monticello, Utah crossing into our 11^th state!  From Monticello we turned north toward Moab.  I had just commented to Michael that this was my least favorite day because of the kind of boring ride when we came into the canyon lands.  What incredible beauty!  As I sit writing this post I can look across the road in front of me to 800-1000 foot red cliffs shading into grays and blues and sages.  Our campsite is a clean, grassy area with a perfectly situated shade tree.  I feel like Jonah but I’m not moping and blue. (Look up the story if you haven’t heard it!)

 

Mike and I plan to rise before the sun in the morning to get to the Arches National Park to get some sunrise pictures and head down to glen Canyon from there.  We’ll keep you up to date with our adventure.  See you soon.