We went from San Simeon to Julia Pfeiffer State Park. That is the area where Big Sur is located. It was a beautiful walk through giant redwoods and then a jagged, steep, climb up a long hill to the top to see an aerial view of a valley. We thought we were climbing up to see the ocean view of Big Sur. That is not what we saw-ha! What we saw was a waterfall and a gigantic valley. Uugh, what the heck??? The part of Big Sur that we wanted to see, we never saw. The area we really wanted to see indicated they did not want trailers on the dirt road. It was mostly a fine dirt road with big rocks mixed in to make up the road. After our big climb and the exhaustion that came after the climb, we didn’t feel like negotiating that kind of road with a trailer on the back of our bike whether we were allowed or not.
We veered off the path of route 1 on Wednesday to see one of Ed’s friends whom he worked with at the mill for over 20 years. Paul and his family moved to the Napa Valley area a few years ago. A sad note about this couple, however, is they had a daughter who went to Iraq about a year and a half ago - about three days in to her tour-of-duty she volunteered for an assignment to help the Iraqi people and her helicopter went down and she died. She has a small daughter that now Claire and Paul Good are raising. The daughter who died was a twin. It is incredibly hard to see the trials and tribulations this family is still going through because of all the legal issues they now face with this child with little or no help from our federal government. Please keep them in your prayers – they surely need them.
Claire Good was a beautician in Ohio back in the day and I was having some trouble with my hair getting all tangled with the wind on this trip. So the day after we arrived to see them, Claire gave me a haircut. My hair is now user friendly with the motorcycle helmet. Thanks Claire.
Today we went to crazy, wild San Francisco Pier Area. While in the adventurous city of San Francisco, Ed had to maneuver the motorcycle and trailer beside cable cars, trains, cabbies, pedestrians, trolleys and buses – you name it we had to go around them. It was rather nerve wracking but Ed was so confident and careful in the city—I was a nervous wreck. We parked our “rig” in a parking garage, walked across the street to have lunch at Pier 39. The restaurant we picked to eat was looking out at Alcatraz Island and right next door to a bunch of Harbor Seals. Some of the seals were soaking up the rays, barking like dogs, or playing “King of the Dock.” The alpha seal owned the dock and if he didn’t like the other seals jumping up on it’s dock, he or she then would knock them off the small pier. It was pretty fun for us to watch these animals play while eating some great New England clam chowder and enjoying the view of the Bay. Uugh, I just need a peanut butter and jelly sandwich – I am seafood out. However, I will be on Slim Fast Diet Drink soon and “wishing” I had some Pacifi Coast Ocean Seafood. So anyhow Ed remembers he didn’t lock the bike and we had something valuable in the trailer $$$ - No one touched the motorcycle or trailer and we didn’t lose anything.
After we got out of the city of San Francisco and the terrific gusts of wind on the Golden Gate Bridge, and before we drove through Point Reyes, we got back on Rt. 1 again. A sign on the right hand side of the road indicated we were going to have a windy road for the next several miles and most of it right by a cliff near the ocean. Half way through this part of the ride I told Ed this road is better than Deal’s Gap, North Carolina. Let me put it this way: we went through twists, turns, gravel, tailgaters, rocks on the side of the hill that could fall in to the street at any time, lack of guardrails on most of the road, up a hill or down a hill the same time you are negotiating a switchback, sun in your eyes and opposite traffic in your lane at any possible time. Ed said it made Deals Gap, the place where motorcyclists go to experience “the twisties” look like a straight road. I laughed and told Ed if I die from this ride, I had a good life and tell the kids I love them. I wanted to throw up after we made it more than 11 miles of this kind of driving. I had to stop in a small town near the ocean and take some aspirins after that ride – but still it was fun and enormously exciting. Even Ed agreed that was a very demanding ride. He did a great job.
Stopping in a place called Bodega Bay to get gas was a treat. We found out that Bodega is the place where Alfred Hitchcock filmed the movie “The Birds.” They chose Bodega Bay because of the surrounding bleak treeless hills, quiet fishing harbor town and eerie looking fog. This movie was based on a short story by Daphne DuMaurier, and the original story took place in an English seashore village where murderous birds attacked the local villagers. In it’s day it was an dreadfully scary flick. This town was pretty cool to see and to learn some history of the area.
We are now in a town called Willits, California resting up for what we hope to be a big ride tomorrow. We’ve had way too much fun in California and it is time to move on. We could find a million more things to do but we just don’t have the time. Next time we get to San Francisco, we will make reservations to go to Alcatraz and research more attractions ahead of time. Oh well, that’s how we do things and we find weird areas we would have never found if we planned everything we did. But really, how naive can you be to think we could walk up and get a ticket to go over to the small island of Alcatraz? What were we thinking – I guess we weren’t. Rats!!!…it would have been impressive to see.
