I wish! There are no women involved, and I'm not a singer. However, that still leaves one. I stayed the night in Santa Rosa, about 40 miles north of San Francisco. The direction from which I approached town had me thinking the joint was a bit of a dump. The motel I stayed in did nothing to dispel that impression. My fellow guests were a decidedly dodgy looking lot, real pond life types. I did pass through some nicer suburbs on the way out, but I would not want to live in a joint like this. I detoured via Sonoma, through some very nice wine country, and Sonoma looked much more agreeable. By this time the weather was actually hot, and not the least bit conducive towards wine tasting, but I had a look around. Then I hit the US101 again, and played lotto at 75 mph towards San Francisco. The traffic was frantic, all five lanes of it in each direction at one stage. My GPS started to go a bit funny, and I thought "Oh no, not now", but it seems to be ok now. Before I knew it, I could see that familiar skyline, I felt the temperature drop as the wind came in off the bay, and next thing I was on the Golden Gate Bridge. I have walked out onto it before, with my eldest lad David, but had not crossed it in a vehicle before. TICK. I had forgotten how huge the thing is. Its just awesome. The struggle to find $6 to pay the toll on the exit side was a hassle I could have done without.
Then it was straight around to SF BMW to have my brakes checked. They have been feeling squishy for a while, so I wanted them checked out. They checked out ok, but I still reckon they feel a bit funny.
All four of my visits to the US have included San Francisco. At first, Carolyn and I loved the place, but I have become less impressed with each visit. There is a real problem with homeless people, and it is very in your face in the touristy precincts, and I reckon its getting steadily worse. There is a lot more aggro now. You can't walk down the street without being accosted by some panhandler, and being mobile on the bike, I rode through a couple of areas which I would not be prepared to walk into. From my $200 a night hotel room just off Market St, I could see four people sleeping out all night on the steps of the building right across the street. The hotel cafe faces onto a street corner, and there are always derros stopping to look in the windows. Its hard to ignore. Earlier in the day I was walking down the street 100 yards from the hotel when a plastic bag of garbage hit the footpath about 6 feet from me. I looked up, but saw nothing. Someone had tossed it out the window from above. Within a minute, there were 4 cop cars in the street at the back of the building, so I reckon it was a domestic. I saw a similar incident a few blocks away a bit later, with some guy getting handcuffed by several cops after a fight in the street. One night here was plenty, and I had already planned to vacate asap. Fortunately, next day was Sunday, and I thought that might cut me some slack with the traffic. It did, and I just headed west from the hotel until I hit the coast.
I just can't figure the weather here at all. I left the hotel in hot weather mode, sunscreen and all. This morning there was a fog along the coast, and it was cold. I rode on thinking it would blow away or burn off soon enough. After about 30 miles, I was too cold, so had to stop to reorganise myself. The plan was to ride down the coast to check out Monterey, Carmel, and Big Sur, then cut inland to visit Yosemite and some other parks, which would mean a little backtracking. For quite a few miles, I was behind some lucky bastard in a Porsche Carrera S model, looking into four big exhausts, and listening to the sweet crescendo emanating from same. That's my kind of music. Yes, but is he really happy? You bet he is. By the time I had done about 100 miles, it was still cold and foggy, then just after Santa Cruz, the road had turned into a freeway, but traffic ground to a halt. It was backed up for about 5 miles. When it eventually got moving freely again, I had sore hands from riding the clutch and brakes. Stuff this. So I headed inland right then, via Watsonville, and headed towards Yosemite. Too bad, I would have liked to see that section of coast, I have heard its worth it, but not today. So no getting "Down in Monterey", and no chat with Clint Eastwood in Carmel, but I did go "somewhere near Salinas" to pinch a line from Janis Joplin.
This route took me over the Coast Range, and over then the Diablo Range, and into the San Joaquin Valley. As soon as I got away from the coast, the skies cleared and the temperature rose. But I have never seen anything like what I was about to experience. Crossing the Diablo Range, I thought it was getting not just warm, but hot. The readout said 80 deg F already. Wow, that was quick, I thought to myself. Then before my very eyes, the readout went ballistic and climbed steadily, topping out at 101.7 deg. I thought there was something wrong with it. It was actually changing digits faster than the tripmeter, and in the space of about a mile and a half!! And I'm still wearing heavy gloves, a neckwarmer, and have all the vents closed! A quick stop when I could find some shade to reorganise again. Unbelievable, but true. Well, at least it finally stopped raining.
Shortly after this, on the opposite side of the freeway, I came upon a bad accident, at the Patcheco State Park. It looked like a rear end shunt at high speed (of course!). One car was down an embankment, badly messed up, and another had its front properly smashed in. I would not be surprised if it was a fatal. The cops and all the emergency services were all there, but the road was still blocked. The traffic on the other side, all three lanes of it, was backed up for I reckon about 7 miles, in 100 degree heat, and going nowhere. The queue was growing at an exponential rate, and some cars were overheating, with people parking on the median to deal with problems, or trying to turn around. A quick look at the map showed there were no nearby alternative routes for westbound traffic. What a shambles.
By 3.30, I'd had enough, and bailed up in a motel in Merced. An interesting, eventful few days, but I'm already thinking the trip from here onwards is going to be bad news. Apart from right at the start of this trip, when I was learning the ropes, I have dutifully avoided large cities and heavy traffic in favour of the roads less travelled, with a couple of exceptions. That is going to be a lot harder to do from here on. There is a whole lot of people packed into California.
Then it was straight around to SF BMW to have my brakes checked. They have been feeling squishy for a while, so I wanted them checked out. They checked out ok, but I still reckon they feel a bit funny.
All four of my visits to the US have included San Francisco. At first, Carolyn and I loved the place, but I have become less impressed with each visit. There is a real problem with homeless people, and it is very in your face in the touristy precincts, and I reckon its getting steadily worse. There is a lot more aggro now. You can't walk down the street without being accosted by some panhandler, and being mobile on the bike, I rode through a couple of areas which I would not be prepared to walk into. From my $200 a night hotel room just off Market St, I could see four people sleeping out all night on the steps of the building right across the street. The hotel cafe faces onto a street corner, and there are always derros stopping to look in the windows. Its hard to ignore. Earlier in the day I was walking down the street 100 yards from the hotel when a plastic bag of garbage hit the footpath about 6 feet from me. I looked up, but saw nothing. Someone had tossed it out the window from above. Within a minute, there were 4 cop cars in the street at the back of the building, so I reckon it was a domestic. I saw a similar incident a few blocks away a bit later, with some guy getting handcuffed by several cops after a fight in the street. One night here was plenty, and I had already planned to vacate asap. Fortunately, next day was Sunday, and I thought that might cut me some slack with the traffic. It did, and I just headed west from the hotel until I hit the coast.
I just can't figure the weather here at all. I left the hotel in hot weather mode, sunscreen and all. This morning there was a fog along the coast, and it was cold. I rode on thinking it would blow away or burn off soon enough. After about 30 miles, I was too cold, so had to stop to reorganise myself. The plan was to ride down the coast to check out Monterey, Carmel, and Big Sur, then cut inland to visit Yosemite and some other parks, which would mean a little backtracking. For quite a few miles, I was behind some lucky bastard in a Porsche Carrera S model, looking into four big exhausts, and listening to the sweet crescendo emanating from same. That's my kind of music. Yes, but is he really happy? You bet he is. By the time I had done about 100 miles, it was still cold and foggy, then just after Santa Cruz, the road had turned into a freeway, but traffic ground to a halt. It was backed up for about 5 miles. When it eventually got moving freely again, I had sore hands from riding the clutch and brakes. Stuff this. So I headed inland right then, via Watsonville, and headed towards Yosemite. Too bad, I would have liked to see that section of coast, I have heard its worth it, but not today. So no getting "Down in Monterey", and no chat with Clint Eastwood in Carmel, but I did go "somewhere near Salinas" to pinch a line from Janis Joplin.
This route took me over the Coast Range, and over then the Diablo Range, and into the San Joaquin Valley. As soon as I got away from the coast, the skies cleared and the temperature rose. But I have never seen anything like what I was about to experience. Crossing the Diablo Range, I thought it was getting not just warm, but hot. The readout said 80 deg F already. Wow, that was quick, I thought to myself. Then before my very eyes, the readout went ballistic and climbed steadily, topping out at 101.7 deg. I thought there was something wrong with it. It was actually changing digits faster than the tripmeter, and in the space of about a mile and a half!! And I'm still wearing heavy gloves, a neckwarmer, and have all the vents closed! A quick stop when I could find some shade to reorganise again. Unbelievable, but true. Well, at least it finally stopped raining.
Shortly after this, on the opposite side of the freeway, I came upon a bad accident, at the Patcheco State Park. It looked like a rear end shunt at high speed (of course!). One car was down an embankment, badly messed up, and another had its front properly smashed in. I would not be surprised if it was a fatal. The cops and all the emergency services were all there, but the road was still blocked. The traffic on the other side, all three lanes of it, was backed up for I reckon about 7 miles, in 100 degree heat, and going nowhere. The queue was growing at an exponential rate, and some cars were overheating, with people parking on the median to deal with problems, or trying to turn around. A quick look at the map showed there were no nearby alternative routes for westbound traffic. What a shambles.
By 3.30, I'd had enough, and bailed up in a motel in Merced. An interesting, eventful few days, but I'm already thinking the trip from here onwards is going to be bad news. Apart from right at the start of this trip, when I was learning the ropes, I have dutifully avoided large cities and heavy traffic in favour of the roads less travelled, with a couple of exceptions. That is going to be a lot harder to do from here on. There is a whole lot of people packed into California.
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