September 26, 2002 - Arena Point, CA - 134 Miles

Well, it's been a relatively short ride today.  Only 134 miles covered all told, mostly because I got a late start - I didn't leave home until 2:30pm or so.  It seemed there was no end of last minute packing to do, but I finally got under way... reaching the coast at Bodega Bay and riding up northward along Highway 1 until Arena Point.

It's been a lot colder than I expected, with coastal fogs completely obscuring the sun.  Thankfully I brought along some some cold weather gear...  and lucked out finding some surf/diving gloves at a surf shop in Bodega Bay.  Probably not as protective as leather, but they do keep my hands from freezing.

Though the sun hasn't been bright enough for really good photographs, the ride has already been pretty beautiful...  spectacularly so in some areas.  It's a good reminder to me how much stunning coastline is just a short ride away from home, and that I should take more time to explore this area in the future.

Highway 1 is a great ride, lots of nice curves and good riding conditions, with the exception of some construction work north of Bodega Bay.  It's been exhilerating, I found myself singing a lot on nice stretches of road.  It's also been remarkably easy...  riding along steep oceanside cliffs hasn't been as challenging as I had imagined, except perhaps for the temptation to gaze out at the ocean at times instead of watching the road.  It's crossed my mind that possibly the best way to see this lovely coast would be from the back of a motorcycle, with a 360 degree view without having to concentrate on the ride.

Interestingly enough, I've ran into lots of very pleasant people today... for some reason people have been opening doors, allowing me to pass on roads, waving as they drive by, giving me riding tips, etc. all day... it's enough to restore one's faith in humanity.  Heh.  There were two particularly friendly couples at the restaurant I ate at tonight, Arena Cove Bar and Grill.  I guess it's that automatic feeling of cameraderie between motorcyclists... they were travelling south and gave me advice for my trip gong north.

Speaking of that cameraderie, I also caught on late to a phenomenon amongst riders I've never noticed before.  Ever oncoming motorcyclist I've passed along the coast has waved, flashed a peace sign, given a thumbs up, or some sort of hand gesture of acknowledgement.  Sort of like a club handshake... pretty cool.

At the Arena Cove restaurant, my waitress told me that the fish and chips I ordered were a specialty.  "Basa" or "Bosa" or some such thing the fish was called, locally caught and very tender.  She wasn't kidding either, the fish was some of the best I've ever had.  Melts in your mouth.  It's a cute and idyllic sort of place, romantic in a way... I hope to return here someday.

Like everyone else I've come across today, the waitress was a kindly and friendly soul.  Actually I've been a bit surprised at the sorts of locals I've met around Arena Point.  For whatever reason, I've always associated remote, little towns to backwards, conservative thinking.  Well that's what I get for perpetuating a stereotype.  Point Arena and several of the places along the Northern California coast seem to defy this notion.  From unkepmt college kids to organic burrito joints to colorful roadside peace signs, signs of liberalism abound.  Not at all what I expected.

OK, off to sleep for me, I plan on putting a lot of miles behind me tomorrow so I'd best get some rest.

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September 27, 2002 - Banden, OR - 513 Miles

Covered a lot more ground today, 380 miles... not bad considering the first third of that consisted of very windy roads.  If I had considered the coastal view distracting yesterday, I don't know how I can describe today's views.  The sun dawned bright and clear this morning...  very different from the foggy ride I experienced yesterday.  Though it was still fairly cold most of the day, the views were just stunning and the road conditions were perfect.  My spirit was singing with joy as I raced along the coast...  for the most part I couldn't believe how quickly the miles and the hours flew by.  Riding off and on for 10 hours or so was invigorating and joyful, driving that same amount probably would have been grueling at best.

I made numerous stops along my trip today, basically at every turnoff, bend, and vista point I was tempted to stop and take pictures.  Eventually I realized it was futile to keep trying to capture all these views with my camera, and I resolved to just try to absorb as much as I could with my mind's eye, as photographs don't really capture the moment too well anyway.  I don't think I've ever been to Mendocino before, but now I know why honeymooners and weekend vacationers speak so highly of it.  Such a beautiful coastline...  it reminds me of something my neighbor told me.  A New Zealander who's travelled a bit, he told  me he's been up and down the coasts of Australia, New Zealand, and the U.S. all the way to Canada...  and he said his favorite scenic drive of all is the Pacific Coast highway.  As a fellow motorcyclist, I can see why he's impressed.

Aside from all the normal vista points, I also stopped at a cheezy tourist-trap at Leggett, a great tree with a big hole cut into it so that you could drive through.  Don't really know what possessed me to go there, except to get a token photo of me riding through the violated tree.  Though the tree itself was unremarkable and only slightly disturbing, I was glad to have taken the detour anyway, as I was promptly beset by a whole host of wild turkeys.  That's right, big, colorful, gobbling turkeys... a whole pack of them, gibbering inches from my motorcycle.  The ticket lady at the tree said that the turkeys go absolutely bananas around motorcycles for some reason.  I'm guessing that some motorbike engines sound just like a mating call on steroids to the poor fat birds, who happily chased me a quarter of a mile down the road before I lost them.  I did get a good photo of the lovelorn gobblers while I was there.

I also stopped at a few other cheezeball tourist traps along the Avenue of Giants, where people try to capitalize on the huge redwoods of California to draw visitors.  I stopped mostly to reflect on a trip I took much earlier in life...  I can't recall the circumstances but I do recall my dad pointing out various things to my brother and I... I'm guessing I must have been in my very young teens then.  Much was as I remembered it...  Confusion Hill, the Bigfoot Attraction, and a big huge Paul Bunyan and his Blue Ox (which I didn't get a picture of unfortunately).

My luck with people being unfathomably nice to me continued today...  with gas station attendants wanting to chit-chat, people complementing me on my motorcycle, passers-by waving hello, and a cute redhead telling me how much she liked my earrings.  I guess people just tend to be pleasant around nice scenery?

I ended today's ride at Banden, Oregon...  a cute picutresque little spot on the coast, which unfortunately isn't so cute at the moment due to a thick fog the rolled in right before sunset.  I had ridden hard the last few miles before Banden, hoping to get there to catch some spectacular sunset photos, only to be foiled by the sudden fog.  The fog also brought with it an intense chill which penetrated my winter gloves and thermals...  I was delighted to find out that my room at the Sunset Motel included access to a jaccuzi here.  Though it was almost scaldingly hot at first, the water felt spine-tingling-good as it soaked out all the remaining chills from my bones.  I sat there nearly delierious with pleasure for a while, never having enjoyed the hot water quite so much just for the feel of it.

The dip in the tub was followed by a very good dinner at the next-door restaurant, where I got the earring compliment and a funny check which showed my order of "stuffed chick".  (See the picture on my website for details.)

All told, a very good day, a very good ride, and now... off to a very good sleep.

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September 28, 2002 - Portland, OR - 808 Miles

Today's ride was much different from yesterday's.  Got a bit of a late start, leaving the motel at 10:00am or so...  and made a lot of stops earlier on in my trip.  Though it seemed sunny at first, the fog was pretty thick at my first destination - a set of parks just south of Charlston on the Oregon coast.  I read about these parks from my guide book, offering dramatic oceanside cliffs, whale-watching, tidal pools, and throngs of seals to be seen just off the coast.  Unfortunately I was somewhat foiled by circumstace, with fog obscuring the seals, a somewhat high tide which obscured the best tidepools, whales which chose not to migrate during their off-season (bah), etc.

Still, the ride was pleasant enough, if somewhat cold.  The forsted areas which I rode through were eerily shrouded with fog, it was like a ghostly green canopy overhead at times.  Often there was a very surreal sensation about the area.

Actually much of the day was spent driving through forest as well as coastline, with the exception of the great sand dunes of the Southern Oregon coast.  The sand dunes...  they were pretty spectacular, I'm surprise I never really knew about them before except for maybe a story or two from other travellers.  For about 30 miles of coast, enormous sand dunes rise high above the coastline, often looking more like a desert than a beach area.

ORV (off-road vehicle) rental places dotted the coast, this being a very popular pastime apparently in the area.  I stopped by a likely spot and rented myself a dunebuggy, figuring I could spare an hour or so riding around in the sand.  What a blast that was!  After spending so long on the motorcycle, taking those sharp, controlled turns, driving a dunebuggy took a lot of getting used to.  Driving over the sand seems to be a very imprecise science in comparison, with the wheels often seeming to go every which way but the direction you want them to go.  The sliding sand really pulls at you...  slope and direction must always be taken into account.

The buggy itself was a slow beast of a thing, unfortunately, I'm assuming they are set to run pretty slow so that you don't hurt yourself.  I found myself always itching to go faster, and all around me other people in their private dunebuggies and ATVs were flying in comparison (sometimes literally...  as they jumped over the dunes).  Still, it was much fun... I got stuck a few times til I learned which dunes I was capable of cresting and which would just suck down my wheels and mire me in sand.

After an hour or so of this, I wistfully returned the clunker of a dunebuggy and hopped back on the motorcycle for the rest of my ride.

Having spent so much of the day earlier climbing around tidepools and tearing around sand dunes, I didn't make many more stops during my journey.  Though the coastline offered yet more and more fantastic vistas, I eventually had to turn away from the coast just south of Newport due to the extremely thick (and cold) fog which was rolling in.  I took a windy and idyllic little stretch of freeway inland towards Corvallis, then headed north up towards Portland.

I arrived just after sundown, and checked in at a dumpy little motel called, appropriately, the "4th Street Motel" in downtown Portland.  Here I just laid around and got some much-needed rest, with my body aching from a full day of riding both motorcycle and the very bumpy dunebuggy.  I called Mark, Melissa, and Kami... and spoke to all of them.  I'm pretty excited at the prospect of meeting them all again, though they all do seem to be a bit on the busy side (Mark has family over the weekend, Kami has her kids to attend, and Melissa... well, apparently she's a bit hung over tonight.)

Tomorrow morning I plan on meeting up with Kami, then I'm meeting Melissa sometime in the afternoon.  Unfortunately I won't get to see Mark until Monday evening in all likelyhood, but that's good as it will give me more time to explore Portland during the day.

I spent the better part of an hour just now putting around downtown Portland, seeing the sights at night and getting a feel for the layout.  As it was Saturday night, the hotspots around the city were often filled with people...  lots to look at as people strutted about in the warm evening air.

But now, some sleep for me.  I'm sure I'm forgetting lots, but it's been a long day (only 294 miles covered, but a tiring 294 miles), and I'm craving some rest.

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September 29th, 2002 - Portland, OR - 826 Miles

Not much riding done at all today, nor for the next couple of days, since I'm just staying in Portland.  It's a nice city, very pleasant...  probably my first choice for a long-term place to stay after the Bay Area (with New York being my short-term preference.)  Clean city for it's size, very safe in feel relatively speaking, with decent political if not actual ethnic diversity.  People tend to be friendly, I've felt none of the anti-Californian hostility I've heard about... though that's generally my experience in my travels.

I met up with Kami in the morning for breakfast.  Quite an experience...  she looks much as I remember her... except for the kids in tow.  It was a bit difficult to get that quality catch-up time with her, two little boys being present the whole time, yet it was pleasant enough.  One of the kids in particular, the older son, struck me as a remarkably thoughtful and articulate type... for a four-year-old.  I daresay he's the first child I've ever formed an instant liking for...  I have great hopes for that one someday.

Kami was very sweet, we talked much about her somewhat turbulent life, and what's gone on in our lives.  Very interesting to catch up like that... she was a bit apologetic about her suburbian lifestyle... needlessly so, as I hold no real prejudices and can only begin to fathom the pressures of being a single mom of three.  Hell I was happy she even had the energy to entertain a long-lost friend for one morning.

Later in the afternoon, I met up with Melissa.  Really much more than I expected in a way...  I think there was a few minutes of just being wierded out by seeing each other again, then suddenly it was the same old Melissa to me, sharp, friendly, sarcastic, witty, and swearing like a sailor...  comfortable as always.  It was great catching up with her, and seeing oddly how so little had changed in some was, while so much had happened to both of us in the long years since.

It was a particularly poignant time too, recalling our mutual friend Don (who had committed suicide) and reliving old memories.  She even pulled out an old photo album which was almost overwhelming for me...  strangely enough I have no pictures from that era and I was absolutely blown away to see pictures of us in our teens, Don when he was alive, Mark Vermeys, John Mutter, and all of Melissas friends...  quite a flashback which I am still sorting out in my brain right now.  Melissa very kindly offered to scan all these photos for me so I could have a copy... I can only hope she is able to do so soon, though I understand it can be quite a task.

I met her husband and saw her beautiful house...  amazing old place with lots of charm and character, on a nice piece of land...  of course only costing a fraction for what I paid for my own townhouse.  Not that I don't love my own place, but it's painful sometimes to think what a beautiful home I could have gotten in a place like this.  Ahh.  She also showed me some cute little neighborhoods in her area...  some of them very strongly reminsicent of the revived Valencia/Mission area of San Francisco, young hip and funny... lots of local crafts and such on display (Melissa makes her own stuff which sells at a local store).

Afterwards she took me to a fantastic Indian restaurant, which easily rivals my favorite Indian Oven in San Francisco.  The place was packed but we luckily got an available table... the food was delicious.

We drove around a lot, talked a lot...  eventually she dropped me off at my motel where we made tentative plans to see each other later... if not during this trip then at a later date whether she visits San Francisco area or vice-versa.

And now, it's only 8:30pm but I feel full and satisfied and very thoughtful about the day in general...  even life in general perhaps.  I get that way sometimes thinking on the past...  it's amazing to take a look back sometimes and see the road you've travelled, and the roads other people have travelled, and just relive the memories.  And tomorrow evening my reuinions continue with dinner with Mark and his wife.  Lots to think of and look forward to.

For now, some reading and relaxing until I head to sleep.

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October 2nd, 2002 - Yreka, CA - 1167 Miles

I've missed a couple of days of entries... it's been a busy time.  I spent Monday morning cruising around town, seeing the sights of Portland.  The more time I spent there, the more I really grew to like the city.  My tourbook described it as a big city that somehow maintains it's small-town feel.  I'd say that's a fair description.  It has much of what I love about the Bay Area without that Bay Area price tag.  The homes are beautiful, they have good access to mountains, ocean, and spectacular forests, they have a great fondness for bookstores and cafes (there's a particularly huge, city-block size local bookstore here called Powell's City of Books) and best of all, the people seem to be remarkably friendly.

I visited Portlan's immense Washington Park, which contains amongst other things a Japanese Garden and a Rose Test Garden.  The Rose Test Garden was particularly impressive...  it's used for display and testing of new rose variants apparently.  What it amounts to is a very bright and fragrant garden of roses with a striking view of the city of Portland below.  Unfortunately, being so late in the year, some of the petals have already fallen off the roses, but it was still worth a visit.

Between Washington Park and a sizeable Mount Taber Park, it would seem a good portion of Portland's city layout is dedicated to parkland.  Indeed the city layout is supposedly one of the best thought-out in this country...  with the city divided into quadrants and the street names easily placing you within any of those quadrants.  In the Northwest quadrant the streets are also arranged in alphabetical order...  overall it was very easy to find my way around.

I met with Mark and his wife Julie (Julianna) for dinner.  I spotted a likely looking Persian restaurant near the Governor Hotel where I had moved to for the night.  (On a side note, the Governor is a very impressive affair...  a lovingly restored art-deco hotel which apparently is quite a name in downtown Portland.)  Dinner was excellent...  the food was great and our server was very personable.  Mostly, it was just great seeing Mark again and getting to know his new wifey.... who is a very charming match for him.

We had lots to catch up on of course, tons really, almost overwhelming if you stop and think about it.  But I found out a lot of what's been going on in Mark's life...  they had been travelling and moving a lot in recent years, and had returned to Portland and bought a house as well... they seem very happy there.  Being a work-night, Julie had to go to bed, so we dropped her off at their home (which, by the way, had a very strongly San-Francisco feel to it... except it was almost ludicrously affordable by Bay Area standards) after taking some pictures around the house.

Mark and I then went to meet Melissa at her place for a sort of mini-reunion.  It was nice to get to see her again before I left, and the three of us had quite a time looking over old pictures, reminiscing, chatting with new faces (Melissa had several friends over) and such.  We stayed pretty late, and Mark later dropped me back off at the hotel.  I'm hoping to plan a Bay Area reunion sometime in the future for all our far-flung friends from that era.

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The next day was spent travelling for the most part.  I've decided to come straight down Highway 5 for my return trip... something of a dull ride compared to the coast, but it will get me home fast.  I don't expect much to report on the trip back... except perhaps for some sightseeing I plan to do around Mount Shasta.  Right now though, I'm just eager to get home, wonderful as this trip has been, and unwind for a few days before returning to work.

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October 3rd, 2002 - Benicia, CA - 1453 Miles

Finally home again, and too tired to write much.  Only item of note on my last day on the road was a speeding ticket I got near the Redding area for going 81 in a 65mph zone.  C’est la vie.  The cop was lenient and wrote me up for going 75mph only...  damnable fellow got me with his radar while he was coming from the other direction on the freeway... go figure.  Glad to be home though, and glad to be just sitting here recuperating after a great trip.  Almost 1500 miles covered on the motorcycle.