California Dreaming

[Daniel78362]

I was just sitting here doing some California Dreaming as I listen to some "West Coast Blues". This is just a general shout out to you West Coasters, I sure miss the California coast, miss the cold blue Pacific. The Gulf waters are warm and olive green and currently 68*. Would, at the risk of "took me only 7 seconds to find them" from Mr. Ignacio, love to see some moto relateded photos of the coast. Hell, would even injoy a tale or two on "How me and my bike spent Thanksgiving weekend" or "Too much Tryptophan caused this"...............to all Be Good, Be safe.

 

[wheatonFJR]

I'm too damn lazy to look for them. Why'd you move to Texas?

 

[majicmaker]

Welcome Dan, go to images and videos and introduce yourself to Tyler and a lot of others. There's some beautiful stuff in there.

+1 on Wheaton's question! I'd like to know too. Just curious.

 

[ionbeam]

Trip outline notes on which I will build a ride report once the snow flies. Roughly 4k pictures to sort through and select a few for the ride report. The trip outline:

Leave Manchester, NH

• arrive so late luggage may not make the flight
• board so late we couldn't get seats together

Arrive San Jose

• miracle in the air, our luggage arrived as it should

Bike rental picks us up at the airport

• 2 hrs to load up and leave rental on RED 2010 BMW K1300GT
• rental place botched the tank bag reservation and had to Micky-mouse the install, a major pain whole trip
• got the 48L trunk instead of the expected 52L trunk
• Micky-mouse GPS wiring cobbled together which would later fail due to being a Micky-mouse install
• bike brake and clutch controls -- you've got to be kidding me, YUCK, stall, stall, stall, over shoot stopping points, missed shifts
• where the heck is the rear brake peddle?
• leave rental place for --

Rt 9 Big Basin Redwoods

• fog, mist, rain, hair pin switchbacks and ESes back to back plus tar snakes and wet pine needles -- singing "Slip sliding away..."
• new PR3 suck on the tar snakes, even with traction control the back end was sliding around
  

Rt 236 Big Basin Redwoods

• forests of BIG trees, hair pin switchbacks and ESes back to back
  

Rt 9 to Rt 17, travel roads to --

Santa Cruz to Rt 1

• traffic, traffic, traffic as the sun sets in the rain, easily the worst ride of the trip
• fields of Brussels sprouts and artichokes

Marina; Hotel 6

• arrive stressed, in the dark
• least expensive room because it included nothing
• in the dark as Garmina doggedly took us on only secondary roads
• the secondary roads were completely covered in deep mud from the artichoke fields
• the mud was so thick and pasty that the next day it led to the rear brake overheating
  
• last time during the trip that a meal at Denny's seemed like a good idea

Montere

• aquarium extraordinary
• magic getting a parking spot near the aquarium; locker rented to stow riding gear while in the aquarium -- good idea!
• seals on rocks
• otters in kelp floats

17 mile Rd closed to motorcycles because of other bikes noise

Rt 1

• hair pin switchbacks and ESes back to back
  
• Carmel
  
• sea otters
• Big Sur
  
• ocean bluffs, islands, vistas, islands with arches
• mud causes rear brake to stick and fail 100%, no brake at all, blued the rotor
  
• bridges with beautiful designs
• covered bridge under construction for rock slide protection
• huge cattle ranches right down to the ocean
  
• hundreds of elephant seals
• Hurst Castle in the distance

San Simeon

• surf, beach fires, light houses, surfers
  
• room with best atmosphere because it was right on the beach
• salt & pepper guy in restaurant dispensed by the pound on everything he ate, you had to see it
  

Rt 46 to Templeton

• vineyards, ranches
• the wedding which was the reason for the trip
• found a car wash for the rental bike, can't believe I'm washing a rental but the mud was causing mechanical issues with the brakes, mud wouldn't come off, took >$10 in change to power wash off all the mud
  
• deer, deer and OH deer (with three legs)
• about 12 miles from DCarver's abode, I see why he hits deer
  

Paso Robles

• Templeton to Paso Robles was by far the shortest ride of the trip, that's the way scheduling turned out
  
• BBQ with tables inside jail bars & big buck meals
• safty pin riding pants together, the left leg full length zipper blew out

Rt 99 to Bakersfield

• ranches, fields, orchards, oil fields and bobbing ducks
• and more oil fields and more orchards
  

Rt 178 to Sequoia, hair pin switchbacks and ESes back to back

• BIG Sequoias
• warning sign that 231 people have been killed on this road
• Lake Isabella
• road construction
• Rt 155 Sequoia, hair pin switchbacks and ESes back to back
  
• BIG Sequoias
• road construction
• ranches, orchards

Delano

• Jack in a Box for breakfast ;-) (we mistakenly walked into a JIB when intending a different restaurant and couldn't figure out why our intended restaurant looked the way it did, after a couple of cups of coffee we figured it out.)
  
• dump of a diner for dinner and breakfast

Visalia to Rt 198

• back to Sequoia, hair pin switchbacks and ESes back to back
  
• road construction
• ranches and farms

Rt 180 to Fresno; Rt 41 to Oakhurst

• fields, orchards, ranches
• really nice hotel room
  
• dinner with presidential debate on the TV in the dining room, lots of JD on ice
  
• met FJR Dave (flycutter) at post office, recommended roads, his dog had to go to the vet for followup on leg surgery so couldn't ride with us

Rt 41 to Yosemite Valley

• hair pin switchbacks and ESes back to back
  
• road construction
• Half Dome
• El Capitan
• Bridal Falls

Rt 41 to Wawona

• stayed in a funky big buck hotel in the Yosemite park
• autistic waiter, artisan CA cheese dish with mango chutney, wine matched to the dishes
• room discounted for runaway radiator heat in the room, 75 kids outside our room on a nature adventure for the week
  
• easily the worst room of the trip, easily 3 times more expensive than the other rooms

Back to Oakhurst on Rt 41 to pick up Rt 49

Rt 49 to Rt 140 back into Yosemite, hair pin switchbacks and ESes back to back

Rt 140 to Rt 120 to Mono Lake, hair pin switchbacks and ESes back to back

• road construction
• rock avalanche really buried and closed the road, significant detour built on the other side of the river
• exiting Mono lake overlook deer herd crossed the road in front of us

Rt 395 to Rt 108 Sonora Pass

• road construction
• ranches

Rt 108 to Sonora, hair pin switchbacks and ESes back to back

• wicked setting sun in the eyes in the hair pin turns area
  
• bear falls down an embankment onto the road in front of us
• sun sets, hints of volcanic rocks, big trees and forests
• deer in the road in the dark, BMW ABS works, BMW HID headlight work good, me like a lot
  
• we arrive alive! latest evening arrival during the trip

Sonora to San Jose

• ranches
• lost power to GPS, needed GPS to find Rental Place, ***** forgot to plug in the power cord, fixed
• major wind farms
• sustained heavy traffic, lots of highways, least fun ride of the trip after Rt 1 on the first day

turn in bike

• get ride to hotel from rental company
• the most expensive meal of the trip in easily the worst restaurant

• "Emperor's clothes" cheese dish, made up for by owner giving us free calamari, bigger dinner servings and a 10% apology discount, the cheese dish not only was missing all the special cheeses it was supposed to have, but the apricot chutney turned out to be a peanut relish pile of some sort

Leave San Jose

• loose Helen after breakfast, wandered off to ???
• loose Helen in Denver, wandered off to ???
• worst adjacent passenger I ever flew with, major personal seat space encroachment and he didn't care
  

Arrive Manchester

• flights went as good as possible
• lost long term parking ticket
• parking lot writes down plate numbers every night, looked us up and charged us the right amount

During 100% of the trip there were stunningly beautiful scenes, vistas, staggering scale to the deeply convoluted terrain, simply beyond words how stupendous this trip was.

Can I go back now?

 

[Old Michael]

Trip outline notes on which I will build a ride report once the snow flies. Roughly 4k pictures to sort through and select a few for the ride report. The trip outline:

...

Can I go back now?

Wow.

California, you say?

 

[Denver_FJR]

Trip outline notes on which I will build a ride report once the snow flies. Roughly 4k pictures to sort through and select a few for the ride report. The trip outline:

Leave Manchester, NH

...

Arrive Manchester

• flights went as good as possible
• lost long term parking ticket
• parking lot writes down plate numbers every night, looked us up and charged us the right amount

During 100% of the trip there were stunningly beautiful scenes, vistas, staggering scale to the deeply convoluted terrain, simply beyond words how stupendous this trip was.

Can I go back now?

Um... where do I subscribe to this ride report? :lol:

 

[CAJW]

Alan - You were 15 minutes from me and didn't even call? I'm that far away from Hwy 49 & 132 (Coulterville) and could've shown you the local off the beaten path twisties besides the ever gorgeous Yosemite. Guess you went to ride planning school taught by OM? Anxiously awaiting the RR.

 

[ionbeam]

Alan - You were 15 minutes from me and didn't even call? I'm that far away from Hwy 49 & 132 (Coulterville) and could've shown you the local off the beaten path twisties besides the ever gorgeous Yosemite. Guess you went to ride planning school taught by OM? Anxiously awaiting the RR.

I posted to the Forum that I was coming out and looking for suggestions and and wanted to shake some hands. In part, because I couldn't name exact places, expected routes and exact times there weren't any offers except for some guy over by Templeton but lack of G3 and Cell Service bollixed up those plans. Guess we will just have to go back again next year and do it over again

 

[wheatonFJR]

Alan - You were 15 minutes from me and didn't even call? I'm that far away from Hwy 49 & 132 (Coulterville) and could've shown you the local off the beaten path twisties besides the ever gorgeous Yosemite. Guess you went to ride planning school taught by OM? Anxiously awaiting the RR.

I posted to the Forum that I was coming out and looking for suggestions and and wanted to shake some hands. In part, because I couldn't name exact places, expected routes and exact times there weren't any offers except for some guy over by Templeton but lack of G3 and Cell Service bollixed up those plans. Guess we will just have to go back again next year and do it over again

Take your 2013 FJR out there next time.

 

[Neil San Diego]

Would, at the risk of "took me only 7 seconds to find them" from Mr. Ignacio, love to see some moto relateded photos of the coast. Hell, would even injoy a tale or two on "How me and my bike spent Thanksgiving weekend"...

It's getting into our winter season here. Hell, it was down to 55 this morning. So must of us will be putting the bikes up for the winter now. Sorry...

:lol:

...oh yeah, what majicmaker said...

 

[dcarver]

Lots of local Kali rides here

 

[wheatonFJR]

Lots of local Kali rides here

Linky no worky...

Page not found

The page you are looking for might have been removed,

had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable.

Please try the following:

If you typed the page address in the Address bar, make sure that it is spelled correctly.

- Click the Back button in your browser to try another link.

- Use a search engine like Google to look for information on the Internet. HTTP 404 - File not found

 

[dcarver]

Lots of local Kali rides here

Linky no worky...

Page not found

The page you are looking for might have been removed,

had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable.

Please try the following:

If you typed the page address in the Address bar, make sure that it is spelled correctly.

- Click the Back button in your browser to try another link.

- Use a search engine like Google to look for information on the Internet. HTTP 404 - File not found

Yep, sorry, upgrading the Candy Butt Association Site now...

all back up now