It was finally time for a do-over and do right trip to So Cal. With that in mind I set off on Wednesday April 28th, right after the big storm which rolled through Nor Cal on Tuesday, there were still trailing weather systems from the storm moving through the area, but the idea was to leave “rain or shine” and try to make the best of the conditions and push through those weather systems to drier conditions on the Central and South Coast of California.
Just as I was preparing to leave, the moment I pulled the FJR out on the driveway, it started to sprinkle…
It wasn’t so bad, the FJR takes some rain in its stride effortlessly, a fact which I had heard often, but now had the chance to experience first hand. It rained off and on from Folsom to the Tracy junction on I-5, and then the weather seemed clear as far as the eye could see heading south on I-5, but I knew as I was turning onto Hwy 152 (Pacheco Pass) that I was turning into the storm for it poured almost all the way to Hollister, letting up sometime before the time I rolled into Mickey Dee’s for a quick Breakfast and to use their facilities.
From here I took a slight detour off the boring Hwy 156 route to Hwy 101. I turned left on Salinas Road from Hwy 156. Salinas Road is a one-lane road, a bit rough in the beginning, but not quite a goat trail, just expect a lot of road patch work (not tar snakes) and a few pot holes spread about, the road eventually becomes the San Juan Grade, which turned to be a nicely paved and smooth road (still one lane) with some very fun turns and not another vehicle in sight – takes you through a lot of cattle farms and some pleasing scenery.
After this fun little jaunt it was a quick ride down the slab onto Hwy 1 and this is obviously where I immediately developed a severe case of shutterbug fever, which I will be gladly sharing with you here shortly.
The vistas progressively became more and more spectacular, although the road itself was also so much fun that I didn’t stop at each and every turnout for pictures.
I will note here that this was my first ever trip down the California Central Coast along Hwy 1 (bike or cage) and I agree with Rich, I didn’t realize what I had been missing…
Ride-by shot of the coast-line…
Pulled to the side for these ones…
Historic Rocky Creek Bridge
Trusty Steed…
Historic Bixby Bridge
There was a lot of construction on Hwy 1 this day, they were doing repairs and maintenance on bridges, I even heard they were building a new bridge, but that is hearsay and I didn’t research to corroborate that, plus there was also landslide prevention/repair work going on. I talked to this very friendly fellow on about my 4th or so constructions stop along the route, I asked him if this was the last one or if there was more construction going on. He assured me this was the last, but alas, he was mistaken, there were 2 more construction stops after this one.
Here you go un-named stranger – if your wife is monitoring FJRForum, for whatever reason - she now knows that you were really working that day…
Another ride-by shot, blind shots with no regard to zoom or focus, but some of them turn out and I apologize for subjecting the reader to these, but I post some sparsely, or maybe not so sparsely, just for the effort (mine in taking them, yours for bearing with them)…
Some tourism spoilt “wildlife” incessantly begging for food. I didn’t feed them anything, although I would have thought these guys would have fattened up already with all the cheese and crackers being fed to them…
Four legged beggar…
This one had wings…
And back to more vistas…
Yours truly...
You can barely see Hwy 1 winding up to the left..
More ride-by shots as Hwy 1 opens up to some nice long sweepers and not a LEO in sight…
These guys were having some fun; can you spot them to the right?
Approaching Morro Bay and you can see the three chimneys and Morro Rock dominating the scene…
Getting closer…
…and closer…
Finally here, this other-side of Morro Rock doesn’t seem quite so photogenic…
Talked to this English couple who emerged from this eatery, I asked them what was good, they said they were disappointed in the Fish N’ Chips (you hear that Fairlaner?) and that they suspected they were served Frozen crab, despite the “Fresh Crab & Shrimp” sign. Despite their not so rave reviews, I decided to give the place a try anyway, I asked the girl at the counter what would she would recommend and she mentioned the deep fried calamari, I think I had a mini heart-attack just thinking about it, so I opted for the “Healthier” Halibut sandwich with a side of French fries (Ha! So much for healthier!) to snack on..
Is it owned by Shell? What is it? A Rotella plant?
I think this guy was doing the “50CC” run, think he will make it?
I was running late and my friends in Thousand Oaks were waiting on me for Dinner, so I decided to skip Foxen Canyon, so I guess I did not do everything right this time… I took the slab down Hwy 101 to Hwy 154 and took some ride-by’s of the vineyards and horse ranches along the way…
Another mistake followed when I blew right past the Lake View drive for the County Park where you could imbibe some great views of the gorgeous lake, I attempt to make-up for that glaring mistake by posting a link to a picture from another site (please let me know if this is against the rules or in bad form and I will take the link down), I only caught glimpses of this beautiful lake from in between the trees lining Hwy 154, this definitely calls for another “do-over & do it right this time” trip to Santa Barbara.
I managed to find another Vista Point and immediately pulled over hoping for some views of the lake, but no such luck, the views were still impressive, however my point and shoot seems to have well…missed the point…
The weather man had been calling for 20-25mph Gale force winds all along the California Central and South Coast with wind gusts of up to 40mph, however I never really felt them on the FJR, which was sweet, and it was all good until I pulled over to take this shot overlooking Santa Barbara, put the baby in neutral, right foot on the rear brake and got ready to take my picture and Wham! The wind gust almost knocked me over, it was time to stop being foolish and put the bike in gear, turn it off and put the side stand down…
Gorgeous view of Santa Barbara!
Not much excitement from here to Thousand Oaks, unless you count Rush Hour traffic as excitement, my friends were graciously waiting for me in their beautiful home in Thousand Oaks, I had my own spot in the garage for the motorcycle and I had a beautifully appointed Guest room to myself with my own private and attached bath. It was like staying at a very upscale bed and breakfast. It also happened that were doing a small family celebration for their daughters birthday, and I felt honored to be included in the festivities and the great conversation which flowed well into the night before I finally decided to call it a night and slip into the covers for a well deserved good night’s sleep.
More to come later..
Just as I was preparing to leave, the moment I pulled the FJR out on the driveway, it started to sprinkle…
It wasn’t so bad, the FJR takes some rain in its stride effortlessly, a fact which I had heard often, but now had the chance to experience first hand. It rained off and on from Folsom to the Tracy junction on I-5, and then the weather seemed clear as far as the eye could see heading south on I-5, but I knew as I was turning onto Hwy 152 (Pacheco Pass) that I was turning into the storm for it poured almost all the way to Hollister, letting up sometime before the time I rolled into Mickey Dee’s for a quick Breakfast and to use their facilities.
From here I took a slight detour off the boring Hwy 156 route to Hwy 101. I turned left on Salinas Road from Hwy 156. Salinas Road is a one-lane road, a bit rough in the beginning, but not quite a goat trail, just expect a lot of road patch work (not tar snakes) and a few pot holes spread about, the road eventually becomes the San Juan Grade, which turned to be a nicely paved and smooth road (still one lane) with some very fun turns and not another vehicle in sight – takes you through a lot of cattle farms and some pleasing scenery.
After this fun little jaunt it was a quick ride down the slab onto Hwy 1 and this is obviously where I immediately developed a severe case of shutterbug fever, which I will be gladly sharing with you here shortly.
The vistas progressively became more and more spectacular, although the road itself was also so much fun that I didn’t stop at each and every turnout for pictures.
I will note here that this was my first ever trip down the California Central Coast along Hwy 1 (bike or cage) and I agree with Rich, I didn’t realize what I had been missing…
Ride-by shot of the coast-line…
Pulled to the side for these ones…
Historic Rocky Creek Bridge
Trusty Steed…
Historic Bixby Bridge
There was a lot of construction on Hwy 1 this day, they were doing repairs and maintenance on bridges, I even heard they were building a new bridge, but that is hearsay and I didn’t research to corroborate that, plus there was also landslide prevention/repair work going on. I talked to this very friendly fellow on about my 4th or so constructions stop along the route, I asked him if this was the last one or if there was more construction going on. He assured me this was the last, but alas, he was mistaken, there were 2 more construction stops after this one.
Here you go un-named stranger – if your wife is monitoring FJRForum, for whatever reason - she now knows that you were really working that day…
Another ride-by shot, blind shots with no regard to zoom or focus, but some of them turn out and I apologize for subjecting the reader to these, but I post some sparsely, or maybe not so sparsely, just for the effort (mine in taking them, yours for bearing with them)…
Some tourism spoilt “wildlife” incessantly begging for food. I didn’t feed them anything, although I would have thought these guys would have fattened up already with all the cheese and crackers being fed to them…
Four legged beggar…
This one had wings…
And back to more vistas…
Yours truly...
You can barely see Hwy 1 winding up to the left..
More ride-by shots as Hwy 1 opens up to some nice long sweepers and not a LEO in sight…
These guys were having some fun; can you spot them to the right?
Approaching Morro Bay and you can see the three chimneys and Morro Rock dominating the scene…
Getting closer…
…and closer…
Finally here, this other-side of Morro Rock doesn’t seem quite so photogenic…
Talked to this English couple who emerged from this eatery, I asked them what was good, they said they were disappointed in the Fish N’ Chips (you hear that Fairlaner?) and that they suspected they were served Frozen crab, despite the “Fresh Crab & Shrimp” sign. Despite their not so rave reviews, I decided to give the place a try anyway, I asked the girl at the counter what would she would recommend and she mentioned the deep fried calamari, I think I had a mini heart-attack just thinking about it, so I opted for the “Healthier” Halibut sandwich with a side of French fries (Ha! So much for healthier!) to snack on..
Is it owned by Shell? What is it? A Rotella plant?
I think this guy was doing the “50CC” run, think he will make it?
I was running late and my friends in Thousand Oaks were waiting on me for Dinner, so I decided to skip Foxen Canyon, so I guess I did not do everything right this time… I took the slab down Hwy 101 to Hwy 154 and took some ride-by’s of the vineyards and horse ranches along the way…
Another mistake followed when I blew right past the Lake View drive for the County Park where you could imbibe some great views of the gorgeous lake, I attempt to make-up for that glaring mistake by posting a link to a picture from another site (please let me know if this is against the rules or in bad form and I will take the link down), I only caught glimpses of this beautiful lake from in between the trees lining Hwy 154, this definitely calls for another “do-over & do it right this time” trip to Santa Barbara.
I managed to find another Vista Point and immediately pulled over hoping for some views of the lake, but no such luck, the views were still impressive, however my point and shoot seems to have well…missed the point…
The weather man had been calling for 20-25mph Gale force winds all along the California Central and South Coast with wind gusts of up to 40mph, however I never really felt them on the FJR, which was sweet, and it was all good until I pulled over to take this shot overlooking Santa Barbara, put the baby in neutral, right foot on the rear brake and got ready to take my picture and Wham! The wind gust almost knocked me over, it was time to stop being foolish and put the bike in gear, turn it off and put the side stand down…
Gorgeous view of Santa Barbara!
Not much excitement from here to Thousand Oaks, unless you count Rush Hour traffic as excitement, my friends were graciously waiting for me in their beautiful home in Thousand Oaks, I had my own spot in the garage for the motorcycle and I had a beautifully appointed Guest room to myself with my own private and attached bath. It was like staying at a very upscale bed and breakfast. It also happened that were doing a small family celebration for their daughters birthday, and I felt honored to be included in the festivities and the great conversation which flowed well into the night before I finally decided to call it a night and slip into the covers for a well deserved good night’s sleep.
More to come later..
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