Having had to use the TV for white noise, I kept waking up all night so I finally turned it off and was sleeping well enough until I was awakened by the text message bleep of my cell phone at 6:30am. Seems someone wanted to say good morning on my last day of the trip. I guess it didn't occur to them I might still be sleeping at the crack of dawn! I got up, showered and had breakfast at the same place I'd had dinner, referred to my map as to how I wanted to get home then hit the road in the cool, damp costal air.

It was very cool but still pleasant and the traffic was light. I love riding Hwy. 1 with the rugged, open landscape to one side and the ocean to the other. It really makes me appreciate living in California and being so relatively close to so much beauty. It was overcast and quite windy, but still an awesome ride. No matter how many times I make the ride on 1, I am always amazed by the sights, scents and sounds from the saddle.

About an hour south of Ft. Bragg I turned east onto Hwy. 128 which would take me to 101 at Cloverdale through a portion of California's coastal wine country. It was another beautiful ride but the road was in pretty bad shape with torn up corners, many braking and acceleration bumps, dirt in the hilly curves and potholes. Nothing really annoying, I just had to watch what I was doing very closely. No need to eat it on the final leg of my fantastic journey!

I got to Cloverdale no worse for the wear of 128 and gassed up. I really needed to make some time so as not to have to ride in the dark later, so gassed it down 101 until I hit Santa Rosa where road construction had traffic snarled. I split lanes and got through it all pretty quickly. I hadn't been in this area since 1982 when I was driving trucks up there while laid off from the railroad. It had changed quite a bit. I used to think it was pretty and isolated, but now it's just a bedroom city for the Bay Area folks.

The traffic started moving at a nice pace but it was VERY dense. It really had to be on my toes. This is the kind of traffic that gets even experienced riders into trouble. People are just not paying that much attention. It can get nerve wracking. Just north of San Rafael the traffic came to a four lane(in one direction)parking lot as far as I could see. I followed a BMW mounted CHP splitting lanes all the way to the I-580 split where the traffic suddenly broke up and flowed smoothly all the way to the Golden Gate Bridge where I pulled off and went up to the old Gun Battery on the west side and north end of the bridge. I had never been to this place and it is a FAR superior vantage point to the one across the freeway. The old Battery is pretty cool too! I took a rest and some pix and enjoyed the scenery for awhile.

Getting back on 101 I took one of the other rides that never fails to leave me in awe. The ride across the Golden Gate Bridge. It is a spectacular piece of engineering and a massive structure. What an experience, one that every one should do at some point. At the end of the bridge 101 heads into the city and, at the last second, I blasted across two lanes and onto 1, which runs through Sunset and Daly City and then down the coast. Ahhh..Nice to have no plan and almost die as the result of it by charging full tilt at the last second across four lanes of one of the busiest interchanges in the Bay Area! The one thing I really noticed in the Sunset district is the smell of Chinese food all the way down the residential-commercial strip.

The stop and go annoyance of all the traffic lights opened up onto the freeway at Daly City and took me back to the coast where the road went back to its two lane format. The traffic was light, but even so I had to peg it a few times to get around piddling tourists and just plain bad drivers. It was much cooler and was intermittently foggy for about 20 miles to the south of the Bay, but it was till very enjoyable. I'd be back in the sweltering heat of the valley soon enough.

About an hour down the road I stopped at the Pigeon Point Lighthouse just north of Santa Cruz. I had never been close up to one before and it was pretty cool. Even though you can't actually go inside the structure itself, it's neat to get check it out and learn about its history. I love lighthouses and always wondered what it would have been like to have been a lighthouse operator in the days before radio beacons and GPS took their place. There is also a hostel there and you can actually stay right at the place. Maybe another time!

After my detour at Pigeon Point it was back on the road and into Santa Cruz where Hwy. 1 goes right through the middle of the city. Road construction had traffic snarled and on lane closed so I couldn't even split lanes so I was forced to sit idle for minutes at a time on what was probably the hottest day in Santa Cruz's history and I was still in my leather!

After about 45 minutes in the mess I got back into smooth but dense traffic on the freeway section of Hwy.1. I would like to have stayed on the 1 but it was closing in on quitting time and I knew it would be a mess in Monterey so I jumped off in Watsonville and gassed up, deleathered and got on the 129 east which dumped me onto the 101 at San Juan Batista.

I really needed to make up some time so I notched it to about eighty for the dash south toward home. I stopped in Soledad and had lunch and a cold one then hit the road. On south through King City, San Lucas and the San Ardo oilfeld. Past Bradley and through Camp Roberts, which is another historic site I always wonder about. What did it look like when it was in full swing? How do the soldiers who trained there remember the place?..Stuff like that. Me and my overactive curiosity!

I hit Paso Robles about 5:30pm, gassed up and left on 46 east. Not a road I enjoy being on at any time, but I needed to scoot! The traffic was amazingly light until Cholame where cars started slowing down. Just as I wondered what was going on I saw the "41 north closed..traffic detoured to Hwy33"..D'OH! What luck! The traffic on the two lane road was bumper to bumper behind a convoy of very slow trucks pulling the grade over the Temblors. As we neared the bottom of the hill I saw no oncoming traffic as far as I could see and the line was dotted(skip this part, Mom). One cool thing about bikes is their ability to accelerate. I jumped out and pinned the HOG speed shifting through the gears and utilizing all 88 cubes. Up to 100 mph in short order, I passed the whole kit and caboodle and had an open road ahead.(OK Mom, read on).

I cruised at a modest pace all the way to Lost Hills where I got on I-5 south. That is where I started noticing what I thought were storm clouds. It had been pretty warm all the way down from Watsonville but it was actually starting to cool off. It must be a summer storm. Perfect weather the entire trip and I was going to get rained on in the last ten minutes of my trip.

As I exited the freeway at Seventh Standard Road the sky began to darken over my head and it became significantly cooler, to the point of being chilled as I passed through orchards. It was then I noticed the ash in the air and realized it was smoke, not clouds over my head. I didn't realize the Zaca fire had become so serious. Whatever, as long as I didn't melt before I got home!

I made my way down Coffee Rd. to my house in Riverlakes and pulled into my garage. My trip was over. I was already feeling the post trip letdown I always get, but was still glad to be home. I had missed my kids, my family, my friends, my computer and my bed more than I though I would and it would be good to see them all and tell them of all the great places I had been and it would be good to catch up with my online pals as well and to sleep in my own bed again.

In retrospect, I don't know if this trip was a fantasy to get away from problems that didn't go away in my absence, if it was a journey of self discovery or if it was just a lame assed cover-up I whipped up to feed my latent narcissism. I do know that it was fun, exciting, boring, awesome, lonely, fulfilling, beautiful and expensive and I can't wait to hit the road again!

Thanx for riding along!

Post Script:

I just have to share a lessons I learned along the way..

1. Spending thoughtful time alone in the evenings and not having to answer to anyone is really cool. I got to think about whatever I wanted to without distraction and act anyway I liked without anyone asking me what was wrong or interferring with whatever I was doing or thinking about. I could talk to myself and not have anyone look at me with concern or ask if I needed a shrink, but I realized that it is really nice to have someone with whom to share the "Ooohs's and ahhh's" of the road during the riding and at the end of the day.

2. Cheap batteries are cheap for a reason! I bought four AA betteries in Firebaugh for $1.29 and as soon as I put them in my digital camera they died. I mean within ten seconds! Spend the extra few bucks and get the Duracells!

3. Quaint looking old Mom & Pop Motels are OK if you get lucky, but I found on this trip that looks can be deceiving. If you are ever in Weed, Ca, the Summit Inn looks great and had a spectacular view...Pass it by! Whatta dive!

4. The opposite is often true for Mom & Pop Restaurants. If all you want is predictable, standard fare, by all means find a Denny's, but if you want great cooking, and in many cases, old family recepies, go to the places you've never heard of like the Hi-Lo Inn in Weed, Ca.

5. Don't get in too much a hurry when in beautiful and rare places. Making good time isn't as important as making good memories. Stop and experience the places you see. Don't just drive by them all. Go to a museum, stop in a turnout in the forest. In reality it generally only adds a couple of hours a day to a trip and it's well worth the time. Time clocks are for work, not trips!