We did it! We took off this morning on Joan Jett Blue, a 2009 1200RT BMW Motorcycle and headed north on Route 805 to Route 5 to Highway 1, one of top motorcycle rides in the country. The day was cloudy and overcast with wind and possible rain in the forecast for the afternoon. Larry and I had planned to leave about 7:00 am, but Kit insisted that we have breakfast before we left . She fixed her super charged fruit smoothly...fresh orange juice, blueberries, swiss chard, and fresh Hawaiian pineapple with wild cherry and walnut oatmeal. With that healthy meal under our belt, we finally started around 9:00. Mike insisted on entering routes into the Garmin. The San Diego traffic was intense....especially on the bike but my man got through it with flying colors.
We stopped to have some hot tea around 10:30, we both were a bit chilled....the highs for the day were to be 59-60...the bike's heated seat helped to keep the toosh warm. After warming up we tackled the out skirts of the LA traffic. Weee! 14 lanes with 7 coming and 7 going...kind of a ditto for the San Diego traffic. Finally we arrived in Santa Monica on Route 1 and on to Malibu....the best part of our ride. Surprisingly, the ocean view was blocked for a good way with narrow-deep homes that ran right beside Highway 1 and the ocean....Supposedly like the home on "Two and A Half Men". They all must have had a outrageously beautiful view and some amazing sunsets.
Further north of Malibu, the homes got bigger and much more expensive. Finally the highway opened up to a gorgeous view of mountains, beach, and scenic shoreline. We had to stop several times to get these kodak moments captured. We stopped for a great picnic lunch north of Malibu and then motored on through Ventura on 101. We passed thousands of acres of strawberry patches with migrant workers out picking and picking. Field after field...migrant worker group after migrant worker group for miles and miles....such labor intensive work. One hour strawberry picking is hard on the back ...no matter how many berries you test taste. How do they pick hour after hour, day after day? We also saw hugh fields of red cabbage, regular cabbage, and watermelons. We passed a one of kind restaurant call "Eat Naked...It's Good For You!"
Day 2 of our motorcycle adventure, the sun was shining and the sky was blue....so much better than yesterday's take off! The rubber met the road going into Santa Barbara. We viered off to go to the top of the mountain...a residential area with OMG views of the Pacific Ocean. After a few photo shots, we headed north west down Route 101 passing by Isla Vista and Capitan Beach, both having gorgeous views of the Pacific. There was one unpleasant change in the Pacific Ocean views that was not there twenty years ago....oil wells.... they were placed in a row going along the coast. Sure hope this doesn't happen off the Virginia shoreline. Turning north to Santa Maria we passed vineyards that labeled their rows of vines with Pinot Noir, Chardonney, and Merlot. We decided to stop in Santa Maria where the over passes had tiled Santa Maria Ships as decor for gas and hot tea....to warm up. Still not bad to be able to ride in early March.
Charged up on a muffin and tea, we headed past Pismo Beach, memories of camping on this beach and picking up sand dollars over thirty years ago came to mind....Boy, this place has changed...a large number of hotels and homes have sprung up. Back in the day of our visit, this was a rural area with not many conveniences.
We continued to zoom north , away from Pacific Ocean views, inland to gorgeous views of mountains and valleys.We saw cattle and horse ranches, sheep farms, llama farms and pig farms... " Pig Palace" was the name of one. We saw deer, prarie dogs, and speedgoats...as our dear friend calls antelope.
We stopped for lunch at the Madonna Hotel, a lavish, eccentric hotel that was decorated in pink. Outside snapdragons, poppies, dianthas, and carnation beds led to the front carved doors. Pink leather chairs, pink tuffed leather wrap around sofas, pink rosed carpet, gold ornate chandeliars, and a hugh boulder stone fireplace. Pictures of John Wayne, Bing Crosby, Danny Thomas, Ronald Reagon, and other movie stars who frequented at the Madonna hung on the walls pictured with the owner. It was a fantastic lunch break to stop and enjoy. Only seeing is believing all that it beholds...it was well worth exploring...at least for a booty break.
Pink bar seats and pink velvet wall paper... must be the owner's wife's favorite color.
After riding a while on highway 101 through dry arrid mountains....
we saw miles and miles of irrigated vineyards spreading from the edge of the mountains in the west to mountains lying in the east. We were in awe of the size of vineyards that roamed as far as the eye could see in all directions. After the vineyard region we rode through an area of huge vegetable farms....blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, cabbage, kale, and things that we could not name...We were whizzing by too fast. We also passed by an area that we called oil well city. Hundreds of pumps were placed almost side by side...a sight not seen in the east. Must have been a really oil rich area.
We stopped for gas around Soledad...it was $4.99 for regular...the most expensive gas we have ever seen in the US ....overseas this would be considered cheap....so we motored on into the town away from the highway and found it for $4.29...a little better. We continued on past lots of vegetable farms through Salinas to Monterey where we stopped for the night...traveling about 280 miles of road today. After a walk about town and dinner, we nestled into our bed, ready for a good snooze.
Our third motorcycle riding day was absolutely wonderful. We rode into Monterey and took a walk along the shoreline to Cannery Row and the Monterey Aquarium. Along the way we stopped off at the Old Fisherman's Wharf. Here we watched the sea otters frolicking in the harbor while others lazed around on the float behind a whale watching booth. They barked loud and had sounds that could be heard a half mile away in town. Many of the docks close by had put up wooden barriers to keep the otters from hoisting themselves up on top to sun themselves.
Old Fisherman's Wharf
Sea otters soaking up the sun!
Lots of boats were anchored out in Monterey Bay
Fishermen were weaving their nets.
Old Montery Train Station
After looking at several shops we continued on our two mile hike, stopping to enjoy the scenery and the otters and harbor seals along the way. We took a nice break at McDonald's before mounting the bike to head to Carmel. Carmel by the sea was about 15 minutes away. We stopped there on the beach to have a picnic lunch. It was absolutely picturesque. Many people were starting to gather on the beach...afternoon was definitely the time of day to enjoy the warm sun amongst the cool breezes off the Carmel Bay. Many doggies were walking their owners out on the beach enjoying the afternoon sun. Molly would enjoy this beach.
after gorgeous view!
We headed south on Route 1 enjoying the gorgeous homes on the left side of the road and awesome views of the Pacific Ocean on the other. It was FANTASTIC! After a while we roamed out of the residential area onto the countryside of Highway 1. The scenry was stunning. It was panoramic. It was GRAND! It was AWESOME! Words can hardly describe what our eyes were taking it..... 68 miles of twists and turns with unbelievably striking views. At 25-45 miles an hour, it went on and on and on. Along the way we saw a coyote in the field not far from some cattle. We also saw whales spouting out in the Pacific Ocean. The month of March is the migration time for whales to go south to give birth as well as mating season. The ride was so awesome, we wanted to turn the bike around and go back north to see it all over again.
Bixby Bridge built in 1932
The views were endless and simply stunning
We stopped in Big Sur to enjoy some relaxing chairs sitting in the middle of the creek. What a nice break! We rode through some hugh redwoods in this area....this was a beautifully thickly forested area that snuck inland through the mountains...lots of great camping sites were available this time of year.
We rode about 100 miles today. It was slow going with all the hairpin turns and curves. We stopped in San Simeon, just south of Hearst Castle in time to see the last part of the gorgeous sunset.
Morning skys were bright blue with lots of sunshine as we scooted through the quaint village of Moonstone on our final day of our motorcycle road trip. Moonstone was a neat little village on the seaside with lots of cute hotels and shops as well as walkways along the beach. Want to come back here to spend a day wondering around when we have more time.
The bike was headed to Santa Maria where we took Route 166 east..a different California terrain. A great two lane curvy motorcycle road through canyons... steep mountains on both sides of the road. Dry land left the countryside brown and barron...a different kind of beautiful. Some of the mountains had wind carvings, allowing different shades of sunlight to give them varying shades of brown. When the canyons opened up to valleys, we saw cattle farms, passing through areas of oasis where trees and grass sprung up nice and green...quite a contrast from the brown that was everywhere. Tiny towns were few and far between and the homes were far from the large $$$ homes we had seen on the ocean.
Our ride went from green areas to brown!
We crossed a hugh mountain range to come up on an endless valley below. The smog was awful! This was about 70 miles out of LA and must blow in from there. The air pollution was so bad that you could not see the mountain ranges that surrounded the valley.
Moving on down the road we came across large fields as far as the eye could see of irrigated grass that would soon be hay as well as tangerine/orange trees, apple orchards in bloom, and vineyards. Large tractor trailers filled with oranges or hay passed us going in the opposite direction. Amazing what a little water could do to the areas that were so dry and brown.
One thing that we noticed about the California Highways on this trip....they sure know how to build roads. Returning to LA, we had a fantastic eight lane highway. Larry and I thought we were overseas because the highway switched at the top of the mountain...the lanes going east were on the right and the lanes going west were on the left, exactly opposite. We figured that the mountain must have been less steep to climb so they switched it around. It's wonderful how the tractortrailer trucks have to stay in the two left lanes...wish they would do that in Virginia. OMG...please don't have an earthquake when we pass under the five individually bridged lanes that lie above us. There were literally five roads in five layers above us while we were cruising along at 75mph. Unbelievable!
What can I say about Los Angeles? They have to be noted for their major traffic jams! It took us almost two hours to pass through the eastern part of LA to get to the western part. We thought we were getting there before rush hour at 3:00..HA! I think it is a permanent rush hour all the time....sixteen lanes with no pull over room going bumper to bumper both ways. It was a little more intense than riding the coastal road.
WHEW! We finally made it to Huntington Beach. Looking forward to a little walk, a little dinner, and a little shut eye. That traffic was murder on the nerves! Sunday morning we took our final ride back to San Diego to take the bike back to Mike and Kit's home. What a remarkable trip....one we will remember for the rest of our lives!
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