PCH Trip

So, on July 6th Angela and I left on an epic motorcycle journey. We headed towards California where on the morning of the 7th we went to the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley. It was a really cool place. We saw a section of the Berlin Wall and we even got to tour the Air Force One jet that he used.

Afterwards, we met up with some friends in Santa Barbara. (Clay and Nannette Jones from Colorado Springs and Shauna McRae and her friend Greg Hancock from here). We all spent the night at Shauna's dad's house before embarking the next day on our motorcycle trip up the California coastline. Shauna's dad's wife, Suzan, treated us to spme great home cooking and wonderful hospitality.

The 7th began with breakfast at Moby Dick's, on the Santa Barbara pier. We then hit the highway and our first stop was in Solvang, CA.

There was thick fog and a real chill in the air for 25 miles until we turned inland. We reached Solvang, and the first words from Shauna were "Why didn't we take the back way that avoids the freeway?" It hadn't occurred to us to ask Shauna for directions. (Long story) We noticed that all of the hill around the area were very dry, and all the grass had died. Someone told us that the hills aren't "Brown", they are "Golden" and beautiful. Suuuuure they are.We wandered around Solvang for an hour, then headed back to highway 1 and turned North. In this area, the PCH cuts inland, so we just rode through hills on a 4 lane highway. Nannette said that she was having Walmart withdrawals, so when we got to Lompoc, we found a Walmart and went in to buy a few essentials. Walmart wasnt really on my agenda and I was a little impatient....

We talked about getting lunch in Lompoc, but decided that it was too early, so we continued North. When we got near Santa Maria we noticed a bad odor in the air, and allot of manual harvesting going on in the fields around us. It was either cabbage or broccoli being harvested right up to the town boundaries, so we decided not to eat there. We continued on to Oceano where a much better odor assailed us from a BBQ place. It was a good meal, but a bit pricey

We finished out the day by riding through Morrow Bay and on to San Simeon where we stayed the night in a Days Inn.

The next morning we got up and drove a few miles up the coast to where the elephant seals like to hang out. They were huge, noisy, and stinky. But they were also fascinating to watch. There were a few groups just out into the water that were fighting and bellowing. Their call sounded like a slow motion burp. Then there was a huge group all laying together right below a footpath.

There were wild fires all over California, and unfortunatly for us, there is a fire right on the coast North of us that has closed highway 1. So we couldn'tt drive up to Big Sur and Monterey. Instead, we had to drive inland to the 101 freeway. We started our ride with the cool ocean air, but within minutes we rose up over a hill and the temperature climed 20 degrees in 1/4 mile. Pretty soon we were baking in the extra clothes we had worn, so we stopped to take off a layer or two.There's not much to report of the drive around, except that we saw yet even more cabbage fields (and smelled them). In Salinas we got off the freeway and cut back across to highway 1. But we still weren't out of the heat, or back near the ocean. We rode mile after mile through yet more fields and smell wondering why this was called the Pacific Coast Highway and not the Putrid Cabbage Highway.

We finally ended up in Santa Cruz where we found the beach. We walked way out on to the pier and had lunch overlooking the ocean.

After lunch we made our way back to the PCH, and within minutes we were cruzing what we'd been hoping for the whole time. 2 lane, light traffic, scenic, cool highway right on or near the water. We spotted a lighthouse and stopped for some pictures.

We continued riding up to half moon bay. They wanted money for parking because it is a state park, and being cheap, we only wanted free beaches. We continued up the PCH to another beach someone had told us of. I think it was Montera Beach. There was some free parking near it, but a precarious climb down to the beach. It was an ideal beach with big thundering waves crashing up a steep rise, and very few people. We relaxed for a bit and took some pictures, then climbed back up.

From here, it was a short 20 mile ride to the Marriott in San Francisco where we would spend thenext two nights. Stay tuned.......