Brads Biking Adventures

Time to turn around, and start on the road back north. We had a short-ish day of riding planned, so didn’t leave until early afternoon. When we woke up, Dave and I went to visit his office in Sausalito, and then to a nearby cafe. We queued for about 45 minutes, and just got deated when Ben and Laurie arrived to join us.

Another successful American diner breakfast passed by pleasantly, and we then headed back via the scenic route to pack up, shower, load the bike and head slowly back towards home.

The end of Dave’s road, about 80 meters from his house, is California Highway 1. This California coast road follows the coastline all the way down the entire coast, and this was the route we followed today. It is uncompromisingly curvy and scenic in equal measure, and we rode many hairpins and steep climbs accompanied by views of the Pacific that are the stuff of postcards and paintings.

The riding was not always easy as the twists and bends were unrelenting in parts, so often I couldn’t do much more than sneak a look at the views, but it was a lot of fun to ride. We passed out 1000th mile of this trip just as w passed through Point Reyes. The sun glittered on the sea for the first 2 or 3 hours, and every town looked like a tourist advert. We also saw pretty deer crossing the roads at least twice.

We stoppped for a hot drink in Jenner, and ate a cookie each (oatmeal for Dad, chocolate/coconut for the boy). By the late afternoon it got quite overcast and cool, and the last hour we rode was almost cold. We arrived at our hotel in a pretty little harbour called Point Arena. The next town along is called Manchester, and I tried to find us accomodation there (just because of the English Manchester connection), but this was the nearest we could find.

The hotel is quite dated, but the room is lovely, the views great, and the little pizza shop at the bottom of the drive was rather good too. After supper we each had a soak in the hot jacuzzi, and I am trying to stay awake now as I catch up on the blog. Tomorrow is a full day, so we will go back to our routine of an early start, and breakfast an hour or so from the set-off. Night night all…..

About 6 years ago we met David at a convention somewhere in the USA (I think it was Omaha, Nebraska). We subsequently met Davids better half, Dana, and they stayed with us in Halifax in about 2015 on a visit from their home in San Francisco. When Ben and Jemima toured the West Coast later that same year, they stayed with various friends and family, including a stint with Dave and Dana, and their large cat collection.

We had a chance to join Dave and Dana and a couple of their friends for a walk on Saturday morning, so we saddled up and rode across the spectacular Golden Gate bridge into San Francisco proper. The views were great as we crossed over and headed towards to SW corner of the city, where they live just off of Ocean beach.

Their friends (Eric, Amber and Brianna) were passing through SF on their way home to Oregon after a trip to Vietnam, and so we all congregated at D&D’s, leashed up 2 dogs, and headed to the beach. We stopped first . at a local general store where Mona, the matriarch of the neighbourhood, holds court and serves the slowest cup of coffee in the world – plus some excellent donuts. Honestly, it probably took half an hour to serve the 7 of us – and only 3 people had hot drinks. It was very entertaining though, and Mona was warm and personable.

Freed at last, we took our drinks and dogs and headed on to the beach. It was quite windy, but we ignored the flying sand, and walked one way and then the other for about 90 minutes or so. It was great to catch up with D&D, and we ended up back at theirs to collect our bike, say our farewells and then head into the Haight district to continue the day.

Dave (Dr D, not D&D) plus Laurie and Maia met us at Amoeba records, a giant vinyl and CD shop at the bottom of the famous Haight Street, where you can still find some hippies who got lost in the 60’s and are still wandering aournd trying to find their way back. Ben was in his element at Amoeba, so after a while Dave and I headed up Haight to visit the weird and wonderful shops of the district. Burning man, America’s most oddball major festival, is coming up, and so the apparel and accessory shops were packed with people and enticing merchandise.

After our shopping, we met up and had a nice Thai chicken soupy lunch. We then visited another shop for a coffee, after which we drove up into Golden Gate Park, and had a stroll around Stow lake. We finally headed back to Mill Valley late afternoon, and settled in to watch some TV and stay of Lauries way while she prepped supper. While we were watching a Youtube video, itself of poor quality, Dave decided that he needed a new TV, so he and I popped out to a nearby home goods/electronics store, and came back with a new toy.

We set the TV up, with great results, and then ate a fabulous meal that Laurie had made for us – various steaks, a feta and beetroot salad, and baked sweet potato. YUM!!

A long day, a lot of sun and miles of walking, plus food and possibly a hint of red wine meant that I was pretty tired, and went to bed around 10pm. Another really good day on our tour.

It’s late, and I am tired, so will do a brief update and add more at another stage. We arrived at Dave, Laurie and Maia mid-afternoon, and have been busy catching up, cooking, drinking, shopping and even fitted in a walk at Tiburon. To busy to blog, really.

Breakfast – Miranda.

Obligatory drive-through Giant Redwood for photo opportunity – Leggett.

Ridiculously hot petrol stop – Willits

Lunch – Windsor (Yes, another British town name)

Riding through forests = good. Slow traffic in ridiculous heat approaching San Francisco = bad.

After posting my journal last night, me and the boy went for a stroll through the bustling metropolis of Newport. We found a decent pub near the beach, and ordered a truckload of chicken wings, a beer (for the boy) and a cider for me. After food we walked onto the beach and observed a very pretty sunset, before heading back to our oven of a room.

We put the fan into the open window, which managed to draw in some cool air, but the room was pretty warm all night – the sun shines directly into it for most of the day, heating all the fixtures and fittings to a temperature akin to that of pre-eruption lava. I slept fitfully because of the heat.

Given the poor sleeping conditions, I didn’t wait for the alarm, and was up at 6. We showered and packed up slowly, and were on the road at about 7. We had planned a breakfast stop the night before, and rolled in tot he Little Brown Hen cafe not long after 08:00, where we had a lovely American diner breakfast, and a metric ton of coffee.

The road through this part of Oregon was often straight and boring, but punctuated with coast or mountain views and scenes which made up for the rest. The day got pretty hot, but passing through the forests provided regular cooling opportunities.

Lunch was at the Port Hole cafe (and yes, it is spelled like that), a waterfront establishment at Gold Beach. A lone seal was playing in the water just outside the restaurant. A reasonable sandwich for me, fried shrimp for young Mr B, after which we stood and gazed at the water for quite a while before re-mounting and continuing along the Oregon coastline. A stop at Battle Rock offered more great seascapes and photo opportunities.

We crossed the Winchuck River mid-afternoon, and found ourselves in California. The landscape changed almost immediately, as we started climbing up windy roads into the Redwood forests. The forests are hard to describe – the trees are so huge, and so old, you feel like you are back in pre-history. There is a very special feel to the place, and the wonderful oceans view from high-up in the forests make them even more magical. We rode for miles through the woods, and then along the coast right on the beaches.

Riding in Washington and Oregon had been parallel to, and not far from the coast, but here in lovely California we were often riding alongside the beaches. We turned into a stop area on one of the beaches for a rest and a wee, about 45 minutes before our final station.

For most of the last 2 days, we have been on 55mph roads, but the Highway 101 in California has a series of 65mph stretches, and it was nice to be able to open the bike up a bit on these Freeway sections. We hit heavy traffic for the last 4 or 5 miles of our day, before pulling in to the Hotel Clarion by Humboldt Bay, Eureka, CA.

Hooray – the hotel has air conditioning in our room, so we are cool and well chilled in every sense. We went for a walk and had dinner at a Hawaiian place about 20 minutes away from the hotel. A working class town, with a mix of retail and semi-industrial establishments either side of the 101, we past the county jail and 2 courthouses, 17 Mexican restaurants and a bunch of burger joints. There was an interesting looking BBQ shack, but they had sold out of ribs, so Hawaiian it was.

B is doing whatever young people do on the internet, while I am typing this. We have the luxury of twin queen beds tonight, after sharing a super-large king between us in last nights sauna. So, plenty of room to starfish tonight, and the aircon is humming away quietly – all is well in the land of the Levin boys tonight.

We are hoping to set off earlyish again tomorrow, so we can spend as much time as possible with our SanFranFam. See ya later, Crocodiles…..

Well well well. We find ourselves living on a different continent, with new bikes, in fact with a whole new life. We moved to Seattle at the end of June 2019, and have spent the last 6 weeks working hard to set up a new life here in the beautiful Pacific Northwest.

Part of living the American dream has meant an investment in motorcycles. We both have beautiful Harleys now, and have been exploring the regions around Seattle. This is a great location to be, with some beautiful mountains, water, views and curvy roads, and we have already done a fair few miles.

As far back as I can remember, my best friend from school has called me Mr B. At the tender young age of 10, Dave and I sat next to each in class, and bonded over many mutual interests, including a significant dislike of of our class teacher, who was a real bitch. I am not often personal about other people in my blogs, but this excuse for an educator took a negative view of me, and so the intense dislike was reciprocal.

Anyway, it ain’t about her, or even Dave (mostly), but about my own Mr B – since my son Ben was born I have called him by many names – including “Mr B”. The youngest of my progeny has come out to Washington state for a month of relaxation and escape, and we have planned a bike trip of our own, which I am looking forward to sharing with you.

I said this wasn’t about Dave – who goes by “Doctor D” in our naming convention, but he, his wonderful wife Laurie, and my god-daughter Maia live just north of San Francisco, and so Ben and I thought that a quick road-trip down the pacific coast to visit them would be a good use of our time. We have booked a few places to stay, and are planning to hug the coast most of the way south to the Bay area, returning a little more inland to give us a more varied view of the 3 Pacific states (sorry Hawaii and Alaska, I am just referring to the lower 48).

2 nights are planned on the way down to visit our friends, with 3 stops once we leave their home in the beautiful Mill Valley to head back to Seattle. Mill Valley is about 15 minutes north of the Golden Gate bridge.

The planned route and mileage is as follows – but as usual, I aim to report back each night, and keep a log of the miles and route as we go.