The Great Bike Ride – Day 17

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Our only real objective today was to reach San Diego. We ran the Pacific Coast Highway from Ventura into Santa Monica, giving everyone a chance to gawk at the houses in Malibu along the way. Unfortunately, there was a traffic jam through much of Malibu, making the trip more tedious than enjoyable.

We stopped in at Bertel's HD in Santa Monica. Nice place but stupid prices - $32 for a decent T-shirt. I don't need another Harley shirt that badly.

We lost John and Diane almost immediately after leaving Bertel's, and we ran about 5-10mph under the speed limit hoping they would catch up. We had set a rally point in San Clemente in case someone got separated, so Buss, Pat and I pulled in as planned. There I found that John had left a message saying he was going to scout around Long Beach a little, his home port when he was in the Navy. He said he found his old apartment.

So the three of us had a nice lunch and made the short run to San Diego and checked in. I'm sitting in the laundry as I write this, waiting for three loads to get done.

We plan on staying three nights in San Diego, checking out the USS Midway, taking a harbor tour, and hopefully connecting up with Aunt Betty and Uncle Bob Lanterman, who live here.

DAYS 18-19

The Great Bike Ride – Day 16

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Everyone reported having a good night's rest at our motel in San Simeon. We packed up the bikes and headed directly to the Heart Castle to spend the morning touring this fantastic home of William Randolph Hearst. Our tour guide was informative and entertaining, as was the movie we watched prior to the tour of the grounds. I was surprised to learn that the family fortune was first created by his father, who after discovering a substantial silver lode, used the money to buy up hundreds of square miles of property on the central California coast for use as a ranch. William Randolph took it from there with his publishing empire, generating the money for not only the Hearst Castle, but six other significant estates around the world.

We decided that we had experienced enough of the tight curves of the coastal highway, and stuck to US 101, a four lane expressway, from San Luis Obispo to Ventura. While the traffic was in heavy in places, it was mostly an easy trip.

We stopped at a rest stop mid-afternoon, and pulled over next to another Harley rider. As I went past, I noticed he had Ohio plates. It turns out that he was from Grove City, another Columbus suburb (where brother Jeff lives), and was doing a very similar trip to us. Small world.

Tomorrow we face the gauntlet of getting through LA and on to San Diego.

DAY 17

The Great Bike Ride – Day 15

Monday, September 10, 2007

We took a leisurely pace getting up and going this morning as there was no use trying to fight rush hour traffic into San Francisco from our motel just across the Golden Gate Bridge. Our first stop was the scenic overlook on the Marin side of the bridge. This overlook was once a gun emplacement for batteries that protected the entry into the Bay.

Once we saw that the traffic had subsided, we crossed the bridge and John led us to a tour of the Presidio (a former Army post), and over the neighborhoods of the western edge of San Francisco, overlooking the ocean. We dropped down onto the beach road, and followed it until we connected with California Route 1, the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH).

We stopped at Sam's Chowder House in Half Moon Bay to meet old friend, coworker and boss, Peter Van Camp. The trouble is that we mixed up days, and thought our meeting was tomorrow. Nonetheless, he hustled over from his office (he's the Executive Chairman of Equinix - EQIX), and we got to spend a few minutes together. Thanks Peter!

We headed south on the PCH with no other goal than to reach San Simeon by dark. But the traffic in Santa Cruz was miserable, and the PCH, while incredibly scenic, once again returned to being a twisty two lane road upon which it is impossible to make good time. We never get tired of looking at the Pacific Ocean and the terrain, but these roads are wearing us out. Between here and Cayucos, there is about 25 miles more of these roads, then it becomes more freeway-like for the remainder of the run into Los Angeles.

The evening ended with the sun setting while we still had about 15-20 miles to go. It gets cold, and tonight the fog was rolling from offshore toward land fast enough that we thought it might envelope us. Fortunately the lights of San Simeon came into view and we piled into the motel about 8:30pm. After a fine dinner in the place next door, we crashed for the night.

Oh, and we heard from Jeff today. He stayed in Big Sur last night, and made it to San Juan Capistrano today. Jeff is a retired US Navy Senior Chief Corpsman who spent most of his career with US Marine units. San Juan Capistrano is just north of Camp Pendleton, one of the two major USMC bases in the US. We expect he's connected up with some old Marine buddies and having a good time. Not sure if he'll rejoin us on the run back toward home, but we're relieved he's okay.

DAY 16

The Great Bike Ride – Day 14

Sunday, September 9, 2007

Today marks the end of our second week on the road.

John and Diane were in the parking lot at the Motel 6 when I went out to load up the bike at 8am. Actually, it was more than just loading up the bike. As we were hitting the sack last night, two police cars pulled up, answering some disturbance call in the motel. Feeling a little concerned about all the stuff that can be easily removed from my bike, I decided to remove the windshield and the saddle bags for the night. So in addition to strapping on the T-Bag and two other small duffels I've used all week, the windshield and bags needed to get put back on.

We couldn't raise Jeff this morning, and decided he had elected to go it alone from here on out. John has left him several messages, but he has not responded yet. We have to get Diane to San Diego, so we left town as planned and have continued to try to reach Jeff.

The run down the Pacific Coast Highway began in earnest today. While the view was spectacular, the many curves and hills exhausted us. We ran about 300 miles today, but it felt like much more. We barely made it back over the mountains to US 101 before dark. Fortunately, the Holiday Inn Express in Mill Valley had rooms - great rooms in fact - and we are expecting a much better night's sleep.

DAY 15

The Great Bike Ride – Day 13

Saturday, September 08, 2007

Our journey today was from Coos Bay, Oregon to Eureka, California.

The day started off with a nice breakfast in a little place in Coos Bay, followed by a visit to the Harley dealer to buy some T-shirts. It was pretty foggy when we got up at 7am, but by the time we left the dealer, the fog had burned off. Nonetheless, it was pretty chilly and we all wore layers of clothing to stay warm.

Much of the run this morning was along the spectacular Oregon coast, but we turned up CA state route 199 towards Grant’s Pass as this was recommended to our by our friend and Harley dealer, Carl Becese. He was right. The first hunk of the climb put us in a redwood forest, a new experience for all of us.

After a short run up 199, we returned to US 101 south, and entered the Redwood National Park. The highway runs right through groves of redwoods that tower above you. There is also a more scenic byway through the park, so we of course took it. After losing Jeff, who ran ahead of us, we jumped off the bikes at a trail head and walked a little piece into the redwoods just to get a feeling what it was like to be around them on foot.

It’s pretty humbling. As you can tell from the pictures above, some of the trees had trunk diameters approaching 15 feet, making the circumference close to 50 feet, and stood over 100 feet tall – many much more.

On the south end of the park, we stopped at a nice Mexican place at about 4pm for a late lunch or early dinner.

Once last stretch on to Eureka and we arrived at our hotel, a Motel 6 that I had reserved while in Coos Bay. Jeff had gotten here well ahead of us and checked into a Super 8. John took an immediately dislike to the place and went down the road to stay at the Super 8 with Jeff. At least that’s where he was going when we last saw him. Pat, Buss and I stayed at the Motel 6. Hope we reconnect in the morning.

The next planned stop is the Bay Area. Probably in Marin County.

DAY 14

The Great Bike Ride – Day 12

Friday, September 7, 2007

The day started with a short run up to the Evergreen Aviation Museum. While there are many nice planes on display there, the star is the Spruce Goose. John and I paid a couple of extra bucks to get a private tour of the flight deck. There we got to sit in the very seat where Howard Hughes piloted this giant aircraft on its one and only one mile flight.

Then we headed for the Oregon coast. Shortly before lunch, we saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time. After working our way through the coastal villages with all their shops and touristy places, we hit what we had been anticipating: long stretches of road with the Pacific on our right side and the evergreen mountains of Oregon on our left. It was spectacular. The pictures above tell part of the story.

Our stop point tonight was Coos Bay, Oregon, for no other reason than when I was on summer duty while in Navy ROTC in 1972, our ship pulled in here on a good-will stop. I don't remember much about it except a mental picture of the harbor with the paper mill at the north end, and the Coast Guard and Army Corps of Engineers piers across the river. Freighters tied up at the paper mill to take pulp and other products to the Far East.

Well, the paper mill is gone, and a casino is in its place. The Coast Guard pier seems to be in the right place, but that would put the pier we tied up to on the wrong side of the river from downtown. There were no ships at all in the port any more apparently.

Tomorrow we cross into California. We need to push a little to get everything in we want to do and have Diane to the San Diego airport in time for her 6am Thursday flight.

DAY 13

The Great Bike Ride – Day 11

Thursday, September 6, 2007

This was an odd day. Our main objective today was to gather up Diane at the Portland airport and head towards the museum where the Spruce Goose is displayed. Her plane was arriving about 1pm, so that meant we had the morning to catch up on laundry and sleep.

When Diane arrived at the hotel about 2pm, she quickly changed and we jumped on the bikes for the short run to McMinnville, Oregon - a distance of 53 miles. We thought we might be able to make it in time to visit the museum this afternoon, but the road from Portland to McMinnville was very congested and we arrived at 4pm, leaving only an hour to visit this extensive facility.

I thought maybe the folks at the museum would let us buy tickets ($20 each), look around a little before closing, then come back tomorrow on the same ticket to really look things over. But there were a couple of young kids at the desk who said that would be against the rules. So I asked to speak to a manager. The manager was another young person who said that rules were rules, and that we should just come back tomorrow.

Note to any young folks who are reading this: these kids made a dumb business decision. We weren't asking to get in for free. And it wasn't like were were going to consume something that would cost the museum money. We weren't going to give our tickets to someone else who would then get in for free. If they were worried about that, they could just write our driver's license numbers on the tickets and require us to show our licenses before we get back in tomorrow. I'm sure there was some easy way to accomodate our wishes.

Compare this to the guy who owned the little resturant we walked to last night night in Portland. It was near his closing, but he invited us in anyway, and asked his server if she would stay for a few minutes to take care of us. We had a good meal, and left generous tips in appreciation.

I'm fortunate to have grown up in a company culture where we felt some degree ownership in the enterprise, and therefore tried to find a way to say "yes" to reasonable requests from a customer. For that, we were rewarded with great customer loyalty. It's much cheaper to keep a good customer than find a new one.

Maybe these folks at the museum never have to think that way. Their customers visit once, and likely never come again. And they have a unique product: the one and only Spruce Goose. They'll find out that this situation rarely exists in the real world. Treat a customer badly, and the competition gets the business.

Good dinner tonight in a little pub next door to the hotel. Tomorrow we go back to the see the Spruce Goose and then head for the PACIFIC COAST!!!

DAY 12