May 2 finds my bike ready and the health insurance needed to travel in the US of A complete and so I make my way down to the inner harbour to catch the 10:30 am Coho Ferry over to Port Angles. The weather was great, quite warm and not a cloud in the sky. Having watched the weather forecast I new it was going to be overcast and chance of showers for the next couple days, and oh -did I get that right.
Coho Ferry Arriving
Waiting at Terminal
Traveling through Washington State was quite uneventful and was soon forced to put my rain gear on. It didn’t rain heavily with only showers trying to dampen the enjoyment of the ride. I crossed over the 4 mile long bridge that spans the Columbia River has it enters the ocean and stayed that night at a nice motel in Astoria Oregon.
May 3rd dawned with a fairly steady, but not too heavy downpour. After suiting up and aiming my faithful stead south on Hwy. 101 I was still able to enjoy the great road and the ocean vistas even if they were limited by the clouds. Here is a few pictures of the along the coast.
I stayed over night in a little town called Brookings just before the California border also on Hwy. 101. May the 4th also dawned with rain and it stayed with me till I was about 200 miles north of San Francisco when the weather was just overcast with the odd teasing of blue sky. It was a long day having travelled almost 800 kms. when I arrived at my friends house about 160 ams south of San Francisco. I was warmly welcomed (even if I was a little late) at Steve and Martha’s very nice house over looking Monterey Bay. I was planning on having new tires install on my bike in San Jose but I was happily surprised as the tread on the back tire seemed not be wearing as fast as I thought.
Steve told be of a good road up through the Sequoia National Park which I took the next day and was rewarded with a sunny day and smiles from ear to ear from me. The road was very technical and I was only able to get out of 2nd gear a couple times in one 40 km. part. All in all a great day with the only down side was that my Go Pro camera had been left on and so I was unable to film any of this road. This road cuts through the very southern part of the Sierra Mts and you end of coming out at Lake Isabella and then on to Hwy. 395 that I’m very familiar with from many past rides.
A poor shot of the great trees all through the park
I stayed the night in a town called Ridgecrest Ca. and decided that the next day I would make my way to Phoenix Ar. to get some tires. This ride was over some not bad roads, but mostly Interstate or divided four lanes, so kinda boring.
The shop in Phoenix, (actually it was Scottsdale) was very large but they still treated me well and I was out and on my way by 11:30 am onMay the 7th heading up into the high country ( 7000 feet) near Show Low. Very nice sweeping curvy roads and with speeds of an easy 140 km per hour plus, you had to watch for the tax men. They were very abundant and quite sneaky but I was able to avoid their hungry claws.
I will be heading NE tomorrow through Santa Fe New Mexico and into a very neat little town call Taos—–but thats tomorro
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