Picture 1, Sea Lions on the beach. Pic 2, One of the many bridges on CA-1. Pic 3 is a tour boat moving in around the kelp. Pic 4 is me outside the Whale Watchers Cafe. Pic 5 is a lighthouse on a rock in the ocean. There are cattle grazing in between the lighthouse and the cars.
This morning the temperature in San Luis Obispo was a cool 54 degrees. The predicted high for areas along the coast was 68 degrees. With the weather being that cool, I put on a long sleeve shirt my chaps, my leather, gloves and leather jacket. As I approached the coast at Morro Bay a mist blew in off the ocean and made the temperature seem even colder. It was down right cold in fact. After riding up the coast for about 30 miles I decided to stop at a restaurant in Cambria to get some breakfast and warm up. I also hoped that maybe the mist would begin to lift if I waited a while. After about 40 minutes I was back on the road again but the chill was still in the air. Every so often, however, the sky would clear a bit and the sun would shine through. But even with that, the chill was still there. Shortly after leaving the restaurant, I came across a place where you could view sea lions on the beach. I am glad they had the signs posted because I would not have known they were there otherwise. There was a whole herd of them just lying on the beach. They were throwing sand on themselves while others played and snorted at each other in the water. There was a guy there that would answer questions and tell you about the sea lions. He said that they come there every year and lay on the beach until they molt. Then they will play around in the water in the area and eventually leave again. They are usually there for 30 days.
After leaving that area the road, CA-1, really began to get twisty, and the mountains to my right were extremely tall, steep, and rugged. It was difficult at times trying to keep my eyes on the road and still enjoy the scenery. Making things more difficult was the fact that I had my camcorder mounted on my handle bars and I was trying to control that as well. I guess this is good training for multitasking. I do think I got some good video, but I have not reviewed it yet. I will do that soon, but as I mentioned once before, I do not have my editing software on this computer so I will not be able to share the videos until I get home. At one point this morning I rode past the Hearst Castle near San Simeon, but I was not able to see it because of the low clouds.
At one of the stops today I met a family that was visiting from England. They were enjoying the trip along CA-1. I also met another biker and his wife. Although he lives near LA now, he was originally from Grand Rapids. His wife had a bike the same color as mine.
About half way to Monterey, I noticed that my new GPS had frozen in one position. No matter what I tried it would not move from that position. Everything else seemed to work fine but it was not picking up a signal from the satellites even though the satellite signals were relatively strong. So there I was riding and multitasking with one more thing. When I got to Carmel I stopped at a gas station and asked where I might find the nearest Circuit City store. Luckily it was only seven miles up the road in Seaside, CA. The guys at Circuit City were very helpful and were able to fix it right away by inserting a wire into the reset hole on the side of the unit.
About 20 miles before I got to Carmel, the wind really started blowing in from the ocean and brought with it another blast of heavy mist and colder air. The winds were really strong and would blast you from all sides. They would hit me on my left and blow me to the right and at other times they would bounce off the mountains to my right and blow me to the left. All of this is happening while the road was getting twistier by the moment.
After leaving Seaside, I headed inland toward San Jose to find a room for the night. After driving about 30 miles the temperature suddenly jumped 95 degrees and I had to stop and take off my leathers. It was a relief to be warm again and also to have my GPS working again. This area of California was really big into agriculture. You could smell the crops in the air. There were major vineyards, cabbage fields, and I even came across and area where the National Garlic festival was going on. I didn’t stop for it but I could pick up the aroma.
In San Jose, I am about 40 – 50 miles south of San Francisco. Tomorrow I plan to pass through San Francisco and then head to the Coast again to follow CA-1 starting at Bodega Bay. I only hope it is warmer along the coast tomorrow than it was today. In two days, I should be at the Redwood National Park in northern California. Then after that I am headed to Medford Oregon where my mother-in-law’s sister lives. I hope to visit with her for a day or two and see some sights in Oregon.
