I shall steal the idea from another ride report ( St. Eptoe I believe) of adding what song was on my Ipod when I start the day and finish it.
With no real route in my head to follow I planned on talking to people to see what they recommend and just follow my nose. As long as I`m in Baltimore, Maryland on the 9th of August I figure I can go where I like.
Bilko`s cousin, James said he was heading to a place called Redmond in Oregon(700 ish miles North) for the weekend to go to the BMW club of America national rally. This sounded like a bunch on American tossers talking about oil and tyres only being interrupted by fatty food, week lager from plastic cups and overpriced tat from Vendors.
So I seized the day and decided to go as it sounded just up my alley( which expression became to mean something very different on Bilks` trip the month before)
I left Santa Cruz just south of San Francisco at about 9am and had the GPS on compass and headed North. After an hour or so rode over the Golden Gate Bridge, which was nice. I finally hit a coast rode called highway 1 and headed through forests of giant redwood trees and perfect tarmac along the Pacific until I hit the town of Eureka.
I had no intention of booking any hotels for the entire trip as I didnt want to get tide down with having to be places at certain times. I had always winged it on my Europe trips and figured I could do this in the states too.
The plan(if you can call it that) was to roll into a town about 5 ish or when I was getting tired, hit a local bar for a bevvy and get some local knowledge of where to stay and eat etc. I would recommend this plan to anyone as some local knowledge can go along way to saving you a few dollars.
The thing with American bars I found that very few of them have windows. Its more of an industrial unit with a red neon sign saying open. So as you go through the door you really dont know what will greet you on the other side. Quite fun really.
There was about half a dozen local folk sat round the bar who immediately stopped chatting and stared at me as I took my place on a stool near them.
"What bike ya`ll on" a full figured filly said. As I finished the W of BMW she stood up ( which took quite a bit of effort based on her stature) and came over to give me a huge hug
Puzzled by this unexpected showing of affection I felt obliged to say something so said " Thankyou"to her. Not the best come back I grant but all I could manage at the time.
Turns out she had an airhead herself and after an hour of Miller lite and a very fine ribeye steak retired for the evening in a local motel to the tune of $93.
Mileage:376
Start:Gimme all your Loving, ZZ Top
Finish:Thunderball, Tom Jones