1999 REDDING H.O.G. / SAN DIEGO
(INCLUDES REDDING HOG RALLY, SCOTTY’s CASTLE, DEATH VALLEY, JOSHUA
TREE NATIONAL MONUMENT, CABRILLO NATIONAL MONUMENT)
THURSDAY MAY 27 to SUNDAY JUNE
6, 1999
11 DAYS / 2,341 MILES $ 84.45 GAS / 51.073 GALLONS GAS
/ AVERAGE MILEAGE 45.84 MPG
REDDING, CA. (via H.O.G. RALLY and McCLOUD RIVER); SANTA NELLA, CA.; RIDGECREST, CA.; PAHRUMP, NV. (via DEATH VALLEY, SCOTTY’s CASTLE); TWENTYNINE PALMS, CA. (via SEARCHLIGHT, NV., CIMA and KELSO, CA.); EL CAJON, CA. (via JOSHUA TREE NATIONAL MONUMENT); SAN DIEGO, CA. (via CABRILLO NATIONAL PARK, CORONADO, SHELTER ISLAND PARK); COALINGA, CA.
On my 1998 Ultra Classic with Dana on her 1998 Dyna Low Rider.
LONG DAY (not too) = 327 MILES / DAY 10
/ SAN DIEGO to COALINGA.
TOTAL TRIP COST = $ 1,167.73
DAY 1 THURSDAY MAY 27, 1999 211 Miles 211 Total Motel 6, Redding (Central), CA. Room # 106 $ 50.04 LUNCH Bill And Kathy’s
Dunnigan, CA.
East I-80 to Vacaville; north I-505 to Dunnigan; north I-5 to Redding. This trip was an alternative to Dana’s flying to San Diego for a
seminar for her job next week. She figured she’d just take some vacation
days and, added with travel days, could take a ride that landed her in
San Diego. Also, she had wanted to attend the H.O.G. Rally in Redding,
therefore this big loop of a trip was conceived and executed. Today we
only had a 200 mile day so we were in no hurry to leave early. It was cool,
cloudy and windy when we left and I started out with my sweatshirt on.
The first thing we saw was that freeway traffic was backed up around our
cloverleaf onramp, but clear beyond, so we avoided that, U-turned and got
on the freeway at the adjacent onramp, missing what appeared to be a very
fresh crash. A few minutes later I heard on the news radio that it had
been a “major” motorcycle crash with multiple ambulances on the way. All
I could think was that some other poor bastard on the way to the HOG rally
had gotten off to a very poor start. The weather warmed up in Vacaville
and by the time we reached Winters it was hot. We stopped for fuel at Dunnigan
across from Bill And Kathy’s and decided to have lunch there. We got out
of the jackets, too. We stopped in Willows for a twenty minute break and
it was hot enough for Dana to get down to her tee shirt. We ran into pretty
heavy construction traffic on the freeway then so we went around a lot
of it on an old road which parallels the freeway. Just before reaching
Red Bluff I heard the truckers on the CB radio talking about Dana and her
bike – “Here comes a reeeeal purty one…” We rolled into Redding around
4:30 p.m. and found only one other small group of bike folks. I spoke to
them and they were from Carmel Valley. We hung out for a bit and started
to walk over to Albertson’s across the street but they had closed so we
walked down to the nearby liquor store and grabbed some cold drinks and
stuff. When we got back to the room the card wouldn’t open the door and
even the manager couldn’t get it open so after a half hour of watching
the people mess around with our door we just went to dinner next door for
some good Italian. Back at the room an hour later we found we were still
locked out but soon the manager got in and we got our stuff and moved a
few doors down. We relaxed and I phoned Don Donnelly who was watching our
house. He told me that he saw the motorcycle crash on the freeway this
morning and that he had just merged onto the freeway when an unattended
bike came “flying past him on its side.” He looked in his mirror to see
the rider rolling down the asphalt. He said it didn’t make the papers so
probably wasn’t that bad. Later Dana and I rode my bike to the big Winco
store and grabbed some snacks and sodas. We took a little ride out to the
west end of town just goofing around and saw a café I had seen earlier
in the Yellow Pages so we put it on our list to visit later. We rolled
past the convention center and back to the room. It was 10:00 p.m. and
still pretty hot. We watched TV and The Gurl fell asleep around 10:30 so
it was pretty quiet after that. A family arrived in the room above us and
a kid was running and stomping a lot so I walked up there and asked for
a little peace. All was cool afterwards.
DAY 2 FRIDAY MAY 28, 1999 105 316 Motel 6 Redding, CA. (Central) Room # 106 $ 50.04 LUNCH Buz’s Crab Stand
Redding, CA.
North I-5 to Twin View and Harley shop, then back around town and to Convention Center for Rally. Later north I-5 to Gilman Road and east out to McCloud River bridge and campground. Return on the same path to Redding. The kid upstairs was stomping around at 6:15 but it didn’t last long
– just enough to get me awake. I went back to sleep until about 8:30 then
got up and stumbled around the room taking my time getting out for the
day. We left around 11:30 and stopped at the B of A Versateller up the
road. We cruised to the Harley shop where I found a cool H-D disposable
camera as a souvenir. We rode out to the Convention Center then, arriving
an hour too early to register. We met Paul and Trudy from Salem, Oregon
and talked with them for an hour until the center opened. We registered
for $25 each, which was a shocker because it was a small rally and Dana
had thought it was $10. But we paid, bought tee shirts and wandered through
the vendor areas and food courts. Dana bought some raffle tickets for a
V-Twin table lamp and also picked me up a sack of jerky from a local maker.
We ran into Tommy and Diane from Vallejo HOG, too and got to talk to them
for a while. We grabbed some goodies from the Win River Casino and CHP
displays and a lady gave Dana a cool H-D Frisbee. When we ran out of stuff
to look at we rolled out to lunch at the place we found across town last
night where I had a salmon burger and Dana had fish tacos. Dana wanted
to take a sightseeing tour by Lake Shasta so I led us out to the McCloud
River Bridge campground at the north end of the lake as this is where I
spent many summers as a kid. We took a walk around the campground and then
as it is a dirt road to the east, we returned to town over the same roads
we came in on. We had free coupons for the Indian casino so we went off
in search of that. When we arrived we played the blackjack coupons and
turned in our cash tickets and played slot machines. Within a few minutes
we had won an additional $41 which we cashed out, reducing the $50 rally
fee into a more acceptable $9 total which was significantly less painful.
We returned to the motel, changed clothes and walked next door to the Doubletree
for the H.O.G. reception. We talked to Tommy and Diane and took a few of
the freebie wine coolers that were offered. They were serving barbecue
in the lot but we wanted to walk over to the new Logan’s Roadhouse for
dinner. It was packed with a one-hour wait so we walked up to Applebee’s
and had a great dinner. By the time we finished and walked back to the
room it was 9:20. We just hung out and relaxed, read books and watched
TV. I phoned home to pick up messages and found that my court appearance
(as a witness) for the following Tuesday on an eleven-year-old murder trial
was cancelled as the case had been dropped. Like I was going to show anyway…..
DAY 3 SATURDAY MAY 29, 1999 281 597 Motel 6 Santa Nella, CA. Room # 145 $ 48.39 LUNCH Kentucky Fried
Chicken
Willows, CA.
I-5 south to Santa Nella. Well, today was quite a day. I was up at 8:00 and looked out and
saw that it was raining. Not too hard but you could see that the rain was
everywhere, especially to the northeast, the direction in which we had
planned to go. It appeared that it would clear up, as the west was not
so dark and some blue patches could be seen heading our way. We figured
we’d alter our route and head south then when it cleared we’d continue
or go east. Of course there was no reason to go east to our original planned
stop in Winnemucca, Nevada, as that was selected as it was the only place
to stay after our jam through the Oregon and Nevada hills which was now
not going to happen. So it was a day to play it by ear. We slowed our pace
to allow the rain to blow over and we got all packed up and checked out
at 10:00 a.m. Dana was on her bike warming it up, I hit my start button
and…. click. I suspected a broken plate in the battery as there had been
no slow-down type warning, just okay now, broke a second later. Ah, well…..
I got to the battery and found it would not arc even a tiny spark across
the terminals. Since Dana’s bike was packed I just phoned a cab and we
got our room keys back so Dana could relax, and I went to Redding Harley,
two exits down the freeway and got a new battery. Their prices were way
high but I was pretty much a captive customer. It didn’t take too long
to get the battery changed and hit the road. We left at noon and it was
all but dry by then. Dana put on her rain pants but they weren’t needed.
The traffic was light and we scooted down to Willows before eating and
getting fuel. From there we made a straight shot of 168 non-stop miles
to Westley where we stopped for fuel and a much-needed stretch. It was
super-windy the last fifteen miles and we were at the motel a short time
later and got all settled in. We took my bike up to Andersen’s for some
dinner and I bought a couple of Turtle candies afterward for dessert. We
spoke to a guy on a Sportster who was traveling south, too. We were back
at the room by 7:45. As our route had changed we called to cancel the reservation
in Beatty and made a new one in Ridgecrest for tomorrow.
DAY 4 SUNDAY MAY 30, 1999 299 896 Motel 6 Ridgecrest, CA. Room # 105 $ 35.19 LUNCH Hussano’s Pizza And Fine Foods
Glennville, CA.
South I-5 to Kettleman City; east on Utica Ave to near Alpaugh; south on 6th Ave then east on Garces Ave., south on Highway 43 to Pond, then east on Pond Ave. to near Delano; north SR 99 and east on SR 155 to Glennville, Wofford Heights and Lake Isabella; east on SR 178 to Ridgecrest. We got up around 8:00 and I found it to be a lot less windy and a
bit warmer. I walked over to the store and picked up some milk and grabbed
Dana a coffee from the office. We pulled away right after 10:00 and cruised
the freeway for a bit, stopping for gas, a break and a soda in Coalinga.
We had no plans for routes today so we exited the freeway on a new road
past Kettleman City and found it straight and flat for many miles. I missed
the turn to Alpaugh (I wanted to see that town – never have) and ended
up dog-legging around and back to Delano. We were kind of hungry but there
were only a few run down places in that part of town, which wouldn’t ordinarily
stop us from eating, but there were dozens of bum-types hanging around
all over the place. We continued into the flats then began a roll into
the mountains on yet another new road and found it to be a very scenic
and interesting route. Between Famoso and Woody the road was covered with
millions of grasshoppers. They stayed low but were constantly hitting the
bikes with little pebble-like “ping” sounds. When I stuck my leg from behind
the fairing it felt like machine gun fire as there were so many bugs. It
was good for the food chain, too, as the chipmunks were in the road eating
the dead grasshoppers and then they would get ran over at which time the
birds would come eat the dead chipmunks. I never saw what ate all the dead
birds, though. We came upon the unexpected town of Glennville and saw a
place to eat – the only place in several hours – so we stopped and had
sandwiches and chips on the outside patio. The two cowboys at the next
table adopted us for the hour and talked a lot, being friendly and touristically
informative. They were part of the planning group for next week’s rodeo
and invited us back. The place was packed for such a small town and everyone
seemed to know each other. Off again, we saw that this road was almost
as nice as the one through Sequoia Forest although a lot shorter. We tried
for fuel in Wofford Heights but the old guy there had not received his
shipment and was dry. We rolled on to Lake Isabella, fuelled up, then stopped
a short ways down by the lake so Dana could get her Lotto. It was windy
now and this lasted all the way to Ridgecrest, but it was mostly a tailwind
so it wasn’t bad. While checking in at the motel, the clerk, William, saw
from my ID that my birthday was the same as his (not the year, though,
his was in ’63) and thought that was cool, so he gave me a one-person rate
instead of a double. Cool! We got to talking about dinner and I said I
wanted pizza and Dana said she wanted ice cream (!!!) and she opened the
Yellow Pages to the restaurant listings and found “John’s Pizza, Pasta
And Ice Cream!” No problem deciding where to eat tonight and we left on
my bike around 7:00 p.m. I had a pizza and pasta buffet that wasn’t the
best but cheap at least and I got to finish a bit of her ice cream and
hot fudge. I don’t know why I was so clumsy tonight but I knocked over
three stacks of precariously-stacked plastic soda cups at the fountain
and dropped the folding metal lid into the pot of soup on the tray line.
I bet the folks there loved me. We stopped at the Stater Brothers supermarket
for sodas and stuff on the way back in. We done laundry at the motel tonight.
It had cooled nicely tonight and the wind was still up. This town is pretty
large but real quiet at night.
DAY 5 MONDAY MAY 31, 1999 293 1,189 Days Inn Pahrump, NV. Room #126 $ 51.95 LUNCH Panamint Springs Resort Restaurant
Panamint Springs, Death Valley, CA.
East Highway 178 to near Panamint Springs; west Highway 190 to Panamint Springs then back east on Highway 190 through Stovepipe Wells; north Highway 267 to Scotty’s Castle and out to Scotty’s Junction; south US 95 to past Amargosa Valley; south SR 160 to Pahrump. We were up at 7:45 and left the motel around 9:30. It was fairly
warm and a little breezy and there was hardly any traffic at all. In Trona,
which is basically a very small town way out in the middle of nowhere that
skirts a larger complex that produces soda ash, borax, potash, and other
chemicals from dry lakebeds nearby, we slowed at a Mexican restaurant but
it was a little too early to eat so we plodded on. We also passed the ghost
town of Ballarat (a dirt road that didn’t look too inviting) and stopped
at the junction to Wildrose for a soda break. It had heated up nicely by
now and we soon cruised the three miles out of our way to Panamint Springs
to have some food. It was ten minutes past breakfast time and the guy wouldn’t
let us order it so we had to take our food from the lunch menu and ate
on the outdoor patio. I don’t believe up until this point I had ever eaten
a petrified chili-dog so it must have been a Death Valley specialty. I
believe I chipped a tooth on the thing. It couldn’t have been all that
bad because I cleaned my plate, but then again I never let too much food
get away from me so I shouldn’t use that as a gauge. We spoke to another
biking couple who were out for the day and one other Beemer guy who was
on a mission. We soon departed and cruised on up to Stovepipe Wells where
we gassed up and had a soda. It was already after noon and only 100°
so we were pretty lucky, as it is normally a few degrees hotter this time
of year. Upon leaving Stovepipe Wells, we turned off onto a road new to
us and went up to Scotty’s Castle, a place we have wanted to check out
for many years, having passed within 50 miles of it many times but never
having stopped. It was nice and warm and we took the guided tour which
was very enjoyable and informative. I felt it was worth the $8 each. Soon
we were back on he road, having no real stopping point in mind and only
a
few possibilities. In Beatty we found a nice-looking motel but it was too
early to stop so we fuelled up and headed south. Amargosa Valley was the
next sizeable dot on the map but we pulled off there for a look-see and
found nothing but a rest area and old, empty, torn-up buildings. We exited
a bit later on the road to Pahrump (people there pronounce it “prUMP” with
no real syllable break) and found a nice motel in town and checked in.
There was a young couple from British Columbia, Canada, in the next room
and I spoke to them in the lot as we were all unpacking. They seemed to
be having a great automobile adventure. It was a pretty quiet place for
being a town of this size and we relaxed for a bit and checked out the
Yellow Pages and tourist rags for places to eat. There didn’t seem to be
any adequate descriptions of the eateries anywhere so we just lit out to
the casino nearby at the recommendation of the lady at the hotel desk.
Once there, we found there were a couple of fast food stations and a Kenny
Rogers Roaster restaurant. We had never been to one of these places so
we took a chance and found they had a pretty good dinner. Since we were
in a casino we had to try our luck. I quickly lost $20 in a quarter slot
machine then changed to a dollar machine and in just a few minutes had
won back the $20 and an additional $80.00, so I quit right then. Dana had
dumped $40 but we were still $40 ahead which amounted to a free dinner
and half the room. Not a bad stop. We cruised up to Smith’s supermarket
for some sodas and things and Dana found a very cool hippo oven mitt and
picked it up for me. Very cool, indeed! This town was quiet to begin with
and our room was way in the back complex so it was pretty peaceful this
evening.
DAY 6 TUESDAY JUNE 1, 1999 291 1,480 Motel 6 Twentynine Palms, CA. Room # 115 $ 44.93 LUNCH Searchlight Nugget Restaurant
Searchlight, NV. (In the casino)
South SR 160 to Las Vegas; west I-15 then east SR 146 to Henderson; south US 95/US 93 to near Boulder City then south US 95 to Searchlight; west SR 164 to past Nipton; south on Ivanpah road then south on Morningstar Mine road to Cima; south on Kelso-Cima Road to Kelso; south Kelbaker Road past I-40 then west on Old Route 66 to Amboy; south Amboy Road to Twentynine Palms. We got up at 8:00 a.m. and while Dana was in the shower I went over
to the office and loaded up on their free breakfast goodies and brought
them back to the room. It was already a nice clear day yet a bit cooler
and breezy. We got off to a lazy start and ran into a lot of road construction
first thing but it didn’t slow us up too much. It was breezier in Las Vegas
and we stopped a few minutes later in Henderson for fuel and a break. I
got us lost a few minutes later as the roads off the freeway weren’t marked
but we only went three miles out of our way so it wasn’t a great deal.
I had always wanted to see Searchlight, Nevada, having passed the signs
on other roads dozens of times, so we went there to find a small town with
a few businesses for the traveler. We gassed up (it was good that they
had gas, as if we hadn’t filled up here, we’d have had to alter our route
greatly later to continue) and decided to eat at the casino. They had a
great breakfast plate of a huge corn muffin stacked with eggs, potatoes
and gravy. Of course we had to spend some money at the slots and this time
we left $10 each instead of taking it away, but we were both still ahead.
We took off onto a smaller road after this and ended up in desolate areas
with no services for a while. These roads in the Mojave National Preserve
had been on my list of places to see for several years as well, ever since
I found that a couple were paved. The first inhabited town was Nipton and
there were hand-painted speed limit signs that added the warning, “Watch
For Nails” to keep folks wondering. Tiny roads led to Cima, which had a
one-room store and post office, neither of which were open at the time
but which were possibly still functioning. We stopped here on the plateau
and enjoyed the fresh breeze and quiet. There is not much here. The next
“town” was Kelso where we actually saw signs of people living there. It
is also a short spot in the road with no open businesses although the old
railway station that dates back to the early century causes many people
to stop. The National Parks folks have apparently bought it and may restore
it as a visitor center sometime soon. It was worth a look. We dropped off
the mountain just north of I-40, crossed under it and headed on out to
Amboy where we stopped at the famous Roy’s Café / Gas / Motel on
Old Route 66. The three-day weekend had drained Roy’s fuel supply but the
man there assured us that Twentynine Palms was only a flat fifty miles
further so we were alright on gas. We walked around a little and soon hit
the road into more narrow, two-laned nothingness. The clouds had been thickening
since Las Vegas and now there was the smell of impending rain but all we
caught were a few drops as we crested the next set of mountains. We pulled
into Twentynine Palms at 5:30 and decided it was time to stop, even at
under 300 miles, as the next stopping place was an additional couple of
hours off down on Interstate 10. We relaxed for a while then took off on
one bike on a quest for food. This is a fairly large military town but
there wasn’t much special-looking as far as eateries went. We stopped at
the “Finicky Coyote” but found it was only a coffee house so we went across
the street and had a very good Mexican dinner. We got back to the room
around 8:45 and relaxed.
DAY 7 WEDNESDAY JUNE 2, 1999 242 1,722 Motel 6 El Cajon, CA. Room # 174 $ 45.09 LUNCH Kentucky Fried Chicken
Coachella, CA.
South on Pinto Basin Road and Cottonwood Springs Road through Joshua Tree National Monument to just south of I-10; then west on Box Canyon Road to Mecca; north SR 111 to Coachella; south on SR 86 past Salton City; west SR 78 through the Ocotillo Badlands and Julian to Ramona; south on SR 67 to El Cajon. We got up around 9:00 and took our time getting ready, fueled up
in town and shoved off around 10:30. It was only partly cloudy and somewhat
warm. I had wanted to take Dana through the Joshua Tree National Monument
but we had heard news reports a few days ago that the park was on fire.
The clerk at the motel had told us the main road had stayed open so we
climbed into the park and cruised the small scenic roads. We walked around
one cactus area and took some pictures then stayed on the road until we
stopped at the Cottonwood Visitors Center for a break. I bought some postcards
here as well as a packet of seeds so I can try to grow a Joshua Tree. Cool!
Once out of the park we rolled through a hot canyon to Mecca where we took
a road up to Coachella for lunch. We left through the date palm forests
and the busy traffic of the Coachella/Indio area was left behind. It is
typically breezy in this area but we weren’t really prepared for the 50
mph side-winds hurtling in from the west once we got out near the Salton
Sea. I looked in the mirror to keep an eye on Dana and found that she was
riding sideways at a pretty fair angle all the time. I probably would have
stopped to take a break after about 15 minutes of this terrible wind but
I had visions of the wind knocking Dana over if she slowed so we just pulled
on southward. As we approached Salton City the heavy sand began to blow
from our right, too, snaking its way across the highway and becoming a
nuisance. I had planned to turn west into the mountains and figured I’d
keep to this plan as there couldn’t be much sand and wind in the mountains,
but the hills were another 25 miles away. Once we turned west, the wind
became a headwind, which was much easier to manage than a strong sidewind,
but the amount of sand increased and made it a hard ride for another 15
minutes or more. There were spots where we couldn’t see any more than about
100 feet through the sand storm. The clouds were taking over again, too,
and we could tell that the mountains were in the clouds and fog, so when
the wind died and there was a spot of sun left, we stopped for a break
and had a couple of sodas near Ocotillo Wells. It was very quiet here in
the desert but after another ten minutes we were approaching the mountains
and I had to stop and jacket up. Moments later we had climbed a couple
thousand feet and it was cold and damp. We fueled up in Julian where we
pulled in on fumes, and hurried to drop off the mountains on the other
side. It was much warmer and drier but still cloudy after leveling off
and the traffic picked up as we approached the El Cajon area. We were both
due for service and I knew of a Harley shop in El Cajon so we stopped at
the edge of town around 5:00 p.m. and got directions from a guy getting
gas, and moments later were visiting Hollenda’s H-D. We arranged to check
in early the next day to see if we could get our services, then left and
rode the short distance to the motel. We checked in and unpacked and relaxed,
shaking sand out of our hair and ears and clothes. Gruesome ride. We were
thinking about dinner when the TV showed a commercial for “Rubio’s Baja
Grill” and their famous fish tacos and that’s all we needed to see. We
took off on my bike after I got the address from the phone book and we
drove several miles in the wrong direction before turning around and finding
the restaurant a block the other side of the motel. We had fish tacos and
shrimp and lobster burritos and everything was great. We need Rubio’s at
home but they are apparently located in only a few southern counties. Afterwards
we got some sodas and snacks at a Lucky store then found the car wash and
sprayed off my bike the best we could. I took Dana back to the motel then
returned alone with her bike to the car wash and sprayed it down. The bikes
no longer had that sandblasted look. I got back to the room around 10:30
and just took it easy for the rest of the night.
DAY 8 THURSDAY JUNE 3, 1999 71 1,793 Holiday Inn Harbor View Hotel San Diego, CA. Room # 1513 $ 120.00 (Paid by CCC) LUNCH Sandwich Stop Deli
San Diego, CA.
West on I-8 to near San Diego, north 163 to the Harley shop; later south SR 163 to downtown San Diego. Dana got up early then woke me up at 7:45 so I could call for the
bike service. Prior to calling the shop in El Cajon, I tried H-D San Diego
as they are a larger shop. The service lady there told me just to show
up and they’d take care of both bikes. It was cloudy with some slight sprinkles.
We fled the motel at 9:30 and should have been at the shop by 10:00 but
I passed the proper exit, got off a few miles past, floundered around at
a gas station, went back, took another wrong turn, circled several miles
around to the same gas station, still lost. We finally made it to the shop
at 10:45. It is a large store with many bikes and other items on display
so we spent about the first hour just looking around. I bought Dana a couple
of chrome and gold caliper inserts for her bike just for kicks. There was
a deli at the other end of the industrial complex so we walked down and
had a couple of sandwiches for lunch, then took a brief walk-through at
Dick Cepek’s four-wheel-drive outlet next door. We grabbed a couple of
free magazines at the shop and got about half-way into them when the bikes
were done. The weather had warmed and cleared just a small amount but that
was enough to keep us dry and without jackets for the ride the rest of
way into downtown San Diego where the hotel was. As this was the place
to stay while Dana would be attending her class for her job, her employer
paid for the room and several meals. But, it was still too early to check
in so we took off on a bike tour of the Shelter Island shore area and the
Cabrillo National Monument. We walked around the area and checked out the
lighthouse and sea view areas. It was breezy but pretty nice for a walk.
We went back to the hotel around 4:00 and got checked in okay. The hotel
was a sixteen story round building right off I-5 in the downtown area and
our room was on the 15th floor so we had somewhat of a view, however the
room was not facing the harbor so we saw the freeway, the airport and the
other side of town. It was still a great place to be and I spent a lot
of time at the window soaking up the views as I am prone to do. We lit
out on foot and headed downtown looking for food. We weren’t three blocks
into the busy tourist area when we saw…… RUBIO’S BAJA GRILL!!! YOW! We
looked at other places but last night’s dinner at the other Rubio’s was
so good we ended up at this one. Dana bought a Rubio’s tee shirt as a souvenir,
too. I wish they had these places at home. There was a mall across the
way and we walked over there to the theater and saw Notting Hill. We got
out around 9:15 and it was drizzling pretty good but it wasn’t so cold.
We were back in the room by 9:40 and spent the rest of the evening relaxing.
I watched the planes come in and go out at the airport and just enjoyed
the sights in general for a while. It was a pretty good day for being in
a metropolis all day.
DAY 9 FRIDAY JUNE 4, 1999 30 1,823 Holiday Inn Harbor View Hotel San Diego, CA. Room # 1513 $ 120.00 LUNCH Hazlewood’s Café
San Diego, CA. (inside the Holiday Inn)
Dana got up early and left the hotel around 8:00 for the half-mile
walk to her class. I got up at that time and just relaxed and tried to
wake my brain up. I showered and laid around and took the clothes to the
hotel’s coin-op laundry. While the clothes were in the dryer I had a lunch
at the café inside the hotel and all was done before 1:00. Later
I grabbed Dana’s jacket and helmet and went over to the harbor to pick
her up. The sky had cleared nicely by now but it was a bit cool. I found
Dana in a class at the Holiday Inn there, about ten blocks from ours, and
I was able to catch her eye and let her know I was there. I sat reading
in the lobby and she was soon out. We took off on my bike to Coronado where
we strolled in and around the Hotel Del Coronado and the business area
nearby. The Coronado Bridge folks still let motorcycles across free so
I was pleased. We rode south of town for a bit then turned back and headed
back to the room. After a brief rest we left on my bike again and cruised
the “Gaslamp District” where we found it was much busier than last night.
Dana spied a Cajun restaurant about the same time I saw a parking spot
so we parked the bike and went in to have a great dinner. We strolled the
area afterward and checked out a few gift shops and import shops then just
headed back to the room. I watched some TV and spent another long while
sitting at the window looking at the view. It struck me tonight that I
had seen this stretch of Interstate 5 during a couple of evening commutes
and one morning commute and there was never any heavy traffic or even a
slowdown. Curious.
DAY 10 SATURDAY JUNE 5, 1999 327 2,150 Motel 6 Coalinga, CA. Room # 149 $ 41.99 LUNCH Chuy’s
Newhall, CA.
North I-5 to Coalinga, CA. Today was a simple, grueling, frantic run to get out of the Southern
California madness and closer to home. We were up at 7:30 but took our
time and checked out around 10:00. We fuelled up across the street and
hit the freeway at 10:25. It was cool and breezy but livable. It was the
traffic that was on my mind, not the weather. Through the San Diego, Capistrano
and Orange County areas there were no slowdowns but everyone seemed to
be in that 70 mph hurry. We stopped for a quick break at the Pendleton
rest area and got into our first slowdown up past Anaheim. There was a
second slowdown before San Fernando but traffic thinned and became reasonably
tolerable as we began the climb onto The Grapevine. We exited at Newhall
and stopped for a long leisurely lunch at a very crowded Chuy’s, another
Baja-style place that is a favorite. It had warmed nicely over the past
couple of hours, too. We fuelled up again after lunch and headed on over
the hill where we took a roadside break after the Highway 99 split. We
had no real destination this evening but at the Kettleman City gas stop
we decided that we’d stay in Coalinga. I was frazzled from all the heavy
traffic and there is a favorite café of Dana’s there so we rolled
on up and got our room around 5:30. We strolled over to the Red Robin for
dinner. They are always good and serve a load of food and tonight was no
different. I had chicken and pasta and Dana let me finish her ice cream
apple crisp dessert. Cool! We were back at the room by 8:30 and it was
still nice and warm out. There was another bike in the lot, a Harley clone,
but we never saw the rider. Other than that it was a quiet night.
DAY 11 SUNDAY JUNE 6, 1999 191 2,341 BRKFST Apricot Inn Firebaugh, CA. North I-5 to near Tracy; north Patterson Pass Road to Byron; north Clayton Road to Concord; East St. to 242 then west Highway 4 and I-80 home. Today was a get-up-and-go-home-dammitt day. It was warm when we woke up at 8:00. While Dana showered I went back to the Windmill Store and bought some motorcycle post cards I had seen yesterday. We were out at 10:30. Traffic was fairly light and we stopped at the next oasis for a pretty good breakfast. We visited the gift shop there for a while too and Dana found and bought me a cool hippo greeting card. It had warmed even more after breakfast and we just rolled on towards home with no more stops. The headwinds were pretty hard on I-5, settled down in the Diablo and Clayton Valley areas then kicked up again after Concord. It was cooler at home but still nice and we rolled up our street at 3:00 p.m. Waaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
'Twas a pretty fine trip for staying so close to home. I'd recommend the far-out roads in the Kelso - Cima area for those who enjoy the desolate spots of Old Route 66. Even the rain that changed our course wasn't so bad as it led us to explore the rural roads outside of Kettleman City and the mountain roads around Glennville and Woody (!) I'd say the only thing that could be described as even close to being a bummer was the dead battery but the only way that foul-up could have been better is if I had been in the parking lot at the Harley shop when it happened. No complaints....... ready for the next!
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