Vancouver

We had an easy ride today of only about 240kms from Seattle straight up the interstate to the Canadian border. We stopped at the Maryville Harley Davidson dealership and also at Burlington for a coffee, but in spite of taking our time we were still lining up in a queue of cars at border control around mid-day. We were asked a few questions by the customs agent, our passports were stamped and then we drove across the border into Canada! It was then only a short ride of about 30kms to our stop for the day - the Best Western Hotel in downtown Vancouver.

I was surprised how large Vancouver is. As we rode over the bridge into the main downtown area, the skyline was impressive with many tall buildings. There are about 2.3 million people in Vancouver and it has the most diverse population in Canada with around 52% of the population not having English as a first language.

We were fortunately able to check in early to our room on the 7th floor (I got some great photos of the skyline from the 11th floor outdoor viewing area). After changing we walked the few blocks to the central shopping district and spent a good part of the afternoon in the Granville Street Mall. This mall spans about 3 city blocks and has 3 different levels. Most of the shops were 'high end' fashion shops (not my cup of tea, but I 'sucked it up' and dutifully tagged along behind Tracee).

I was a little disappointed with Vancouver as a city. It seemed quite dirty in comparison to the positive energy we experienced in Seattle. There seemed to be a lot more homelessness and begging with people approaching you for money. We saw a few police vehicles gathered together & watched as the police finished bundling a group of young people into a van that we had earlier seen lying on blankets in front of shops begging.

We are looking forward to heading out of the city in the morning to experience the Canadian landscape!

Seattle street performers

Pike Place Fish Co. (Pike Place Market, Seattle)

Riding the freeway into Seattle

Seattle

We left Garibaldi riding in thick sea fog. I was very cautious riding up the coast with reduced visibility. It was also quite cold and meant we had to stop and put our outer linings on our riding jackets. Its amazing how damp and cold you can get riding in fog!

We followed Hwy 101 all the way to Astoria and then we saw the longest bridge I had ever seen. Looming high above the community of Astoria is the Astoria-Megler Bridge which spans the Columbia River from Astoria, Oregon to Point Elice across the state line in Washington and is nearly 7 km long. It is the longest continuous truss bridge in North America. Tracee had heart palpitations and nearly got off the bike! What made it worse for her was that half way up the steepest segment of the bridge we encountered road works and were stopped by a 'lollipop lady' while traffic was reduced to one lane. My wife is not great with heights - so it didn't pay for her to look over the railing!

We connected with Hwy 12 just before Montesano and then linked with Hwy 8 East and this took us through the city of Olympia and on to the Interstate (I5) for the last leg of our journey into the port city of Seattle.

We rode into the heart of downtown and booked into the Kings Inn on 5th Avenue (with the monorail running down the length of 5th Avenue). After unloading the bike and changing out of our riding gear we walked the few blocks down to the waterfront to the famous Pike Place Market. This is the oldest farmers market in the USA (est 1907) and contains produce, restaurants, retailers, artists and street performers. It had a great vibe. One of the highlights was the world famous Pike Place Fish company which entertains the crowd with banter, chants and flinging fish at each other and sometimes at the customers to see if they could catch!

We also watched a gospel/rhythm & blues group street performing (they were good - I bought one of their CD's for $5) and spent about half an hour in Starbucks on 3rd Avenue just 'people watching'. We then walked to a diner with a view of the harbour for dinner before walking back to the Inn. Seattle is a very attractive city, built on hills, lots of trees in the centre and great views of the harbour along the waterfront with plenty of bars, cafes and restaurants.

 

Garibaldi

We left Eugene on Hwy 126 West and rode for about an hour towards the coast. The riding was very chilly through the shaded forested areas at that hour of the morning (around 8am). After hanging a right on to Hwy 101 (Pacific Coast Highway) we stopped for a coffee in Florence and then continued north up the coast. The riding was brilliant. It was a clear sunny day and the wind off the sea was bracing and invigorating, without being too cold. The coastline was enjoyable riding, lots of cornering and bluffs above the coast.

About 17km from Florence we stopped at a sea lion colony. There was an elevator that took you 200 feet down through the rock to a viewing platform in a cave at the bottom, where sea lions swim in from the sea and rest on the rocks. There was also a walkway at the top of the cliff where you could see about 100 sea lions on the rocks below.

After lunch in Newport we rode through the Siuslaw National Forest until we reached our stop for the day, the seaside community of Garibaldi.

Eugene

We left Mount Shasta just after 7am and stopped about 10 minutes up the road at a place called 'Weed' (not sure how it got it's name, but may be because the town is 'high' in the Cascade ranges?). We stopped for breakfast at McDonalds (mainly to use their free wi-fi).

Our plan was to make Eugene in Oregon today. The quickest route would be to use the Interstate (I5) which would take about 4 hours riding time - but that would be boring, so instead we headed north up Hwy 97. 

I don't know what it is about Northern California but we had our second near miss in as many days! We were cruising a long straight stretch of the highway when some 'muppet' traveling towards us completely underestimated the distance he had to overtake a line of about 12 cars. I think sometimes psychologically some drivers condition their thinking to only see big things on the road (like cars & trucks) and for some reason motorcycles are invisible? This is in spite of the fact that I always ride with all 3 front headlamps on - in other words 'lit up like a Christmas Tree'.
He obviously saw us after he had pulled out and committed himself to overtake, so I eased the bike over to the wide verge on the right to give him room to squeeze through. Enough adrenaline for now I think!

We were very pleased to leave California drivers behind us and crossed the state line into Oregon. We stopped for fuel at Klamath Falls and then scooted around the east side of Klamath Lake and encountered one of the longest stretches of straight road I have ever ridden as we passed through over 80 kms of Fremont-Winema National Forest. After lunch at Chemult we turned left on to Hwy 58 and had some great riding through Umpqua National Forest. Lots of hills, windy roads and the scenery seemed 'greener', the forest was beautiful, especially around Crescent Lake.

After a stop in Oakridge we came to our destination at our motel in downtown Eugene. Eugene is  the second largest city in Oregon and is known as a 'University city' and as a centre for arts and outdoor pursuits. Eugene is a place that I have always wanted to visit, as when I competed at middle-distance running in my younger days, Eugene was known as the 'mecca' for running (due to its sporting infrastructure, climate and terrain). The Nike running shoe was born here. Unfortunately I felt too old & tired after 5 hours of riding (not including rest stops) to go for a run today!

Tracee & I went for a walk around some of the city centre and had dinner. What struck me was the established trees that lined most streets and how a lot of the older buildings had been upgraded and modernised. It felt more like a large town than a city.

Mount Shasta

We left South Lake Tahoe on Hwy 50 East and soon crossed the state line into Nevada. We connected with Hwy 395 and passed through Carson City (the state capital) and Reno on our way north before crossing back into California.

We pulled over at  a rest area and met a great couple, Steven & Maureen from Genoa on their way to Seattle. Steven was a police sergeant from San Francisco. He gave me his business card and said that if I ever had any problems in San Francisco to show the police the card and say that "we knew each other really well"!

After stopping for lunch at Susanville we came on to Hwy 44 and it became the best of rides as we encountered about 100kms of riding through Lassen National Park. There was minimal traffic, the air was cool and the road surface was fantastic. There were lots of sweeping bends that you could take at speed. I switched on cruise control and just enjoyed the experience.

This experience was contrasted however by a near miss! Not far from a place called Hat Creek a guy in an old pick up coming towards us decided it would be an intelligent thing to try overtake a truck on double yellow lines going up a hill. Thankfully I could react in time (thank you Harley Davidson for ABS brakes!) and still managed to give the driver a 'friendly wave' as he cut in front of the truck coming towards us and sailed on past. It was a reminder that you need to have a different 'mindset' when riding a motorcycle than you do a car. Basically you need to treat every other driver like they are driving blind and are brain-dead.

Hwy 44 became Hwy 89 and we came to our stop for the day - the quaint alpine community of Mount Shasta. Mount Shasta is one of the largest peaks in California and is an active volcano at the southern end of the Cascade Range in Siskiyou County. The community is a base for fishing, tramping and skiing.

Highway 44, Lassen National Forest, North California

Cool alpine air, sunshine, roads as smooth as silk, cruise control set on 120kph. Perfect.

Lake Tahoe

We left Mariposa after breakfast and decided to head north on Hwy 49. The scenery was awesome with winding roads and switchbacks through the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains with pine trees, rocky ridges and rivers. This is historic gold rush country and many of the towns along this route have preserved their buildings from 'back in the day'. We passed through towns with names like; Coulterville, Angels Camp and San Andreas.

We met a couple of bikers (Vicky & Pat) who were on their way to a rally in Hollister. They saw our NZ flag flying from our pack and pulled alongside and waved us over for a chat.  Vicky & Pat run their own motorcycle touring business and were really interested in what we had planned for our tour. After exchanging email addresses we carried on our way.

We stopped at Jamestown at the local Harley Davidson dealership where Tracee purchased a top and then carried on to Jackson for fuel and lunch. After turning on to Hwy 88 we headed east and started climbing up the Sierra Nevada range through the Stanislaus National Forest. The air got noticeably cooler as we climbed and was a welcome relief after the hot conditions of the last couple of days. We climbed to 8000 feet, before descending down towards South Lake Tahoe - our stop for the day. The views were stunning!

Lake Tahoe is a beautiful lake with deep emerald waters and is set in an alpine valley at the highest point of the High Sierra mountains. The lake is a year round recreational area with water sports, hiking & camping in the summer and close proximity to ski-fields in the winter.

Yosemite National Park

We left Carmel-by-the-Sea just after 8am and enjoyed some cooler riding conditions along the coast as we headed north and then linked up with highway 101 before Santa Cruz. We then linked up with Hwy 152 and headed East. It wasn't long before the heat started to kick in as we headed further inland towards the Sierra Nevada hills. 

We were riding through Los Banos when I saw some flashing lights in my rear view mirror and then a siren sounded. Yep, the local police had pulled us over. I was surprised as I was sure I wasn't speeding - I know how strictly speed is enforced within town limits (whereas on the freeway/interstate highways there is a lot more leniency). It turned out we were pulled over because our registration plate was not recognised. I explained we were from New Zealand and was asked to produce the necessary documentation, letter authorising the importation of the bike, drivers license and insurance card for riding in the USA. The cop was very pleasant and in the end felt a bit sorry for us standing there in riding gear in the blazing heat (107 fahrenheit/42 celsius) and sent us on our way.

We turned on to hwy 59 and headed through Merced before joining up with Hwy 140 that took us to our stop for the day at Mariposa. Mariposa is an old gold town that now survives off all things tourism related to Yosemite National Park. We checked in to the motel, dropped our luggage in the room and grabbed a bite to eat in the town before continuing up the road to the entrance of Yosemite National Park.

Yosemite is a national park that we wanted to visit on our last tour, but we ended up taking the coastal route down California, so we have made up for it this tour! The park covers over 3000 sq km and contains some of the worlds most beautiful mountain terrain, huge cliffs, canyons, forest and waterfalls. From a motorcyclists point of view just getting there was fun. After leaving Mariposa, we had around 70kms of twisting, curving road to get there - which was a treat after the long flat stretches of road we had traveled since leaving Carmel. It was a great feeling to lean the bike over and sweep round some bends.

The Western entrance to Yosemite is in a valley - and it was stinking hot! Even with the roads lined with trees and shade - it was still 98 degrees fahrenheit (37 celsius). After paying our entry fee we stopped and took off our riding jackets and cruised around on the harley in T shirts. There were tourists everywhere and traffic was slow in the park. You have to watch for black bears and deer on the roads - but it was too hot for much wildlife to be out. The animals had more sense than the humans! In saying that, the views were spectacular and the park was well worth the visit.

After cruising around the valley and stopping to take scores of photos, we made our way back to Mariposa for the night.

Carmel-by-the-Sea

Carmel-by-the-Sea is a lovely resort town located about 190kms south of San Francisco. There is some serious wealth here if the real estate property values are anything to go by. The area has an early European history as a Spanish mission settlement (the Carmel Mission was founded in 1770). In more recent times the settlement has been renowned as the home for many artists, poets and writers. It has incredible art galleries, shops and a spectacular beach. Clint Eastwood owns a ranch here and served as Mayor for a term in the 1980's. He sometimes calls in to a restaurant he part-owns (Hog's Breath Inn) and plays piano at the bar (he is a jazz enthusiast as well as a famous actor/director). We had dinner there last night hoping to do some celebrity spotting. Unfortunately Clint must have decided to stay home and wash his hair (or more likely he was in LA doing Hollywood stuff).

Tracee and I had a walk around the many shops, bought lunch and coffee, had a walk to the beach. What struck us was the 'dog friendly' by-laws in the town. many shops had signs that read 'dogs welcome', bowls of water were outside shop entrances and we observed a shop assistants giving treats to a dog in store!

There is a fantastic Christmas shop here that Tracee loves - and of course we had to buy one of their unique music boxes to ship back home!

Excessive heat warnings

Today was a hellish day. The USA National Weather Service had posted warnings about excessive heat on the west coast and storms and floods on the east coast. These extreme weather patterns are indicative of what it can be like touring in the USA. I make it a practice in the USA to always check the weather on-line when planning a ride. With the heat warning in mind, I decided to get on the road early to get a good couple of hours under our belt before the heat really kicked in. 

We left Long Beach after 7am and headed north. It took some time to get out of LA. There were a couple of parts of the freeway where traffic was 'crawling' but in the main we were going against the flow leaving LA, where most of the traffic jam problems were 'south bound'. If the weather had been more favourable, I would have taken the scenic route up the Coast, however, this would mean an extra hour of traveling time - a bit risky with the forecasted extreme weather conditions. I decided to head up Interstate 5 to cut off some time and hopefully escape the worst of the heat. This worked fine for the first hour or two of riding, but the temperature steadily climbed until we were riding in 110 to 115 degrees fahrenheit (43 - 46 celsius). Add to this a 'norwester' force wind and it was like riding in a furnace! It was so tempting to take our mesh riding jackets off, but it is better & safer to have perspiration against your skin to keep the body temperature down, rather than have your perspiration evaporate in the wind and dehydrate quicker. Needless to say we carried plenty of water!

After 'gutsing it out' up the I 5 we branched off near a place called Lost Hills on to route 46 and then joined up with route 101 near San Miguel and headed north. It was a relief to leave the hills and start picking up some cooler air as we neared Monterey. After 580 kms for the day we pulled into the resort town of Carmel-by-the-Sea.

After a nice dinner at Clint Eastwood's restaurant 'The Hog's Breath Inn' (he sometimes calls in - but not this night unfortunately) we had a walk around town and then called it a night. It had been a big day!

We will spend another day in Carmel-by-the-Sea. It was a favourite stop of ours during our 2010 tour when we called in for a coffee on our way south down the Big Sur road. We decided in 2010 that when we returned to the states we would stay a night or two next time. So here we are!

Long Beach, California

We touched down in Los Angeles yesterday around 1pm after a 12 hour flight from Auckland (the same day we left NZ due to the time zone change (30th June)). We are staying at the Best Western in downtown Long Beach. Dave, Mary, Brian & Sandy are with us for this stage of the journey - but we will separate on Tuesday 2nd July when we begin our tour. Tracee & I will head north through California and the others will head east through Arizona.

Today we shared a taxi to Mainfreight USA at Compton where we were reunited with our harleys. After un-crating the bikes at the depot and fueling up, we made our way back down the freeway system (after a couple of wrong turns & detours!) to Long Beach. It was good to have the opportunity to 're-wire' the brain again and get my head around riding on the wrong side of the road.

It is a nice 32 degrees celsius in Long Beach today -  a far cry from the frosts and cold days back home. It feels awesome to be wearing T shirts and shorts again!

We went for a walk to the waterfront and had some lunch at a nice Irish bar. We are generally 'chilling' for the rest of the day and preparing for the first motorcycle leg of our tour tomorrow.

Another Harley Davidson tour of the USA in 2013

It is hard to believe that it has been nearly 3 years since our last tour of the USA. We decided at the end of our tour in 2010 that we would set a goal of going back in 2013.

Last weekend our HD Road King was 'crated up' and yesterday was delivered to the freight depot, where it will be loaded into a ship container and begin the journey across the Pacific Ocean to the port in Long Beach, California. Tracee & I fly out of New Zealand on June 30th to Los Angeles where we will uncrate the bike at the Mainfreight USA depot. We will be touring for around 8 weeks and will fly back to New Zealand on August 21st.

We are looking forward to another great adventure, seeing some great sights and meeting more really cool people!

Last Post

Well, this is it. Today we check out of the Best Western Long Beach and head out to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). Our flight isn't to later in the evening, but we are on standby for an upgrade to 'premier economy' using frequent flyer points, so I expect an early check-in may help our chances of getting this. We also have access to the Koru Club Lounge where we can 'chill out'.

I have been asked what has been the highlight of the tour? There have been so many great experiences that it is hard to rank them. To visit 22 states and travel 17605 kilometres (all on the wrong side of the road) by motorbike was something that most people will never get to do.

In some ways calling it a 'holiday' is not an accurate description, because rarely were we just sitting around relaxing. There was always something to do. Our daily routine consisted of early morning starts, packing the bike up, riding 4-6 hours per day with stops to see and do stuff, finding accommodation, unpacking the bike, laundry, emails, checking weather reports etc, finding somewhere to eat, planning the next day's route, fueling up the bike, and trying to get an early night.

I think a better description is to call it an 'adventure'. It was hugely satisfying to accomplish and we saw some great sights and met some great people. A friend suggested I should write a book. Instead of 'Balls of Steel' he suggested that it be called 'Buns of Steel' (there were some days we both got really saddle sore early on)!

I am not sure how easy it will be to adjust to 'normal' life again after spending days roaring down a highway on a Harley - but we are really looking forward to seeing our family and friends again after being away for 9 weeks.

California - Santa Monica

For our last full day in LA we decided to go to Santa Monica for the day. Maurie, Evan, Dave & Mary also decided to join us - so it was nice to do something as a group for our last day. Santa Monica is a popular beach and shopping destination. This is the beach that the TV series 'Baywatch' was filmed at. When I watched the series, I always wondered how the life guards could run in slow motion and still manage to save people from drowning?

We took the Metro Rail to 7th Street/Central Station and then caught a Metro bus to the pier at Santa Monica. The pier has entertainment, buskers, fishing and food. The pier is also the end of the famous Route 66, so we had to have a photo taken under the sign that stated 'End of the Trail' (quite appropriate really).

Dave, Mary, Maurie and Evan decided to walk down the boardwalk to the nearby seaside community of Venice for a look around, while Tracee & I walked a few blocks to the Third Street Promenade to do some shopping and have some lunch. The promenade offers many trendy, boutique shops. The street spans about 4 blocks and is closed to traffic.

We all met up again at the bus stop later in the afternoon for the ride back to downtown LA to catch the Metro Rail back to Long Beach.

California - Disneyland

We decided that while we were in LA we would have to go to Disneyland . We caught a Long Beach Transit bus from the corner outside our motel and then transferred to a Metro bus at Norwalk transfer station for the ride to the main entrance of Disneyland. The trip took about 2 hours - but public transport here is as cheap as chips (about $1.50 one way). Riding a bus is also a great way to see parts of LA that are not normally on the 'tourist route' and you get to see some interesting characters on the public transport system (to say the least).

Disneyland is spread over 85 acres (34 ha) and encompasses the historic Disneyland Park (The Magic Kingdom), California Adventure Park (wilder rides for teenagers and older), Resort hotels and Downtown Disney (shops, restuarants, entertainment). It would take 2-3 days to see and do every ride/attraction - so given we only had one day we paid to see Disneyland Park. It was a boiling hot day - so we found it quite energy sapping.

Having been to the Gold Coast Australia theme parks a number of times, I couldn't help but compare and I found that Australia offerred a comparable if not at times better experience with some attractions. I guess Disneyland was the first theme park that all the others have copied - and it was great to see lots of happy smiling kids running around having a great time and of course the Disney characters made it unique from any other park.

Tracee is not 'adventurous' when it comes to extreme, adrenaline rides (like me), but we did ride the Pirate ship around the lagoon, the train that travels the perimiter of the park to get a good overview of attractions and then we really broke out and went for a spin on the 'Mad Hatters' tea cup ride!

Early in the afternoon we received the news from home about the earthquake and that then became priority as we caught up with the news from family and were relieved to hear that all were safe and there was no major damage to our home. The news of the devastation it caused to other property in the Christchurch area was sobering and we felt quite helpless being on the other side of the world!

We left the park soon after that and made our way back to the motel by bus, eager to get on the internet and keep updated with the news back home.

California - Long Beach

We left Carpinteria and rode the Ventura Highway south towards LA in the morning fog, which made the ride a bit chilly. It was a morning of contrasting temperatures. As we headed inland the temperatures got quite warm, especially around Thousand Oaks. The traffic was steadily building up the closer we got to Los Angeles. We hit some cooler air again around Santa Monica and then as we came down a hill on the freeway the morning sea fog was replaced by the yellowish haze of pollution over LA in the distance!

We rode the freeway system through to Long Beach and actually arrived at our motel earlier than expected. We managed to check into our room early - around 1:30pm. We were just unpacking the bike when Evan and Maurie arrived on their Triumphs, followed about 15 minutes later by Dave and Mary on their Harley.

We had a catch up with the others and then left them to check in while we took the bike to a nearby car wash to use a self-service bay to give the bike a good waterblasting and a clean. The bike has to be free of any dirt and bugs as there are very strict agricultural controls over importing into NZ. If your bike is deemed to be 'dirty' you can be charged around $400 to have it cleaned to the required standard to enter the country. We had managed to pick up a fair bit of muck while travelling on wet roads - particularly where there were road works.

Later that night we joined up with the others and walked to the centre of Long Beach for a few drinks and a meal.

The next morning Tracee and I rode the Harley to the USA Mainfreight depot to crate the bike up ready for shipping back to NZ. This took a few hours by the time we got the crate moved for us by forklift to a free area, gave the bike a last spot clean, removed the fuse, packed up the windshield, used tie-downs to secure it and then screwed the cardboard packing on with a battery drill.

After we said goodbye to the bike we caught a taxi back to the motel and then caught the metro train and a bus transfer to the Lakewood Shopping Centre for the afternoon. This is a great service - you can travel anywhere in LA for only a few dollars - although you have to be a bit careful where you exit the bus. We were dropped off a few blocks from our motel and the area we had to walk through was a little dodgy - definately not where you would walk after dark!

We caught up with Dave, Mary, Maurie & Evan after dinner and then called it a day.

California - Carpinteria

It was 'pea soup' when we left Morro Bay this morning. A thick sea fog had rolled in over the coastline making visibility very challenging.

We headed south on Highway 101 and I was tempted to take the more scenic Highway 1 route at Pismo Beach, but the fog really made this pointless, so we continued down the 101 and stopped at Santa Maria for a look at the local Harley Davidson dealership and also it was a good time to stop for a late breakfast.

Not far down the road from Santa Maria we branched off on to Highway 154 and rode over the hills of the Los Padres National Forest. We linked up with 101 again at Santa Barbara. The influence of Spanish architecture is everywhere, with stylish homes and hotels set amongst towering palm trees. It reminded me of the artwork on the Eagles 'Hotel California' album cover.

It was only another half hour down the road before we stopped for the day at the seaside community of Carpinteria. The beach here is superb.

Tomorrow we will complete our Harley touring with only a 2 hour ride to Los Angeles - where we left Long Beach back on the 13th July.