Wet and Cold

Today we visited the B outchart Gardens in victoria. They are lovely and we decided a perfect place to get a job. If we were looking. 50 acreas of planned gardens and Begonia flowers bigger than Dan's hands! All the gardens were amazing and make ours look like something a 3 year old did. Seriously, wish I could do even a piece of what they've done.

After that we took the afternoon ferry to Vancouver where it was raining. And raining. And making much traffic. And raininn. And making much traffic.

You get the picture. This town has horrible traffic. And it's very confusing to ride in.

We did get to one of the Harley dealers in town. A very nice, family-owned dealer who has been there since the 1979's when nobody wanted a Harley,. They were notified by Harled Corporate that unless they moved to the highway and increased their floor space and other things that their agreement with Harley would be over. No grandfathering for them. They've opted out of H-D and will no longer be a dealer as of the end of the year. Harley Corp., should take another look at this policy and not just adopt it for everyone. Too bad.

Tonight we are in Langley BC and tomorrow will head across the border into the USA to ride the Cascade Mountain highway. They it'll be back up into Canada to ride on 3 to Idaho.

See you all next time!!

Did I mention it rained all day?

Monday

Monday we left for Port Angeles and the ferry to take us to Victoria. The ferry was fun, we met and had a fun time sharing road stories with some other bikers while we were there. We found a campground not far from town with a mighty steep hill to navigate. Whew.

We headed back into town to visit the Craigdarroch Castle which was a 4 story house built in the late 1800's. It was beautifully done. Lots of wood paneling and stained glass windows. Very pretty.

While were there, again somebody messed with my bike. Dan's is bigger and much redder so why don't they mess with his??

While we were checking things out in the house and were on the 4th f.oor, we looked out the window to find that somebody's kid had climbed up onto my bike and the idiot was taking video's of him!! Then while the kid was cllimbing off the bike, he kicked my helmet off the back of the bike into the parking lot. Course as soon as we saw him on the bike, I headed down the stairs but by the time I got there they were gone. Dan was concerned for the kids father; it was probably a good thing they were gone

Note to self: set alarm on bike all the time..

Sunday

Sunday we headed into Seattle to the Pike Place Market. It was so much fun. It's a good thing we don't live here cause I'd have to go weekly to get veggies and fruits and FLOWERS!!! The vendors were friendly and fun and everyone was so nice. The guys throwing the fish were amazing and so much fun. I'd go back, really I would.

Then we went to the space needle and looked at it. It is very tall. The wait time to ride up was very long and we had other things to do so we skipped that but it was cool to see anyway,

Then it was out to Margie and family's for a quick afternoon visit. We got a little lost but she came and saved us. Their house is really nice and we all had a great visit. She was off to Uncle Norm's to make applesauce on Monday. We might just have to make a stop in Spokane!

Bremerton

It's been a while since we had access to an internet connection but here we are!!

We got to Bremerton and stayed at a really nice State Park right in town. It was so convenient. Saturday, we soent the day with the Mikey's and had a great time. The kids are all very nice and we had quite a pleasant time with them. The only off-key item happened when we left and someone picked up my cell phone off my bike while also taking the lens covers off my rear turn signals. I was able to locate my lens covers and snap them back on but we had to cancel the phone.

Good thing it is up for exchange anyway.

Bad thing if you try to call me, you will get a disconnect message. Don't lost my phone number however; when we get home, I'll replace the phone and continue to use the same number.

More. . . .

If you get the chance to ride any of these, be prepared for it to take you longer than you think but be prepared for a great ride. We rode through SFO re-connedcted with CA1 and 101 and rode across the Golden Gate bridge and then on to the Samuel Taylor State Park for our first night of camping!!

We managed to set up the tent without any trouble and before it got dark. However, - if you are the boy-child >>Adam or Moose<< who knew that the air mattress did not any longer hold air and did not inform me or did not throw it out and let us take it on vacation -- we will talk when I get home!! So other than sleeeping directly on the ground and finding the lovely rock under my hip we had no adventures camping. Just not a lot of sleep.

Yesterday we came up CA1 and stopped at Leggett where the highway ends. Too bad cause it was a great ride,.

And we camped again.

Today we rode the road of the giants. Those trees are very tall. We wondered around while we were there and found a river and lots of trees.

Then we rode CA211 which was, for a paved road, But it was the worst paved road I've ever been on. There were patches on the patches on the patches and it was the bumpiest! There were great switchbacks and over hills and through valley's and along the ocean. Really except for the road condition, it was all you could ask for out of a road. Then back through the Redwoods and here we are at our campground. Camping day #3!!

We miss you all and you should be very jealous!!

Today is Tuesday -- I think

We are having a blast. Just wantd you all to know that. If that's all you wanted to know, stop reading now

If you're still reading, and you're home being responsible working and feeding the dog and whatnot; you should be feeling extreme amounts of jealousy. Cause so far the riding is great, the weather cool but that's why we have leather and the roads have been amazing.

After we left Santa Barbara, we rode north a ways and then on advice from Gene, we headed into the Santa Barbara county wine country. It was much warmer and sunnier than on the coast and the roads he sent us on was fun. We had breakfast at the Cold Spring Tavern which was great, we got the best table in the house - mostly because we got there before he rest of the bikers and it was such a cute place. For all you history buffs, it was also originally a stage stop for the Wells Fargo stage. It is still those buildings that they use for the restaurant, bar and gift shop. Great place to stop.

We rode and rode and rode and just make our tour time at the Hearst Castle. Which, as advertised was more than any one family should ever try to live in. They didn't really live there but that's a long story.

Sunday morning, we headed up the Pacific Coast Highway in very thick fog; it wasn't raining but I had water running all over my bike and the leathers were wet. Another good reason to wear leather!! It stayed foggy most of the day. I'm sure the scenery was great even though we couldn't really see it. The road was fun to ride and we didn't get distracted since we couldn't see anything else. We stopped in Monterey Bay and tried to visit the aquarium but the line was up the street and aroound the corner so we opted for walking around the wharf instead. Very cute and touristy. When we got up to Santa Cruz, we met a man at a gas station off the freeway who directed us onto CA9 and through Big Basin State Park, back onto CA9 and then on to CA35 - Skyline DR all the way up to San Francisco,. It was COLD. However, it was a great road. .

We made it!

It is so nice to be here. The weather is great and the harbor area is fun.

We wondered around the wharf/beach/harbor when we first got here, ate at Brophy Bros. on the sea wall which was great even if it was fish. After which we wondered into downtown. All total about 3 walking hours.

Gene at Moto Loco did everything he said he would. Our bikes were totally ready to ride and all of Dans bugs were gone. I am really happy the HD dealer couldn't do it, this was better.

And I did not try to go into any terribly sketchy places today.

Will check back in tomorrow!

Almost There

We leave here in 3 days!! Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday - days left in Minnesota then Friday in California!! The trucking company has scheduled delivery with Moto loco in Santa Barbara for tomorrow. Moto Loco will safety inspect them, fill them with gas, make sure they're charged up and run them through the bike wash and they will be ready for us to ride when we get there.

Interesting side note: Santa Barbara Harley Davidson is closed Sunday through Tuesday and could not take delivery of our bikes. The shipping company delivers to the Santa Barbara area on Tuesdays and weren't sure that they would be able to get them delivered on a different day. So the bikes go to a custom bike shop where Gene, the service manager, is a great help and a really nice guy. We look forward to meeting him.

Weird through about the Harley dealer don't ya think?

The Bikes are in California!!!

We've been watching the fire locations in California and the first part of our trip looks like a detour! Many miles of road closed and they simply must be the one's we were intending to ride. And even if we get around those areas, we will be dealing with smoke and ash floating around. Ash as far as Las Vegas - that's a lot of ash. The fires make even planning a detour route difficult since the fire won't stay put and keeps moving around - by the time we get there, they could be closing entirely different roads.

Our bikes are scheduled to leave Bloomington, Illinois today on their adventure aboard the big, orange truck!! So far both bikes and the trailer are still together on their travels. Here's to hoping they stay that way.

We've been packing and packing and when we loaded up the trailer; thinking that we'd have so much room we could do lots of shopping. OK, maybe that's only what I was thinking. Anyway, we filled the trailer. There is no room for shopping. I'll have to ship everything Dan buys home via UPS. It doesn't really seem like we took all that much stuff and there is a lot of room in the very large trailer. By the time we had all the camping stuff in there and then all the riding stuff in there and then one bag each and one bag of bathroom stuff. We were out of room. Oh and some tools and bike washing supplies and bike towels and a fire extinguisher. But not the Coleman lantern. Mostly because it wouldn't work. But I have a flashlight. So far, I don't think we forgot anything.

Last night we siphoned the gas out of the bikes to make them lighter. Serioulsy, those babies weigh around 700 pounds and who thinks that 2 gallons of gas is going to make any difference at that point?? But, we followed the directions and did it. No gas. guess nobody will be riding them when we're not looking!!

So today the first of many happy things to write about. Our trip has begun!! At least for the motorcycles. Allied, well really Jim and Sam, came and took delivery of them. Loaded them right up on the truck, strapped them to the shipping pallets and they were ready to go. Well mostly anyway. The trailer was 4 inches longer than their truck so the trailer just got strapped to the truck. Until the truck gets to Roseville where they will take the trailer off the truck and then put it on a pallet and then everything gets loaded onto another truck for shipping to Santa Barbara.

Just so you all know - Dan's bike already has the beginnings of his bug collection.

Wow. We must be really going on this trip.