Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Day 33 April 30th

Took a 2 1/2 mile walk on Pismo Beach this morning to start the day. Pismo State Park allows OHV to ride on 2500 acres of dunes and beach. Popular place for 4 wheelers and dune buggies. Hand full of rental companies setup on beach.
Was 95 degrees when we left town at 11 am.
Rode up to Port San Luis and spent a little time wandering around on the pier. Lots of seals in the harbor.  95 when we left there. !0 miles or so up the road the wind switched to offshore and temps dropped to 79 degrees. Nice.
Left there and stopped at San Simeon. Hearst Castle is here. We stopped and saw the beach where the elephant seals come to breed and have their pups. Amazing sight to see the beach covered with seals. Females weight up to 1600 lbs and males up to 5000 lbs. Males were gone for the season, but females and pups still there. Thousands of them. On way back down to San Simeon for the night we saw grey whales just off of the shore going by on their way north.
87 miles today.





Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Day 32 April 29th

We left Pomona today. Plan was to head east and north to ride Hwy 2 or Angeles Crest Hwy As we were heading east on I10 the wind was howling and gusting hard enough to make riding a challenge. Saw on the news later that gusts in that area were up to 50 MPH. We rode up Hwy 2 part of the way, but decided we didn't want to ride the Freeways back through LA so we back tracked and rode  up to Lancaster and over to Santa Maria.
We rode through a lot of farm land. Amazing the difference between the land that is watered and the land thats not. There was a portion that we rode through that was covered in orange wild flowers.
Stopped for the night in Pismo Beach. Supposed to be windy and hot for next couple of days.
301 miles covered today.




Monday, April 28, 2014

Day 31 April 28th

Today was an off day. Did a little laundry and generally goofed off.
I did ride over to Erion Racing and visited with Kevin Erion for a bit. Hadn't seen him in a few years. Heading up the coast tomorrow.

Sunday, April 27, 2014

Day 30 April 27th

Today we went to Auto Club Speedway in Fontana for the Pro Superbike races.  Promoted by John Ulrich from Roadracing World Magazine. This three race series was put on since AMA Pro Racing had no races scheduled in the west.  Run in conjunction with WERA races. Had a good time today watching some good road racing and visiting with friends in the paddock. We supply bodywork to many of the teams and privateers racing there. The next stop is Sonoma Ca next weekend. If in the area go out and support the teams and racers.
Only 39 miles today riding to track and back to camp.



Day 29 April 26th

Rode to the famous Rock Store on Mulholland Hwy today. Meet up with John who is a good friend that I have not seen in 13 years. The area around here is his backyard. He led us around the back roads to some very scenic areas in the mountains. One area he was telling us is a very popular spot for car ads that overlooks the ocean. as we got into that area the was a crew taking pictures of a BMW that I am not familiar with. Concept maybe?
Stopped at Neptunes Net seafood restaurant on Pacific Coast HWY for a cup of chowder. Another popular spot for motorcyclist.
Rode down the coast to Venice Beach to see the freak show there.
Had a great visit with an old friend then back to camp in Pomona. Also got some lane splitting training from him. Not something we do at home.
177 miles today.





Friday, April 25, 2014

Day 28 April 25th

We moved base camp today from Chula Vista CA to Pomona CA. Were going to go to Speedway bike races at Pirate Speedway tonight, but rain keep us at the campground. Going to go meet an old friend at the Rock Store on Mulholland Dr tomorrow. Super bike races on Sunday.
141 miles today.

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Day 27 April 24

Today we rode up to the Torrey Pines Glider port and watched the para gliders for awhile.  This was a location that I wanted to fly at back years ago when I was flying hang gliders. Never had the chance. Looks like the  para gliders would be a lot of fun and this is a good site to do it.

After spending some time watching that we rode over to Escondido. Meet up with Chad from MC Pro. Chad paints a lot of the bodywork that we supply to the CA market. Have done business with him for years and it was good to finally meet in person.
98 miles today with the last 40 down I15 in the dark. Just a little intimidating to a FL boy.




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Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Day 26 April 23rd

Ok, so we are in the tourist mode. Went to the San Diego Zoo today. Not only is it a great zoo, but the horticulture is is also very impressive. San Diego has a very good climate to grow things.
Got to see the grizzly bears that we will be camping with. Have to remember to load up the bacon under Jerry's tent. Seriously though I hope these are the last grizzlies we see on this trip.
Another great day. A whopping 21 miles covered today.










Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Day 25 April 22nd

Today we rode over to Coronado and walked around the Hotel del Coronado. 120+ year hotel.
Then we rode down to the border and parked the bikes. Walked into Mexico and visited Revolution Street in Tijuana. Had fun with the shop owners. They have well rehearsed sales pitches.
Back to camp and grilled steaks for dinner. 50 easy miles today.






Monday, April 21, 2014

Day 24 April 21st

Today we went to the USS Midway Museum in San Diego. The Midway is the longest serving carrier in US Navel history.  Served from 1945 to 1993. www.midway.org
Jerry served on the Midway from 1973 to 1975 during Vietnam. He was an aviation electronics tech flying in Grumman E2-B aircraft.
They have done a good job of making it an interesting piece of history to visit.
16.2 miles today riding and about 6 miles walking.







Sunday, April 20, 2014

Day 23 April 20th

Fooled around in Big Bear Lake until noon today. This place reminds me of Gatlinburg in the Smokeys. Very pretty area. Left there heading to San Diego. Stopped along the way to take a few pictures. I found a geocache behind a bush. Have to look up the site address to get more info. We took the back roads and 80 percent of the day was spent in the twisty's. Very enjoyable riding with good scenery. Quite different from the ride through the desert yesterday. One stretch on 95 yesterday was 107 miles with nothing along the road. And I thought Texas was desolate.
Top picture was amazing  flowers in yard.
208 miles today.