Sophia Down for 6th Time

October 13, 2013
San Jose CA

Mission Solano, Point Reyes and Muir Woods

Today is a big ride, relatively speaking.  There is one mission and two park sites that are north of the Bay.  Time is getting short now and I will be departing San Jose in the next few days.  With today’s weather being excellent for the Bay area, and @KarolHarley available for a long ride, we’re gonna get them scratched off the list. 

We departed San Jose around 10 or so and rode north on I-880 to I-680, riding past sites I had previously visited in Fremont, Danville and Martinez.  From Martinez we crossed over the bridge into Benecia and connected onto I-80E to CA-12 ‘straight’ into Sonoma via a few lefts and rights. 

Downtown Sonoma is small, quaint, and loaded with shops & eateries for the wine tourists.  Mission San Francisco de Solano is named after a Saint who was a missionary to the Peruvian Indians and was the last of the missions in Alta California. It is also one of two missions that are designated state parks, so you must pay the park fee to enter.  We decided not pay and stay as we wanted to get over to Petaluma for lunch.  Here is an historical photo from years past to compare to the present day renovated Mission.

Mission Santa Clara de Assisi

October 9, 2012
San Jose CA

The day started out with a forecast for clouds and rain.  So I stayed close to home, rode over to Starbucks on El Camino Real.  Sat there working a story then searched for Mission Santa Clara and found that it is about 10 minutes from my coffee.  So I mounted up and rode east to Santa Clara University where the Mission is located in the relative center of campus. 

The mission was established in 1777 and is the 8^th oldest mission in California.  The University was found in 1851 by the Society of Jesuits and is the oldest institution of higher learning in California.  I never knew any of this and would still be unaware were it not for my riding the SCMA’s California Missions Tour.

Turning into the main entrance of the University I came upon the Security gate and was allowed to enter after explaining to the guard that I was visiting the Mission.  Then entrant road leads right up to the massive cross set in a circle in front of the Mission.  When I tried to take a photo of the cross with Sophia and me in it everything was darkened out because of the sun.  So I downloaded a photo of the Mission for ya’ll to see what it looks like when riding up to the mission. Truley magnificent....wish I had taken this photo.  But when you see the photo of me and Sophia below, angled from the sun, you'll understand why I couldn't capture the beauty of the Mission due to the sun blazing directly into the lens.

Pinnacles NP & Mission San Antonio

October 8, 2012
San Jose, CA

Since these two events are located south of Hollister where my Harley riding tweeple lives I gave her a call last night and asked if she was interested in a day ride.  It was good day for her to go riding so we met for breakfast at the airport Ding-a-Ling café.

It was a little cool in the morning so I dressed warmly and then headed out towards I-880.  Somehow I got totally turned around after making a wrong turn but Garmin finally recalculated and got me onto I-280 heading east towards US-101.  Then I experienced an interaction with the young urban driver who is in a hurry and needs to get to the next red light before the guy in front of him.  In this case, I was the guy in front of him. 

I was on a 4 lane road that led to the on-ramp of I-280.  In the process, the two north bound lanes I was on narrowed down to one.  And there is this yo-yo in the left lane behind me, no one else is behind us and there is one car about three car lengths in front of me.  So what does yo-yo do?  He speeds up, pulls in front of me, then puts on his brakes!

I reactively hit my pedal brake like in the car, simultaneously applying front brake pressure.  And of course, my heavy foot locks the rear tire and the bike swiftly swings the rear into a right skid.  While counter steering for the violent drift my foot unconsciously backs off on the pedal and then re-applies.  The bike straightens out and yo-yo has now let off of his brake and resumed speed forward up to the red traffic light.

Rosie & Muir

October 7, 2012
San Jose CA

Yesterday, by the time the shuttle bus dropped me off from O’Neil’s place, it was too late to ride to Rosie and get there before it closed.  So today’s objective is to visit Rosie in Richmond and then ride over to Martinez and visit the John Muir Historical Site.  Should be an interesting ride as well as visits to two sites.

Riding to the two sites was going to be an easy day’s ride covering about 140 miles.  There would be plenty of time to sightsee and make it back to SJ before dark for dinner with bro in law.  From San Jose I decided to visit Rosie first by taking I-880 to the I-580 and then using Garmin to get me to Rosie’s address on Marine Way I Richmond.  From there to the Muir Site the route would be I-80E to US-4 and exit Alhambra.  Returning to Sa Jose would be to get on I-680 and jump over to I-880 into San Jose.  The day would be a simple ride with the route being a straight forward route and a plus that I rode the 680 yesterday while riding to Mission San Jose. So I shouldn’t have any problems.  Heh heh heh…more to unfold.

The ride on 880 was great….no traffic!  Then I arrived in the south end of Oakland, possibly as early as Hayward, and traffic started building up.  The transition to 580 would have been a nightmare had I not cranked Rosie’s destination into Garmin.  I hit an interchange that was very convoluted, at least to me, but I followed Garmin’s instructions and successfully navigated thru it and to where Rosie was supposed to be. I say ‘supposed’ to be because,

NO ROSIE!!!  The Historical Site was no where to be found!

One Day, One National Park

October 6, 2012
San Jose

Woke up at a decent hour for once, 0730, could hear something banging so I decided to get up and go help my bro in law fix breakfast.  When I walked out into the kitchen however, there was no Bro in law….in fact, I could hear the shower running.  Found out later that he also woke up to the banging and thought it was me in the kitchen.  Turns out it is the crows.  They get various nuts from the trees and then get on the roofs and try to crack the shells open by banging the nuts against the tile roofs.  Damn, I hate those birds!

I took care of some emails, phone calls, etc., then loaded the bike up and strapped everything down.  It was easier today.  Was on the road by around 10 am and just took a leisurely ride down the 880 heading for Danville. 

My objective for the day is to visit the Eugene O’Neill National Historic Site, then Rosie The Riveter Memorial, over to the John Muir National Historic Site in Martinez, then up to Sonoma to visit the Mission in Sonoma and possibly another site.  Well, that fell apart slowly.

Riding up to Danville was a nice leisurely ride.  I was in no hurry.  Earlier calls to the Site confirmed that I did not need a reservation for Saturday and that shuttle service was mandatory from the town.  So I enjoyed the ride varying between 60 and 70mph….no need to hurry.

When I arrived in town, per the Garmin, I was at the site…yet there was nothing at that point that looked like a National Park.  A few more blocks and all I could find were shops so I turned around and headed back to where the Garmin said I had arrived.  The only thing I found was the Danville museum.  So I parked and went inside to ask for directions.  Gentleman inside was counting cash in the gift store and he told me that the shuttle did a visitor pickup out front and that one should be arriving in a few minutes.  Outside is where I then noticed the A-framed sign on the sidewalk….and the next shuttle was an hour and 10 minutes from showing up!

Actually,today was my lucky day .  In order to visit the Eugene O’Neil Historic Site one must have reservations….typically 2 weeks or more in advance.  Except Saturdays J.  And here I was…on a Saturday…and the last shuttle of the day was an hour away!

 

Mission San Jose

October 5, 2012

Surprise!  Mission San Jose is not located in the City of San Jose.  No indeed, it is located in the city of Fremont CA., which is about 19 miles from my brother in law’s house in San Jose.

This was a simple day ride, just to get out of the house and along the freeway to become familiar with one of the roads.  Google had me take a simple route, I-880 to Mission Blvd and I would find the Mission on my right.

It was an easy ride, good to get out of the house and begin my individual exploration of the area.  The freeway had a lot of congestion but speeds never dropped below 55mph until exiting on Mission.

When I got there I couldn’t find any distinctive signs to show my position.  And to take a photo similar to the one in the SCMA Passport was virtually impossible due to the heavy traffic on Mission Blvd.  It appeared that everyone was using this particular road to transverse from the freeways into the City of Fremont.   So I did the best I could do given the circumstances and took this shot of the building, a sign on the low post, and then a close up of that sign.

Two California Missions

October 1, 2012
San Jose, CA

It was nice to relax Saturday and Sunday; nowhere awaiting me to ride in on my steel pony.  I hung out with Lalo, my brother in Law, after finally getting up around 11am.  On Saturday we went out to our favorite restaurant for a pancake and egg breakfast.  It was nice to ride as a passenger in his car and then sit and relax over breakfast without thinking of reaching my next destination….nowhere to ride…yet. 

I’m very fortunate to have my in-laws living in San Jose.  There are a ton of National Parks/Sites and Missions in this area.  So I can stay at Lalo’s place and make day trips to each of the locales.  Also, I may have a riding partner for most of the rides.  One of my tweeples, @KarolHarley, resides in Hollister and is a retired blue uniform.  She rides a Road King and will meet up with me Monday for our ride to the missions in Santa Cruz and Carmel.  Hence, Sat/Sun was also planning days to figure out an efficient sequence to visit the required sites.

Karol arrived Monday around 9:30am and we headed out on 280 connecting to 17 south to Santa Cruz.  I’ve always loved and hated this road.  It’s a gorgeous ride thru the hills and getting out of the greater SF basis area.  The air is sweeter and the views are nice.  That’s the luv part. The problem with this two lane, sometimes bumpy, highway, is that there’s always a lot of traffic.  And for some reason the cage drivers need to get to their coastal destinations 5 minutes ago….they’re like in a NASCAR event or something.  Then the really fun part is when you come around a turn at 60-65 and find a 90+ year old driving at 45…yikes!

But we made it down the other side and Karol guided us through the streets and right up to the Mission….she’d been there a few times before.  She took the requisite photos of me in front of the mission then we went over to the gift shop to get the ‘stamp’ for the passport.  Ooops, they are closed on Mondays. So we took a photo of the operating hours sign.

Back on the road we headed thru downtown so I could see it (been a few years since the last time).  It was interesting to see the local movie theater marquee advertising the famous local movie “The Lost Boys”, one of my favs from back then.

Then we headed out to Monterrey.  It was a great ride along the coast and riding the hills.  Roads were good, traffic was acceptable with only a little construction in progress, and the sea air was a welcome change from the Bay Area.  Once in Monterrey Karol led us to Cannery Row where we parked the bikes right in front of Bullwhacker’s, next to a Dyna with camping gear, fishing pole, etc., loaded on it.

We went into Bullwhackers to have lunch and found that they make good sandwiches and burgers, while waiting for our food I noticed some folks at the other tables, like they were a tour group.  Then I picked up on the British accent.  Cool!  One guy was sitting with his wife (I assume) drinking a Corona.  I started chatting with him and asked if he had drank any of the better Mexican cerveza’s such as Modelo.  Nope….had never heard of them.  So I called the waitress over and ordered one for him.  The bloke overheard me and declined!  But then he explained that they had to get on the bus in a few minutes. 

That’s when I noticed a biker guy heading out of the patio so I called to him and asked if that was his bike out there.  He said no, his was parked down the street…then responded with “why were you asking?”  Being in a smart butt mood I replied, “I accidentally knocked it over” and “sure am glad it wasn’t you cuz you’re too much bigger than me!”  We all laughed, and some of the Brits laughed at this one too.  Then one of the Brit ladies asked for a photo shot with me….WOW! She was a cutie too…BUT…it was her husband taking the photo.  I did ask her, in a loud voice, “is that your husband?” “Yes” she replied.  With a smile I asked, “Does he know about us??”  Ahh, so much fun and laughter.  And it got me a great hug from her!

Then the place became empty with the touring Brits gone, our food arrived, and we started chowing down.  This is when it really got to be fun!  Good sized Dude walks up to our table and asks, “I heard you were looking for the guy that owns the bike out front.”  I almost fell outa my chair laughing.  Karol was busting a gut too.  We introduced ourselves and I explained that we were trying to pull a prank but it backfired cuz the other guy wasn’t the owner.  Seems the other guy, upon exiting the restaurant, saw the dude getting his bike ready to ride so he told him we were looking for him…something about knocking his bike over.  He told us that he inspected his bike all over but couldn’t find any damage.  And hearing that we were just yanking the other guy’s chain made him feel a lot better.  But the other guy sure turned the prank around on us!  Anyhow the gent stayed and chatted with us for about 15 minutes.  He’s from Alabama and is touring CA then heading home.

After lunch we got back out on CA-1 and headed south for Carmel.  This is where I took the lead ‘cuz I had programmed in the Mission’s address into the Garmin.  And I’m glad I did as it was a couple of lefties and righties on various streets….but Garmin brought us right to the front of the Mission!  After parking our bikes right at the entrance to the Gift Shop I went in and got the Mission stamp in the SCMA Passport.  I asked the lady volunteer if there was a Mission sign anywhere that I could position Sophia and I for a photo.  She said that unfortunately, there wasn’t one.  Seems that a year ago some vandals/thieves stole the one that was in front of the mission!  Holy Kwap!  Don’t these blasphemers realize they’re up for more than a life sentence when caught upon death??  Yeah, they’re like up for eternity!

Anyhow, we took a photo in front of the mission proper and one at the gift shop entrance so we could catch the shop hours sign next to the door.

I had been looking forward to visiting this mission once again in my life.  The previous time I was here I had the good fortune to walk my daughter down the aisle to take her vows with my future son in law from Wyoming!

Heading out of there Karol led us out on Carmel Valley road to the intersection of a winding road that connected with CA-68 heading for Salinas.  The rides were great!  In Salinas we stopped for a soft drink, got some fuel for the bikes, then headed north on El Camino Real, US-101, where Karol exited near Bautista and I continued on to San Jose.

It was a long day, a fun day, a great day for riding with a fellow riding enthusiast.  Wonderful vistas were enjoyed, memory lane was walked, had some good laughs with the Brits and great conversation with the dude from Alabama. 

And I now have 2 of 21 missions marked off to complete the SCMA California Mission Tour.

Ahhhh, retired life is good J.
C ya mañana,
Gonzo
Twitter: @GonzoCrossUSA
Email: GonzoCrossUSA@gmail.com
Cell: 949-433-0761