Following my last blog entry I made it to Medford and ended up staying at an RV lot just off the highway. I went to the motorcycle shop to find it closed as everyone from the shop was supposed to be down at the race track. I headed to the track on the bike but I found the place void of life. It was a good thing in the end as I decided to Google my ‘clutch problems’ and was able to fix it with a minor adjustment of the hand guard. Who would have thought a slipping clutch would be caused by a misaligned hand guard.
I spent the next day cruising the area around Ashland and Jacksonville. Both of these towns are very nice. Jacksonville has a historic area that is right out of the California gold rush days but all the stores are filled with the same crap… antiques and stuff to make your bathroom smell pretty. I managed to take in the Shakespearean ‘Henry the VIII’ live theatre production at the Ashland ‘Globe’ theater and honestly I was quite bored. Again, the town was cool, the costumes, the stage, and the production as a whole was very good, but I should have got tickets to Hamlet or stayed in that Irish pub.
I left Oregon the next day and found myself in a RV park at Shasta Lake California that had campers and permanent residents alike. I got to meet ‘The Trailer Park Boys’ and I would swear the only guys that were missing was Bubbles and Mr. McKayhee. They all had stories of heartbreak and prison. They had very little, but what they did have they were very generous with. Dave jokingly (I think) even tried to link me up with his ex-wife. I think the exercise he was doing on ‘Tony Little’s’ cardio machine affected his words. It was the best… I have never seen anybody do something like that with a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other. He was going full out too!
I did a bike trip to Lassen Volcano and around Lake Almanor that was uneventful except right in the vicinity of the volcano where it was very pretty. The next day I rode up to the Shasta dam which had a great twisty but short highway loop.
I then relocated to a basic camp (find Waldows camp in the picture) in Douglas City on Hwy 299 in the Trinity area. I did a loop that ended up taking me 7 hours. It went North on Hwy 3, across the mountains going west from Calahoo, south on 96 to Willow Creek and then back to camp. The road from Calahoo became so narrow that 2 vehicles would not be able to pass and they were very twisty and rolling in areas. I actually had to stop a couple of times as I was getting nauseous from concentrating so hard on the very tight curves and roller coaster roads. I managed to survive that and took the next day off to kick back and do a little walking around the camp area.From there I drove to the coast and as far as Mendocino which is also a very cool little tourist trap. I stayed there only long enough to send out a few emails before I rolled into a state campground after dark. From Mendocino I drove through the Napa Valley, through San Francisco, and set-up camp in Half Moon Bay. Half Moon Bay was a nice camp spot right on the beach but I had grief with the park staff. I got back from SF a little late and they were going to tow my stuff away. I told the host I was going to be late but things got all mixed up and the word didn’t get to the warden. It was Fleet Week in SF so there was an air show featuring the Blue Angels, and of course the streets were filled with ‘live performances'. It was pretty cool to watch the air show from Alcatraz island.
After Half Moon Bay I hit the highway pretty hard and only stopped to get a new tire for the bike, get a service on the van, do laundry, and buy Mexico map software for my GPS. I confess to having camped in the Wal-Mart parking lot and on the street near the motorcycle shop. What has become of me???? The weather has been very wet and I haven’t even tried to get on the bike. I hope to cross into Baja Mexico today. I have decided that I have to travel down Baja and store the ‘vehicles’ in Cabo otherwise I will violate the ‘temporary importation of vehicle’ laws of Mexico that stipulates I can only have a vehicle in Mexico (Baja exempt) for 6 months. Once in Cabo I plan to store the van and travel to the mainland by bike. I will travel around for a month or so before returning to Cabo and trading the bike for the van. If anyone is heading to Cabo and want a bike for wheels let me know. It’s insured and has new rubber. All my riding gear will be in storage with it.
Sorry for abbreviating the last 3 weeks into a relatively short story but you can ask me more about it when I see you next… Today is Thursday, October 15th and I am at the laundry in Chula Vista California about 30 km from the border with Mexico.
Ok, now it’s October 17th and I will be travelling to Bahia De Angeles on the Sea of Cortez tomorrow. I crossed at Tijuana without incident and camped 2 nights just south of Ensenada.
Ensenada was very quiet. The streets and shops are empty and it didn’t hold my attention for very long. I walked around for a few hours in the afternoon, got a tire on my van fixed, and spent the rest of the time around camp getting a little exercise, reading, and practicing my Spanish.
