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Entire West Coast Ride - Party in Half Moon Bay 9/7.

The Ride Day 8 – Morro Bay to Santa Monica

227 Miles planned 250 miles or so as ridden

227 Mile Planned Map as planned

Map as what I think we did

Away we go for another day leaving the beautiful Morro Bay and the days drama behind. We headed to the east, and took Los Osos Valley Road through the farms back to join Hwy 101 South of San Luis Obispo. We head up and over the mountains and drop back down to the coast at Shell Beach and rejoin Hwy 1 at Pismo Beach where the dunes offer offroad enthusiast a chance to play in the sand. I have enjoyed that more than a few times!!!

We continued south to Dinosaur Caves Beach a beautiful spot to get some drone footage as it is very picturesque for sure. We pulled in to the soaring squadrons of Pelicans and an overcast but brilliant view. The boys explored the view as I did and the amount of pelicans on that one rock was amazing.

I walked to a sit spot and spied an interesting gent wearing a John 3:16 shirt. I said hello and he asked “What is going on is this a midlife crises thing?” I laughed and said more like a 2/3 life thing.. no we are out riding the entire west coast. After a question or two more I asked him his name and if he was cool being on film. I saw an opportunity to have someone sort of allow me to layout the whole scenario of what we were doing on this ride.

Jimmy Vargas said sure and I sat down next to him while BZ set up a camera. The chat that followed was gold. For sure good stuff. After that we headed to our bikes and he followed saying I am a Pastor would it be OK to provide a blessing for the rest of your trip. I said sure and clicked on my GoPro. Can’t remember exactly what it was but it was really cool and so uplifting and cute. Something like Dear Lord… I come to you today to ask you to bless these guys on the search to find a good life on their motorcycles. May they ride with the winds during their 2/3rd life crisis on their amazing machines… yada yada. It was pretty sweet. Glad I had that moment.

Then we headed off the coast again and a planned stop for riders at Vandenberg Air Force Base Visitor Center but we missed it. We then passed through Lompoc and into the hillsides to Las Cruces where again we joined Hwy 101.

The Ritz Carlton Santa Barbara announced a welcome to affluence again and off the coast for a bit until we hit East Beach. We wondered through the neighborhoods on to Carpenteria for lunch where hit the Padro Beach Grill for lunch on the patio overlooking the beach. It was a cool spot and the patio was really awesome.

After lunch we headed up the coast and headed up to the iconic Rock Store..! The main road in was closed so we did not get to pose for Ricky Mouse :laughing

It was pretty damn empty actually with only two other riders there, both mature riders, both cool dudes. We went in and looked around. I as planned I bought a shirt and we grabbed a drink. I chose a Mountain Dew just because I had not had soda and I like it. However that sure did invite the yellow jackets to try to steel my soda at one point one slipped in and damned if I did not gulp them into my mouth!! A quick spit put the bastard on the ground without any damage to my tongue or other oral parts :laughing

Heading out we got screwed up and ended on the freeway missing some of the coast where the rich folk live. When we got to Santa Monica it was a cluster… no chance to park at the pier, trying to figure out where the crew had gone. Several attempts took us to pay to play parking lots finally finding Will Rodgers Beach favorable. We did a couple interviews and when I stepped in on Enchanter we invented a new one… a discussion with Bud. It was interactive and fun!!

After finishing up we went to the Santa Monica Motel. The place was packed. It was still pretty hot and they had NO A/C!! $200 bux a night and no A/C, but we got a fan and they did have shampoo and conditioner!!

Showered and refreshed we decided a bar was not happening given the time so we just went to dinner. Turned out to just be a few of us vs. the whole crew as BZ was freaking out saying I lost a day.. I lost a day!!. I thought with all the data he misplaced it and would find it (he did.. in the trash!)
It was another long walk up and down hills and man I was really damn tired at this point. We Ubered back after a good meal at the The Galley Restaurant[/url which was all sparkly with accent lights everywhere. Perhaps that is why the guys got so romantic :laughing

Being tired we passed on the Bar and went back to the motel we chilled.. ha right!!! The damn room door stayed open with the fan blowing in until 11pm.

It was a good day, but too many people compared to where we had been traveling through in the end.

Previous pics [url=https://www.bayarearidersforum.com/forums/showpost.php?p=10928683&postcount=123]HERE


A few more below.
 

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Man, that heat'll get ya! I ditched my dynaplug kit for a regular rope plug kit after I failed to plug that guys tire on the way to Taft, ideally I'll never need to find out if it works better.
 
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The Ride Day 9

The Ride Day 9 - Santa Monica to San Diego
144 Miles Planned.. actual close to that.

Map as planned


The last day of our official PCH run will take us to San Diego. Once again, we will hug the coast and get to see some awesome places to live with so many backing right up to the beaches. We had a quick brekkie and Chill snapped a pic of his bike on location parked in a red zone BTL!! :laughing

Today was going to have some more fun and Enchanter had a plan to deliver Baby!!!! How he was to going to deliver was with a mechanical baby strapped to his seat and placing a BABY ON BOARD placard on his stitch. The Baby simulated crawling, turned it head and cried for Daddy too!!! We started to ride through the City and found that we were fluxered right out of the gate by the Santa Monica Classicrunning race – Damn humans trying to have fun when I want to ride! :laughing

Immediately we found streets blocked and when we were directed elsewhere the instructions sucked and the next street was blocked… and the next. :rant
We turned around several times and finally Enchanter said fug it and went away from the havoc before resuming our route plan. Along the way people were exposed to the so non-PC image of a poor infant strapped to a motorcycle. The kid could not reach the footpegs!!!

I noted several people taking pictures, Mako and I tried to capture images with my helmet mounted GoPro. Kids stopped and pointed, one woman just rolled down the window laughing saying “That is so AWESOME… even a BABY ON BOARD sign!!” I am sure more had moments I did not see as I did have to ride, but it was good fun.

This carried on down the freeway (where the baby’s hair was getting a good blow!) and eventually back to HWY 1 and through some populated areas before reaching Crystal Cove State Beach. We had the film crew step up for a drone shoot. Once again it took 3 times to find the right damn entrance. :rant Finally we did and we rolled to a stop… of course in a red zone (BTL!).

I found Silent J sitting under an umbrella enjoying a bit of time not working or driving!

It was now getting hot and once again we were behind schedule, but nothing major (20 minutes I think).

We checked out the view and then Enchanter found a bolt had disappeared from his kick stand leaving just one of two. He pulled tools from the sprinter and went to work trying to get it secured so it would not to rub on his chain. Thankfully he got it done, because we did not have spare bolts (lesson for next time). The repairs extended our stay and we were once again looking at a gas station lunch.

We dropped the kiddo in the sprinter and continued south to Laguna Beach, through Huntington beach, Dana Point and it was getting hotter.. the low 90’s.

It seemed like every city had something going on and traffic sucked. It was pretty, the architecture interesting but we were all fading. By the time we hit San Clemente Enchanter had enough needing a break that we all did!!! Lunch finally!!! We hung in the shade sitting on the ground downing Gatorade, eating whatever fine cuisine we had noted.

Somewhere south of that we went back to HWY 5 to start to make up time and save our asses from the traffic and the oppressive heat. Who the hell planned to go through So Cal on a Sunday :rant (oh yeah me). We needed to get to the Vet Memorial at Mt. Soledad before hitting San Diego proper and going to KC BBQ. It seemed a bit cooler on the Freeway and I was feeling a lot better when we got to the Memorial. The drone was flying and I bet the footage will be sweet!

Mt. Soledad is awesome. A 360 degree view of San Diego and the coast. We checked out the memorial where Enchanter had a friend and I found Pappy the BAD ass too!. Well he showed me Pappy Bowington. Totally cool. There was a breeze up there and that was refreshing, but still hot. We decided to forgo PT. Loma which gave us time to set up for some Rider interviews with Budman and those were fun for sure. I did everyone except Enchanter.

Watching the clock KSU was called and we all headed to downtown and some food with one more interview to do. That one was with Enchanters TOPGUN Commander Rick “Wigs” Ludwig. Rick is retired but a noteworthy pilot dude flying every kind of jet over his career and teaching combat tactics to many Navy Pilots. Vietnam vet with over 300 Combat missions… yes he is a BAD ASS!!

KC BBQ was pretty packed and they gave us a side room, but it was open to the bar so it would be a bit of a challenge to keep the happy campers quiet when we did our thing. The Skipper (as Enchanter called him) was awesome and the banter fun as hell!!! The crowd was pretty good and we got in a good chat with Wigs. We got some fun facts about Pilot call names and that the F-18 was his favorite. He told us the new TOP GUN movie was very realistic and well done and the original was full of Hollywood BS.

I asked what would happen if someone did a fly by like Maverick did and the answer came out quick.. he would be gone!!.. He did share when he was able to do a flyby his Father's house though and that was much loved.

I bought dinner for all as a trip thank you and the food was great!! KC BBQ provided the drinks and were a great host. I had to buy a shirt. :teeth

If you want to know more about Wigs you can watch this.

[youtube]fZ0Q0nbo1nM[/youtube]

Then to the motel right on the Harbor and on to Club Miramar for our last night of comradery. With a 9 hour drone home the next day I did not get to crazy.

We made it.. 9 days over 1800 miles through rain, heat, deer, crazed tourists and more. I would call our trip 85% successful in my minds eye as far as what filming we were able to achieve. Damn cool experience. Thanks for following along!! :thumbup

And to the ride crew.. thanks for dealing with my impatient Sargent Stedenko mandates on our time and enjoying the adventure with me!!!
It was a shit ton of fun!!!!

Past pics here HERE and a few more pics below and in following post.
 

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More pics

A few more for ya. ;)
 

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Thanks for taking us along, gonna be sweet to see the video once it is done.
 
It was an honor to be part of this, even in a small way.
I am dying to see some of the footage. Chief interview? Ride blessing?
Kill us with teasers.
 
Thanks guys... the last day of the ride was home.
San Diego to the Bay Area in one day. We ended up breaking into two groups because SLO, Enchater and Chill wanted to hit 33. I thought that with the recent flash floods and weather and how tired I was .. you guys have fun. Mako and I would head towards 5 / 58 and then to 101.

On 5 we hit construction. A solid 35 minutes or more of tough splitting finallly got us free and what the hell.. one more gas station lunch :laughing

58 was fun... but in my exhausted state I forgot to put the bike in sport mode. Mako pulled a gap and I chalked it up to not feeling it.. well I wasn't really but still enjoying it.

We ran to low range before getting gas on 101. It had been hot.. again through the valley and I watered down my cooling vest again. Continuing on when we neared Salinas the wind was super brutal and it was cooling quickly. I was trying to zip vents while riding in tough conditions and calculating range. Thankfully it warmed back up past Prundale and the wind while still strong was no longer brutal.

In San Jose I had to stop for gas one last time. Thought I could make it by getting out of the wind, but nope. 9am KSU had me back at 7ish. Long day, but actually the body parts were not hurting like they would on a normal rally ride home. Hmmm...

Already looking at the interivews and BZ is busy cataloging film by day, hour, rider etc.. Huge task.

I must say Chief Jason Younker of the Coquille Indian Tribe was great. You can tell he is well versed in Public speaking and just a genuinely nice guy. Will do Wigs in the next couple days. Certainly not the technical stuff that is in the video above, but way more fun about his experiences.

Bike is finally washed and ready to ride this weekend. :thumbup

Thanks to all the bugs that gave up their lives for my joy.
 
It was an honor to be part of this, even in a small way.
I am dying to see some of the footage. Chief interview? Ride blessing?
Kill us with teasers.

You will have to wait grasshopper. All footage will remain private for a while to meet our hope of actually being able to produce the whole thing. Our deal with the Chief and The Mill is everything must be blessed as well before sharing anything.

The riders will get a chance to see a bit of course as it is developed. I think you rode right?? :teeth
 
Wise words:
“Thanks to all the bugs that gave up their lives for my joy”
 
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