San Francisco to Monterey 13th June 2010 (Day 1)

Today the journey starts for real. We are leaving San Francisco and heading down to Monterey mostly off the main roads.

We started the journey by heading north - perfectly sensible when Monterey is south of San Francisco. There was method to the madness as we were heading back up to collect James and Polly at whose house the barbecue had been held the previous evening. (Big thanks to both). James also rides a BMW and Polly was ecstatic at being able to go out on a ride with a group of BMWs which would outnumber the Harley groups. :-)

The ride ran from James and Polly's out to follow Highway 1 back down the coast to the Golden Gate bridge. We spent the morning together and separated from James and Polly at the bridge and riding down through San Francisco to take the road south to go through the Big Basin Redwoods State Park. Impressive. We stopped to eat at a bike meet cafe called Alice's Restaurant named after the Arlo Guthrie song (not the actual one in the song. They catered for all makes of bike owners with different burgers. Naturally I tried the BMW burger and it was pretty tasty!

Onwards and downwards south to Monterey home of Cannery Row etc. The road round Monterey Bay has some pretty weird weather. There seemed to be a standing bank of very cold fog that is so regular there are permanent road signs warning drivers they must put their lights on at a certain point then later advising them they can switch off. It certainly affected the temperature. At its hottest that day we had been riding in temperatures of 34 degrees C. in the fog it dropped to 14! Brrrrr - we were not dressed for that. By the time we reached Monterey all that had cleared and we had a nice evening. We were late pulling into Monterey and so we just went down the road for a quick bite and a pint.

The next destination is Three Rivers on the way into the Sierra Nevada, bu tthat will be a separate post!