From Pine Trees to Palm Trees

We left Railroad Flat, CA on March 24 for Hanford, CA. It was a narrow, twisty drive - one which we will do again on two wheels. The road was perfect - for bikes! A truck and trailer - not so much! Along the way we ate at a little diner called the Airport Inn at Mariposa, CA. It was a diner and bar, smelt of cigarette smoke, dark and small, but the food was awesome.

We arrived in Hanford, CA on the 24th to stay with a friend we met at a SabMag ride a couple of years ago. We had met Raquel once before and she invited us to stay at her house when I contacted her to tell her we would be in the area. When we got there she had a room all ready for us. We had planned on staying in the trailer, but she was all set up for us. That's one of the best things we have discovered during our adventures. We share a common bond - motorcycling - which allows us to meet people either on the road or on the Internet - who we would probably not meet otherwise. They open their houses to us, feed us, entertain us - or allow us to entertain them - acquaintances turn into good friends, some of whom turn into great friends. They share their lives with us. We get to experience things we would more than likely not experience on our own.

For example, on Friday Raquel took us to Hearst Castle in San Simeon. We would not have visited it otherwise. We had heard about it, but that was about it. It was a nice ride there, stopped at the spot where James Dean wrecked his car, got to see some California coast line, and spent a few hours at Hearst Castle.

http://hearstcastle.org

We had a most excellent lunch at the Main Street Grill in Cambria.

http://www.firestonegrill.com/main-street-grill

After the ride home we had ice cream at a local ice cream shop with Raquel and another SabMag friend, David.

https://www.facebook.com/Superior-Dairy-127202640655119

That was a first for Jim - the servings were so huge he was unable to finish his desert. He may never live down the shame.

On Saturday we did some more riding with Raquel and Ruth Ann, then had a most excellent dinner with David and his wife, Alice. We ran into some snow along the way and saw some beautiful scenery.

On Easter Sunday, we went for breakfast and a ride with Raquel and David on some MOST EXCELLENT roads. The weather was perfect, the roads were perfect, and the company was perfect. After the ride we went to Zaytoona's, a Mediterranean restaurant.

https://www.facebook.com/zaytoona.hanford

Another first for us. With a little help from our friends, we had a wonderful dinner.

Monday morning after breakfast Raquel took us to the Monday flea market where a person could find almost anything imaginable. We left for the Death Valley area after that. It was a windy drive, but we made it to Boulder Creek RV Park around 6 p.m.

http://www.bouldercreekrvresort.com/

Tomorrow we plan to do some local sight seeing and hiking.

While we were in Seaside, OR, there were wind gusts up to 90 m.p.h. The roads and rivers flooded and trees were being blown over. We went and saw a friend in Washington and stopped to see a movie on the way back. When we got back to the trailer one of the bikes had blown over. Thankfully the trailer kept it from hitting the ground. A small indentation was made by the handlebar end. We got to spend a couple of days with some of our friends - Brian, Dana, and Nancy - playing games and eating lots of wonderful food. It was a great way to spend a couple of rainy and windy days.

We had a few hours of sunshine to take advantage of, so drove up to Rockaway Beach to Twin Rocks, and of course to Tillamook for ice cream.

After leaving Seaside area we drove down to Gold Beach, Oregon - the rain following us the entire way. We stayed in Gold Beach three nights and had a couple of days of sunshine to go hiking and beach combing.

We stayed one night in Nice, CA on our way to Jim's Grandma's house in Railroad Flat, CA, where we were able to see family. Jim had just enough time with the nephews and niece to teach them the fine art of wet willies and nuggies. We were treated to lunch by our friend Ron from the Sabmag (Sabre-Magna) list.

We will be leaving tomorrow to head to Death Valley to hopefully see the Super Bloom. From there, Hoover Dam and Rt 66. We're hoping to meet up with some more friends along the way, eventually heading to my Uncle's place in Missouri.

The Maiden Voyage

The Maiden Voyage is complete. We drove from Sunnyside, WA to Seaside, OR today. The wind was horribly bad and the Portland section wasn't fun, but we made it incident free. Yeah Us!! We made a brief stop at Camping World in Troutdale and met up with a friend for a few minutes.

On the Saturday prior to departure I spent a few hours with four of the gals I worked with in Baker City. We hit the mall and had lunch in Tri-Cities. We had fun catching up and telling stories. My fortune cookie was rather interesting:

On Sunday I said "see ya later" to my family and finished up at Mom's house. Her place has been sold and the new owners take possession in 60 days. That was a rough day. By the end of the day I was a mess. Poor Jim had to take Buddy and Charlie to their temporary home by himself. I wasn't fit for leaving the house by that point.

We pulled out between 9 and 10 - not bad considering we had a 9 a.m. departure planned and this was our first trip out. We had a few errands to do in town, then hit the road.

We made it to Bud's RV Park outside of Seaside around 5. Getting the trailer and bikes set wasn't to bad for our first go 'round. One bike moved a little bit, but thanks to the wheel chock no damage was done. Once we discovered that and tightened the straps everything rode great. The truck pulled the trailer well, even with a strong head wind. I don't think we'd want to go any bigger with the trailer or smaller with the truck. We found a nice diner to eat in, made a grocery run, and are now settled in for the night.

On Wednesday we're driving or riding up to Washington (depending on the weather) to see a friend and visit her husband's art show. On Friday and Saturday a few friends are staying close by so we can hang out for a while and tell tall tales to each other. Other than that, we'll explore the area and play on the beach.

Day 1 = a great success.