Calli Phone-ya

I woke up this morning and was puzzled by what I saw out the window of the cabin.  The sky was a strange light blue colour, and there was a large ball of bright yellow light shining down.  I remember seeing these things a long time ago.

I was pretty certain the rainsuit wouldn’t be required today.  It was still cold (a forecasted high of 12 degrees) but I would gladly deal with that in exchange for sunshine.

I set off into town to Carol’s diner for breakfast – it was recommended to me by the people at the KOA (but also happens to be the only place in town that serves breakfast).   After parking the Harley in front of the restaurant, I walked in with my shorty helmet and leather jacket on and immediately felt about 20 pairs of eyes on me, each at least 75 years old.  I’m sure I intruded on this closed senior citizens morning tradition, and most probably they had never seen any kind of biker in the restaurant before.  However, I did end up talking to one old geezer who was by himself, and clearly hasn’t been accepted by the local geriatrics yet.  I learned he recently moved his trailer from another town in Oregon to this one.  (I wouldn’t have been shocked if he had never travelled outside Oregon in his life.)  He figured he could sell his truck now as he wouldn’t need to tow his house anymore (the inference that he was going to die in this town).

On that happy note, and some bacon and eggs in me I set off down the 101 with a goal of reaching Eureka, California at the end of the day.

South of Waldport, the 101 improves and becomes truly great.  It becomes that stereotypical west-coast road people associate with California.

Yay!! What an awesome day!

While still in Oregon, I saw several of the signs below.  No wonder my Mom was worried about me going on this trip!

After about 150km into the day I started thinking it was a time for a break.  Just as I was about to start scoping out a coffee shop, another guy on a Harley pulled up beside me at a stoplight.  He had seen my Milton HOG jacket and asked if I was headed to the 101 Harley dealership.  He was heading there so I asked to follow him as it was only a couple miles away.  Since this was the "Highway 101" HD shop, I figured it had some caché, and I should make the stop and look around.

This dealership has the distinction of being the
western-most dealership in the continental US

I met this nice couple from Albuquerque, New Mexico.
They were heading north on the 101 and met them at the dealership.

After riding a while longer I stopped for lunch in a nice seaside town called Bandon.  While there I met another Dave, riding a Harley.  He asked me if I was on the way to the Redwood biker rally this weekend, but unfortunately I knew nothing about it.  Sounds like a big event - typically about 5000 bikers in tents with bands playing.  No time on this trip though!

Downtown Bandon 

Lunch at the Minute Cafe 

Dave and his 1982 Shovelhead.  He bought it new
and is still riding it!  Love those "Batmobile" black
and orange wheels - Original HD Equipment!

After lunch I pressed on and made my way further south.  There were lots more great roads and eventually arrived at the California border.

When I stopped to take the picture entering California, I met a pleasant young woman from Melbourne who was sadly finishing up her trip to the US and Canada.  I continue to be amazed with the interesting people you meet when you just choose to turn and say "Hi, How are you doing?"

After riding a short while in California, the 101 enters the Redwood forest.  Regretfully I didn't get any pictures.  The road through the forest is quite twisty (and fun) so I wasn't too inclined to try to snap pictures, one-handing the bars on this road.  There were very few places to pull off and when I saw any, I was already zooming past them.  But the stories are indeed true.  These trees are humongous and I saw several trees whose trunk diameters were 10 feet wide or more (about the width of a lane). See typical photo below I ripped off the internet.

Photo courtesy of trign.com

I turned around on the 101 to go back and take a photo here at the
entrance to a tourist attraction called the "Trees of Mystery".  I think you go
in to buy trinkets and look at big trees that you can see for free everywhere.
I just had to get a picture taken with these giant wood carvings.
60/70's classic American Grand Fromage - Love it!

I continued riding for a spell getting low on gas.  Riding with 28km left on your range can get your adrenaline going.  (A Chevron did appear for me in time.)


So, my plan was to get back in the tent tonight and I had chosen Eureka, CA as a destination mainly because: (1) it had KOA, and (2) it was about 1/2 way between Waldport and San Francisco.  As I arrived in Eureka, it was a town that was a little bigger than I had anticipated and also, my GPS was indicating this KOA was more or less right in the town.  Sort of "urban camping", I guess.  Now, if this town had looked like, say, Oakville or Burlington then...no problem.  But downtown Eureka was not Oakville.  Let's just say I would not be surprised if they have a big Crystal Meth problem to deal with.


I didn't take any pictures because I didn't want to be flashing a $250 camera, because I'm sure that's worth a few nights of meth partying.  (if you're interested in crime stats for Eureka, click here.  They score a "3", indicating they have better crime stats than 3% of American cities.  i.e. they score worse than 97%.)


Needless to say, I wasn't sleeping in a tent in Methville.  I had no idea where I was going to go, but I just kept riding.  Fortunately at the south end of town it got a little better and found a nice Best Western.


Locked in for the night.


San Francisco tomorrow!