Rocket and Me: Newport to San Francisco

It has been a busy three days since posting last from Newport, Oregon.

Newport to Arcata

Mark and I had two long days of riding, one to Arcata, California, then one to Santa Rosa, California. Both days were 10 to 11 hours, including the usual stop at Dutch Brothers Coffee, breakfast and lunch, plus another coffee somewhere along the way.

The ride from Newport to Arcata was all down 101. Traffic was light and the views spectacular. They included seaside beaches and huge rock cliffs and redwood forests. unusual sights for this Florida boy.

The view from our hotel in Newport.

Mark's favorite Coffee. I like it too.

Riding along the Oregon coast.

I can now add California to my scooted in map.

Redwood forest.

And we found my kind of hotel in Arcata. Old, lightly renovated downtown hotel.

Arcata to Santa Rosa

We left Arcata at 8:30 in a light rain. As usual, this meant no GPS for me, as my car GPS goes haywire when it gets a drop of water on the screen. It thinks it is my finger.

But we found a Dutch Brothers and the skies cleared.

We rode down 101, here a four lane highway but void of cities or much traffic through Redwood forests. It was a beautiful ride. Because there were no towns, it took a while to find a village large enough to have a decent restaurant for breakfast. But we found one in the Woodrose Cafe in Garberville .

We then turned onto 1, that took us on a very tight stretch of 20 plus miles through the mountains to the sea. Mark slowed, feeling that he was about to run out of fuel, but I reassured him that he had plenty left. We found a one pump, regular only station and he took enough fuel to get to a bigger station down the road.

1 was similar to 101 in Oregon, with beautiful beach views at every turn.

But the highlight of the day was turning onto Scaggs Spring Road, a 40 mile twisty ribbon of road between 1 and 101. It ran through forests into mountains with the golden hills showing off the beauty of California. The sun shown the entire distance. It was cold, but the sun made it so much better.

We ran past many wineries on the way to Healdsburg, then decided to spend the night at the Vintners Inn outside of Santa Rosa. We were tired after the 11 hour ride and dined at the hotel's restaurant.

Along 101

A good find for breakfast

Big Redwoods on 1

The stop for gas

Beautiful, desolate scenery

Coffee in Fort Bragg

Along Scaggs Springs Road

Wineries galore

Santa Rosa to San Francisco

Mark needed his new scooter serviced by a friend who has a dealership in Santa Rosa. I decided to head south for a ride with my good scooter friend Penni.

I arrived at her house in Mill Valley right on time at 10:00. After lugging my luggage what must have been one hundred steps, she gave me a tour of her 119 year old house. It is a winner.

We then got on our scooters for a wonderful, if largely cold and wet ride to Point Reyes National Seashore. The roads were terrific and the company even better. Penni can truly ride with the best of them. Some parts of the ride were through fog so thick that I almost got lost, just 50 feet behind her. That art was interesting, but not fun.

We rode around for a couple of hours, then met Mark and Penni's husband Peter for lunch at a place in Sausalito called Fish. The food was perfect, fresh and well prepared.

Then Mark joined us for another ride around the towns in the area. Many hills, fine and not so fine homes and views to the city and the Golden Gate Bridge.

We got back to the house by 5:30, sat around the dining room table, then Mark and I headed for out hotel near the airport.

Te ride through town and on the highway to the hotel made me change my mind about a dinner gathering of Cannonball riders and friends downtown. I was cold and tired and needed to write this blog entry.

I ended up eating at In-N-Out. Not bad but the burger was not as good as the Loop at home.