Monday, January 7, 2013

Last Friday I woke up very early

and headed south


it was raining and I was trying to focus my eyes on the road.  I left home before 5am and about 45 minutes later


I crossed the imaginary 49th parallel


and entered into the United States and found one door open, just for me


20 minutes or so later I found myself at the Port of Bellingham, the location of the Bellingham International Airport


It is not yet 6am.    I was the only one to be scanned through security.  They don't have to tell me to take off my shoes and put all my metal items into a container to be scrutinized.  I am processed in record time

Soon the world awakens and more people arrive and it is time to board our plane


You really feel like you are travelling somewhere when you have to walk onto the tarmac and board your plane using the outside gangway

A mere 2 hours later we arrived at OAKland International where my car was waiting.   I had a rendezvous with an important Kiwi Visitor with a Kiwi accent.   I arrived a few hours earlier so I decided to drive over the San Mateo toll bridge

Toll Plaza


It is a very long bridge which is just south of SFO: San Francisco International airport.  I had not eaten anything since around 4:30am when I finished my small bowl of Tony the Tiger's Frosted Flakes so I took a detour to Burlingame so I remain close to the airport


this small town has a  nice feel to it.  I had a croissant stuffed with eggs and ham and it was delicious


soon enough I got the message to pick up Roger, from NZ .  Not to be confused with that other large Island which is located only 2" to the left

Roger had not eaten and was famished, so I suggested that we head over to that Iconic Motorcycle hangout,  Alice's Restaurant in Woodside, CA

Roger, looking at their t-shirt collection


It was getting late so we headed into town so we could get Roger checked into his hotel and took CA35 north and we came across 2 small deers when we came around a corner.  They were just standing in the middle of the road.  We stopped and soon they disappeared up the embankment


I don't know my way around so I was relying on my GPS to guide us there.  We got stuck in horrendous gridlocked traffic and some lane splitting bikes caught me off guard.  Slowly but surely we inched our way and eventually we arrived at Roger's residence for the next few days


More bloggers are on their way and will arrive tomorrow .  .  .   (to be continued)


19 comments:

  1. wow look at that bay area traffic... alices must have been a great lunch!

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    1. Ms M:

      I knew we were going to be caught in this traffic but we had no choice as I don't know the shortcuts. I only follow the voice in my GPS. I like Alice's, we were here during the summer about a year or so ago when the weather was warmer. There are great roads to and from Alice's

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  2. Can't wait to hear the rest of the story. Alice's is a cool place and a must for riders visiting the area.

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    1. Sonja:

      You would like the roads down here, and also down to the Coast south to Big Sur where we went last time we were here. I am hoping that the next time I visit I will be here on my bike.

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  3. Looking forward to part 2 of ?. One of these years I'll make it to Alice's Restaurant.

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    1. Richard:

      I know you are "grounded" next year but I plan to ride down there in 2014, so start making plans NOW. We'll make sure to include Alice's Restaurant this time. When we ride we have to eat . . . Right ?

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  4. So Bob, is it true? Can you get anything you want, at Alice's Restaurant?

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    1. David:

      what do you have in mind ? I suppose, somewhere, everything is available. You'll have to see for yourself. Put your key into that Pewter coloured thing and head West. Meet you there for lunch in 2014

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  5. Did they let you board the plane super early too? Or wait until everyone else arrived. Why are there cars in Alice's parking lot??? And not full of motorbikes?

    That traffic looks horrid! And lane splitting bikes freak me out!

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    1. Lori:

      believe it or not, it was around 2°c in the morning so it was cold. There were a handful of bikers at Alice's but during the summer, it is mostly bikes.

      You can't board by yourself, you have to wait until the crowds arrive. SFO traffic is like a nightmare and I was passed by lane splitters and it scared me at first as we can't split up here. I don't think they are riding by the lane splitting rules. You are only allowed a certain differential speed and only slalom around cars a certain number of times in so many feet, so if you were going around too many within that distance, then you are not following the rules.

      I also think the bikes were squeezing into too narrow "slots" and being too close to the cars as they passed. These are only my opinions

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  6. It was a great first off, and bob even brought me t-sort to prove it!

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    1. Roger:

      we aim to please and try to show you around. I was hoping that you liked the roads to Alice's, narrow and twisty. Too bad we had to follow that truck and luckily we stopped in time when those two baby deer showed up around that corner.

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  7. I too am waiting for part two...I like your pictures, almost like having a virtual holiday!

    I'm slowly getting caught up with the dates on your blog...sorry you had so much trouble earlier this year.

    Suzu

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    1. Suzu:

      thank you for tagging along. I am just doing photo essays of our Blogger's weekend in San Francisco. So sorry my previous photos have been deleted by the closure of Webshots, which was my image host provider. It is too onerous to spend the time to restore my old posts. I am just moving forward but it was upsetting to me that I don't have archives to look back on

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  8. Looking forward to the rest of the story ... that was (just)one thing that raised my eyebrow in Sanfrancisco - the lane splitting and shoulder riding bikes...not for this Canadian: I parked the bike and took a bus to the warf.

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    1. Karen:

      I wasn't expecting the bikes to rush past. It surprised me. In my opinion some riders are pushing it and are riding unsafely.

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  9. I think I have another place to check out next time I ride way out west! Maybe I can convince my riding buddy to come with me to CA some summer. I want to ride Yosemite and the coast again. Thanks for the pictures.

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    1. Erik:

      I will probably be riding my bike to CA during Summer 2014. I want to ride the "Lost Coast" and then south but only as far as Salinas or Morro Bay. Would like to avoid LA, then head East via Route 66, so I could meet you down there.

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  10. And the Kiwi invasion has started, glad to see you guys meet, the SOTG didn't want to visit me in NJ or NY :-(

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