The Californian treasures of Route 1

Another beautiful day full of sunshine welcomed us that morning. Good, today was going to be a pretty long riding day as we wanted to be in San Francisco by the end of the day so sun would be much appreciated. On top of that, we were planning to take a famous riding route in California: Route 1. Not the fastest to get us to destination but definitively the most fun. As we prepared to leave Route 101 and enter the start of Route 1, we passed a pretty big group of motorcycle riders: looks like we were not the only ones who were going to have fun that day.

Chicken strips are gone

Right at the start of the road, there was a fun attraction Chad did not want to miss: a Redwood tree you could drive through. We took the bikes and went down the dirt road into the park: the Chandelier tree, 2,400 years old and 317 feet high was there waiting for us. We did drive through it, much more easily that some big SUVs that were waiting in line. Nothing heroic but fun enough to take a few good pictures. After that, we were ready for the challenge of the road.
It started well: a few downhill switchbacks marked at 15 Mph with big yellow signs. The rest of the road was fun alike, reminding us of the Tail of the Dragon that we rode in Tennessee with 318 curves in 11 miles. Route 1 was much longer and had even more curves and steep up and down portions. The beautiful scenery made it even more challenging to keep focusing on the road: shaded lush forest following by dramatic views of the rugged North California coast. It really does not get any better. During the ride, Caroline was leaning so much that she scraped her boots twice on the asphalt: no sparks coming out of them but decent scratches. At the end of the ride, we look at our rear tires to evaluate our chicken strips. A chicken strip is the amount of rubber left on the edge of each tire that has not touched the road because you have not leaned enough for the edge of the tire to make contact with the road. The bigger they are, the more chicken the rider is since you are not really leaning that much. Well, even if Chad was definitively the fastest rider, leaving Caroline behind, she was the one who had almost no chicken strips left. Chad could not believe it: it all makes sense now that she scratched her boots...

Re-exploring the San Francisco area
After a well deserved lunch given all the effort in the turns, it was time for us to leave the coast and head inland towards San Francisco but not without going through the wine country! Between the Napa and Sonoma Valleys, we decided to go for the latter. We took a little road, a pretty rough one, through the mountains and it gradually hit us as we were leaving the coast: the heat! It was more than a 100 degrees (40 C) so then, sipping some wine did not seem that attractive anymore. All we wanted was to drink water and more water, which we did as often as we could. We ended up not tasting any wine but were so impressed by the vineyards surrounding us. Caroline grew up in a wine region in France, Alsace, and what lacks there is the space: Alsace is such a tiny region that it is impossible to rival with the size of the wineries in California. Just hills after hills as far as you could see were covered in vineyards.

Both of us had been to San Francisco previously but the next day, we decided to go and explore the city with one of the bikes. Caroline had never been to Alcatraz before, which would be the main attraction of the day. Since we only got tickets for the afternoon, we started with an express motorcycle tour of the city. First stop was Lombard Street, the twistiest and steepest street in town. Chad had to ride it three times in a row, just for fun. Then, the Golden gate bridge: we went to the small beach in the city and despite some clouds, were able to see the whole bridge. Finally, we climbed up a few hills to see some of the famous Victorian houses and finished with a late lunch at the Fisherman's Warf. The visit to Alcatraz was really great and it spurred our imagination all along the visit of the island, especially as you stroll down the cell house rows. As we left the city during rush hour, we took the Bay Bridge and tried out a Californian motorcycle privilege: driving legally between lanes, called lane splitting. It felt really good to pass all these cars stuck in traffic:)



With the great weather we had since entering California, and the rediscovery of its fun roads and sights, we did not have a dull moment since we entered Schwarzenegger's state, even if we had previously visited it. Being here before allowed us to handpick the things we really wanted to do, either because we did not have a chance to visit before or because we wanted to do them again. Bur what has really made California special so far is the people that have met us or hosted us there. We haven't talked yet about Chuck and Mary: they are friends of cousins of Chad and we had never met them before. They showed us what world class hospitality is: they opened their beautiful house on the hill of Lafayette to us, gave us our private quarters in the house and treated us to amazing home cooked meals. We are still drooling over the baby back ribs, the delicious corn, the little appetizers and eggs Benedict. But above all, we enjoyed their company: they are so much fun to hang out with and it was hard to leave them after two days. We had a similar connection, however more brief, with Darius, a friend of Isabelle we had never met before either. He had also taken a year off to travel the world and made every effort to meet with us in the city and treat us to lunch. It was really cool to share our experiences. To all of you guys, thanks for making our stay in the Bay area incredible!