It’s been a long time coming, but better late than never!

part 1 | part 2

Day 7

Day 7 started with breakfast in the little coastal Oregon town of Yachats at a cute coffee shop with excellent merch. I got a sweatshirt (not pictured, you’ll have to wait to see it in person I guess). Our goal for the day was to head down the coast and swing through Crescent City, CA to see an old friend before spending the night in Eureka.

We lost the sunshine as we headed south into California and things got a little misty, but the riding was still delightful (though – when isn’t it delightful?).

We got to Crescent City after lunch and headed to a friend’s shop (Kyle’s Automotive Repair) to check it out.

Jordan and I used to hang out at Kyle’s dad Curtis’s auto repair shop when we were younger. Sometime around 2009 Curtis opted to move his family to Crescent City from San Diego. In the intervening years, Kyle grew up and transitioned to running the shop himself.

It was really cool to see the kid who fixed my bicycle thriving in his own huge shop space!

From Crescent City, we hit the road to Eureka and had our last seafood dinner of the trip.

Day 8

We woke up in Eureka to misty skies and bleh weather, but we also headed inland for this portion of the trip. Our original plan was to continue to follow the coast down to San Francisco, but we didn’t think we’d make it home in time to relieve our dogsitter if we did that!

First stop of the day was in the Redwood National and State Parks. This is kind of a unique series of parks throughout a little stretch of California, but we hit the core of it using the Avenue of the Giants.

We also hit up the visitor’s center, which has Charles Kellogg’s Travel-Log – a totally bananas early RV built out of a single redwood log and put on a truck chassis. Apparently, Kellogg hit the road in the RV in the 1920s promoting conservation of California’s redwoods, and he rebuilt the motor several times. The whole tale is worth a read.

From the national park we kept heading south and we stumbled across what is now my Top Tier Roadside Attraction: CONFUSION HILL.

Everything about this place was hokey, campy, and delightful. I had the best time.

From here, we had a gas station lunch in Mendocino and rode to Petaluma where we spent the night.

Day 9

We woke up in Petaluma to another grey morning, just in time to cross the Golden Gate Bridge. You’ll note there are no photos of the bridge, and that’s because it was completely invisible while we rode across. Karl the Fog was out with a vengeance.

In fact, it was dreary and rainy most of the morning down the coast to Big Sur. The sun only came out just as we headed up the 1 into traffic madness.

Foolishly, I didn’t realize when planning the trip that we’d be along Big Sur on Saturday, July 2 – possibly the worst traffic of the year on the road. Cars were darting in and out from viewpoint to viewpoint with nary a glance for motorcycles. Dangerous day.

While Big Sur is always beautiful, it didn’t feel as dramatic after seeing so much of the comparatively wild and tree-filled Oregon Coast. Also, the traffic really made us cranky.

After Big Sur, we continued down the coast past Hearst Castle and Morro Bay and headed inland to stay in San Luis Obispo for our final night on the road.

Day 10

Before heading out for arguably the worst day of riding, we made one final tourism stop for breakfast at the infamous Madonna Inn.

Then we hit the road and continued our journey south to home through LA. Fortunately, the traffic wasn’t too bad and we only had to split lanes for the entirety of the 405 freeway.

And that’s a wrap! We’ve collectively spent every day since we got home wishing we were on another moto trip, but who doesn’t feel that way?!