Day Two

I spent the morning with my daughter, and we rode around in the Berkely hills for a couple of hours. She really enjoyed the ride, but she goes to work at noon, so we ended our ride mid-day.

By the time I got everything packed up, the bike gassed up, and on the road, it was 4 PM.

Before I even got to San Francisco, it started spitting rain. I damn near turned around and put off embarking until today. Then I though, "Fuck it," and kept going. PCH was beautiful even in the dreary weather. It kept threatening to rain, and would spit a little once in a while, but not enough to get me wet. At one point I pulled over to put on my Australian Duster. I didn't even have my kickstand down yet, and a patrol car stopped to make sure everything was OK. I thanked him, and told him I just stopped to put on rain gear. One thing I know fer shur now is that it may be excellent rain gear for riding a horse, but at 65 MPH, the duster just totally sucks. Especially when I encountered some strong cross winds, the thing would come unsnapped and open up like a big sail and try to drag me off the bike. This just ain't gonna do it as rain gear. It didn't protect my legs as well as I thought it would either.

I made it to Santa Cruz at just about dark. I pulled into a gas station to fuel up. The young guy attending the station took an intense interest in me, my bike, my life. He expressed regrets for not going to school after high school. Instead, he took a good paying job in construction, then hurt his back, and now he's working in a gas station with no useful job skills. He directed me to the non-sleazy part of town for a room. I found a Comfort Inn for around $50.

After I unloaded the bike, I went into downtown to get a bite and a pint at a boring and mostly empty Irish pub. When I came out, it was fucking POURING! It wasn't far to my motel though, or at least, it wouldn't have been if I had not gotten lost! I think I rode around in the rain for about 3/4 of an hour looking for it. Got good and wet from the knees down. My leather jacket kept me fairly dry otherwise. I finally found the place, and cabled the bike to a pole outside my window.

I tried to get on-line last night, but my phone wasn't working. Nevermind, it was 11 PM by then, which is 2 AM by my east coast body clock, so I turned in. This morning, I borrowed an Ethernet cable from the motel office to avail myself of there free high-speed Internet. Note to self: Carry a fuckin' Ethernet cable.

Regarding the importance of keeping connected: I handled one service call by phone and one by e-mail this morning.

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