Xlentcrap: March 2014

The Eureka/Redding trip was awesome. I did have a rocky start as I left a component of my bike turned on for the last week and killed my battery. When I went to get gas the night before my trip, I found it - DEAD! I tried to charge the battery but the bike still wouldn't start the next morning.

We hauled the bike to D&S first thing the next morning and they had me on the road in about an hour. I stopped in O'Brien for a stretch and a water break.

The fly on the bathrooms. If you haven't been to O'Brien, you aren't missing much but it is very cute. There is a post office, gas station (with a big fly on top) and a mini-mart. To use the bathrooms you need to get a key from the mini-mart. The key is attached to a huge fly swatter. Very cute.

There is an old police car out front and also a train. Great place for a pit stop and the bathrooms (despite the large fly) are clean.

Welcome to California.

Went through Six Rivers National Park.

Redwood National Park.

I stopped for a snack in Orick, California.

I had the best piece of strawberry-rhubarb pie at the Palms Café. If you get the chance to go here for pie, you definitely should take the time. The pie is divine!!!

I got into Eureka about 4:30 and dropped by the HD dealership to get a t-shirt.

I met my Dad at the Hotel in Eureka. We had dinner and talked until they were probably thinking about throwing us out of the restaurant. The next morning we slept in, had breakfast and headed south on 101 to Highway 36. Touted as one of the "best motorcycle roads in California", I had to try it, and it fit nicely into my mileage requirements.

The trees were beautiful and the roads were challenging but fun. The roads went up over 3500 feet and I kept wondering when we would reach the top.

There was roadwork going on at a few places and we didn't get delayed much but one flagger told us to "be careful in the narrows". I wasn't sure what he meant but I fully intended to be careful.

We soon got to the narrows - the road turned from two lanes to just a little more than one lane without the benefit of a center line. We were glad that all the cars coming the other way had decided to stay on their side of the road. It was beautiful and pretty desolate! No pictures of the narrows.

We had a pit stop at the Dinsmore store and despite it's remote location it was quite the happening place!

Out of the middle of nowhere we saw what looked like a huge oak tree off the side of the road. There looked like there were about 100 pairs of trees up in the limbs. We passed it so fast that it didn't register in our brains until we were well past it. I sure plan to stop next time and I'll bring a pair of shoes to add to the tree.

After coming off the mountain we took a rest at the side of the road.

We stopped in Red Bluff for lunch then continued on to Redding and went to the Sun Dial bridge and walked across it. My dad said he had been there at night and it was all lit up from below.

There were a bunch of fishermen in the river.

Inside the museum there was a cute room of dog statues.

We checked into the hotel and relaxed and read for awhile then went to dinner. We had a clear view of the bikes from our room.

The next morning we slept in and had breakfast and loaded up the bikes. I headed back to Medford and Dad back to Sonoma. I stopped at the Redding Harley Davidson to get a t-shirt.