Day 26

Start mileage 95992
End mileage  96261
Daily total 269
Ride total 5286

Woke up before 6:00 am today. Rip roaring and ready to go. Did daily routine and made breakfast. Broke camp and was leaving the campground by 7:58 am. Heading to the Pacific Ocean.

Followed directions to the Pacific Coast Highway. Only got lost once today. Went South when I should have gone north. But I discovered my error and turned around after a few miles. Then I discovered I could have saved even more miles by turning sooner. Anyway today was a nice day to ride.

Started off at 54 degrees and stayed pretty much there until later. Stopped shortly after starting to put on my leatherette jacket for warmth.

Hit the Pacific Coast Highway at Morro Bay and continued up to Monterey. This part of the ride was about 135 miles. Started out getting closer to the ocean and things started to look foggy. Then they got foggier. Really couldn't seem much but at times the ocean was visible. I will put in lots of pictures.

The Pacific Ocean

I am a sucker for drift wood.

There are lots of large rocks along the shore line.

Couldn't resist the crow on the sign.

Lots of ground squirrels.

Another salty crow.

Prime specimen of a sea bird.

Eye candy scene

After being foggy, the fog lifted for a while and the beach was sunny. See below for what I found.

Then more scenery.

Beach is littered with Sea Lions

I told you littered.

Sunning themselves

This time of year the females are molting.

Half way through the ride the PCH goes up mountains. PCH gets really twisty and climbs then descends and is twisty on the way down. Then back up and down several times. What a thrill to ride on this highway. By now the temps are in the 80's.

These pictures are before it hit the 80's. Just wanted to show how misty it was.

Wished it would have turned out better. I thought the composition was perfect.

I took someone's picture and they returned the favor.

Had to get the bike in one of these pictures.

Finally at the campground for the night.

Closer to the end you come upon civilization again and it is very interesting to see houses and businesses out on the PCH with no roads that might be a short cut to a major highway. Everyone  must travel distances to get to anywhere from there.

I was trying to find the Salinas KOA from Google directions I wrote down last night. I didn't always note the distance between turns so I got a little antsy about finding the place. Out comes good old GPS device, she leads me right to the place. Found the place but they only did RV's. Silly me I should have checked the key before going there. The young lady(all ladies are young anymore) suggested I try the Los Banos KOA. She investigated the availability of a tent site there and ran my credit card to reserve and pay for the site. Back to the bike and my GPS device to type in the destination and away we go.

Traveling to Los Banos, I passed the "Dole" company operation. I don't want to call it a farm because it is huge and is extremely large scale. Field after field after field, for miles and miles were planted, being sewn, harvested, or being prepared for another crop. It was huge and  very interesting to see how they grow food for the nation and world. Later going past San Luis Reserve I marveled at how large the place was. Out in the middle of nowhere is this large water lake made by man. To see more about this reserve follow this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Luis_Reservoir.

Finally  I pulled into the KOA at Los Banos. The lady behind the desk pulled up my record and gave me a tent site. I moved the rig to the site. A youngster, Nicolas (age 7) came by to see if I needed anything. I did. I needed an extension cord, he got one for me. I needed some assistance setting up my tent since it was pretty windy and he was most helpful. Then after all setup we sat down to chat. Nicolas surprised me by saying I was the nicest biker he has talked to. I responded that I was a Grand dad and that made all the difference. He said most time bikes come in and he is apprehensive about approaching them because of the noise and tattoos all over the bikers. He thought they looked a little rough. I advised that anytime a person or persons come into the camp with a Honda Goldwing he can be assured  they are pretty nice people. Mostly Goldwing riders are a little older and are grandparents too. Besides the bikes are not noisy like some others. He thought that made a lot of sense.

Well time for dinner and a shower. Then bed time for an early start to Yosemite tomorrow. I am looking forward to Yosemite and Half Dome. I might stay two days.

Did I mention I have officially started to travel East again. It has been 26 days out but I have been looking at the quickest way home after Yosemite. I80 might be too far north for comfortable riding. I70 might be ok. I am not sure. I will have to make up my mind and decide soon.

TTFN