The plan: rent a motorcycle in silicon valley, see Northern and Central CA on two wheels, visit h and n, close friends who have just moved to Santa Cruz, meet b in Palo Alto after her board training course ends on Friday.

I flew in yesterday at 2pm, s of Bay Area Performance picked me up and turned over a clean ST1300 to me after a little paperwork and some discussion about routes. I headed down the street to drop off b’s gear at her hotel and rode 100 miles to Salinas, CA, near the northern part of my route.

I stumbled onto Alice’s Restaurant on my way out of town at the intersection of 84 and 35. The food was decent: they seem to specialize in burgers named after motorcycles. It’s definitely a burger joint and the parking lot is a bit of a challenge in the pitch dark on a new, heavy touring motorcycle.

On the advice of the waitress I took 84 to route 1 South. The Pacific Coast Highway is fast and beautiful at night on a Monday… There was very little traffic but some highway patrol. I got to Salinas and the Zumo handily found me a Motel 6 in a not-too-shady part of town.

This morning I woke up at 5am.. it’s 8am back home. More on today when it’s over: it’s light and Nacimiento-Fergusson Rd, the Hearst Castle and the Mission trail await.