Friday, August 15, 2014

Up the Coast

Took us quite a while this morning to get everything gathered and secured, which was not good but not a surprise.  After two nights in Vegas and three in LA, we were a little spoiled.  Back to travel mode.

We got on the Pacific Coast Highway right in Santa Monica where we had arrived on Monday, and knew that it would be a tall order to get as close as we could to San Francisco (so we could make the most of our two half-days there) while still getting in a fair share of the coastal highway.

We ended up riding up past Santa Barbara and then sticking to the 101 to make some time.  When we stopped for a late lunch, we figured that getting to Salinas would allow us to take the coastal route into San Fran and still be there early enough to make it worthwhile.  That was a great idea until...

The hotel apps on the smartphone showed most hotels completely sold out, and the cut-rate budget hotels offering rooms at $350 a night.  The Rodeway Inn, a $40 cockroach special chain that we will not stay at, was $299.  This is no bullshit.  We knew that nearby Monterey would be pricey, so we though we were being smart.

San Jose was too far away and left us with no coastline whatsoever left to see, so we booked a $90 Quality Inn in King City and cut the day a little short.  It gave me time to bring the blog UP TO DATE, although there are a lot of anecdotes and observations that are still in the notebook to be shared at some point.  Being in full "travel mode," the windshields and my saddlebags are still locked to the bikes, and pretty much one day's worth of clothes came out the top of the T-bags, and the dirty clothes are already back in.  Showers are done.  Tomorrow will be six bells, and the toiletries will be the only thing that needs to get zipped in.  We should be out of here at 7 even with a bit of continental breakfast to get us started.

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