CAJW
Well-known member
Memorial Day weekend the Mrs. and I headed up to Anderson, Ca to visit Rick Mayer and have the pillion seat blessed with his handiwork. Mine was done a few years ago and Mrs. Toecutter had so graciously loaned hers to my wife to try out and was hooked immediately. We'd spent the previous weekend with the Wheaton/AirBoss gaggle and enjoyed the coast so much that we decided to try and finish the portion above Bodega Bay that we had missed. Bright and early Thursday morn we slabbed it to Ricks', got the seat done before noon after which Rick invited us to lunch. We followed him to a deli west of Redding, had a great meal (Thanks Rick!) and good time telling lies and comparing aches and pains. Original plans were to stay the night in Redding, but after 300 miles on the stock seat, the Mrs. wanted to try out the new one , so we headed west on 299 to Eureka. Saw 4 CHP and 2 County Mounties on 299 between Redding and the coast, must be a lot of law breakers that frequent that highway. I40 + miles of mainly drizzle with a few moderate showers thrown in to test our rain gear and we arrived in Eureka around 5 pm. We were pleasantly surprised to learn that the Best Western Humbolt Bay Inn had a complimentary Limo! We traveled in style to the Lost Coast Brewery for a meal and my favorite Great White beer on tap and walked back to the room to work off dinner. The next day it was up to the Oregon border stopping along the way in Trinidad, Klamath and Crescent City for photo ops. Great weather, threatened all day, but no rain and very little traffic, strange for a holiday weekend. I had a couple of small American Flags on the bike for the holiday, but lost one somewhere near Orick. We wrote it off, but on the way back south, I saw it roadside on the fog line, pulled over and hiked back to get it. A little worse for the wear, but still serviceable. Saturday dawned wet and rainy, but we had about 300 miles of twisties and scenic Redwoods to cover, so we pushed off around 0730. Wet all the way to the Avenue of the Giants, but it quit raining long enough for us to enjoy the ride, take some pics and again, no traffic to deal with. Back on 101 south toward Fairfield (destination for the night) we ended up bypassing some of Hwy 1 south of Leggett due to the now driving rain. Weather radar showed that we just on the edge of the front moving through, but we couldn't get out ahead of it and ended up riding in moderate to heavy rain all day. Had a "squeeze play" maneuver brought on by a two up rider, (you know the make) who had been playing tag with is for about a hour. He was lolly gagging along until we slowly passed him, politely so as not to piss him off and make him look weak to his biker babe pillion. I pointed out a couple of pieces of recap tire in our lane to him, trying to foster good foreign (bike manufacturer) relations. Not to be outdone, he passed us, showed me how fast he can corner on wet slick roads and slowly pulled away. Near Piercy he got held up by a 18 wheeler and then passed him , in a passing lane, albeit not very fast. We had about a 1/2 mile of 3 lane (2 on our side) to pass the truck with spray blasting us from the open wheel trailer. The Dumbass on the bike got right next to the tractor and parked it there, just parked it! We were running out of real estate to pass the truck and it was getting to the point where I had to decide to jet past the jerk bike rider, on his right, between him and the tractor (oncoming traffic precluded on the left) or jumping on the brakes on wet pavement and trying to avoid the wheels of the trailer. I had been flashing my hi/low beams ( not time to warm up the Solteks!) and at the very last second, the jerk rider sped up as I was about to pass him on the right. After I regained my composure, we kept him in sight, but resisted the urge to pass him with a 1 finger salute, toss a rock at him etc... They turned off at a restaurant in Willits and it took all of my being (and cautions from my bride) not to stop and have a word or two with the sorry excuse for a rider. Other than that, not a bad day except for the constant rain which wasn't bad moving, but no fun dealing with stop and go traffic in the Napa area. Sunday morning was uneventful, again very little traffic, (must be the gas prices?) and we kept to the back roads mainly and ended up with a little over 1K on the clock for the trip. Hope to finish the rest of the coast soon and revisit the much missed Hwy 3 & 36. Hope ya'll enjoy the pics..... J&K Most Excellent Adventure