Big Sur, California

Big Sur is an Out of State bonus rally point. Don't you wish you could be me?

Sunday, August 4, 2002

Today's destination was Big Sur. Normally this trip would take me longer than a day if I were leaving from home but, fortunately, I happened to be in San Francisco. What were the odds?

Big Sur is located along the beautiful, if not fully completed (or maintained) Pacific Coast Highway. To get there, I joined Hwy 1 just south of San Francisco at or around Pacifica and followed the coastline for about 140 miles.

As is traditional in these parts, the skies were overcast for much of the morning, but as I grew closer to the checkpoint, sun burned through to warm the air which then threw me around like a rag doll. But it was all good.

The truck piled high with firewood wasn't too good. In fact, it was holding up a number of cars and, most importantly, me. Some local motorcyclists came in behind the line, found a spot to pass and made quick work of it. Not to be outdone, I did the same at the next opportunity. Now, apparently the whole solid- vs. broken-yellow line rule doesn't apply here. See, I think that the largely open, flat sections of the highway that sport solid double yellow lines are just that way because the DOT crews got lazy when they were painting. TMSAISTI (that's my story and I'm sticking to it.) Each little bit of land that sticks out into the ocean is called a Point. For instance, there's Pillar Point, Bolsa Point, Pigeon Point, Franklin Point and so on. I thought that they should add a few and I used some of my solitary time to work them out. How about: Uvgotta, Whatsda, Needle and Finger? This mental exercise I'm going to call Pointillism (not to put too fine a point on it or to paint it with too broad a brush).

My mind does strange things when isolated in a helmet for several hours.

And speaking of hours, it took me about three hours to get there. I left the hotel in San Francisco a little late "knowing" that I could enjoy a brunch upon arrival at the Big Sur River Side Restaurant. When I arrived at 11:30, I was surprised to discover that they were still serving breakfast.

Eggs, toast, sausage and hashbrowns taste good at any hour of the day. Yum.

After my meal (and rally stamp collection), I reversed course up Hwy 1, made my way around San Francisco, rode dangerously close to my company's headquarters in Mountain View, crawled through Oakland and then up The Five to Williams where I stopped for the night. 406 miles on the GPS today. About nine hours of travel (with many stops for pictures, food, gas and stuff... and things.)

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