Wednesday 7th
It was dark when I dozed off but when I woke dawn had crept in. We rode to the nearest town to get breakfast and a wash.
Harry decided to head off himself to see the coast. It's been his dream for so long he had to do the last final stretch on his own. All very dramatic but understandable. Dave and I followed him but took some stops and we lost track of him.
As we got closer to the coast we could see clouds or fog in the distance but we could never really see the Pacific Ocean. We had to drive past Eureka heading north to find a beach. It was only the last corner onto the beach when I finally saw the ocean. We drove into the car park, jumped off and ran over the dunes to see the waves roll onto the beach. It's 12 in the afternoon and I'm completely knackered but sometimes it's just good to be alive.
Dave and I left the beach and went north to a small town. We found a hill top with a bench and I sat there looking south where I could see the coast line for miles. It was hard to believe that I'm about 7000 miles from home and I've traveled more than half of that on the bike to get here. I had a strange mixture of elation at being on the Pacific coast and a sense of being lost since now I didn't have anywhere definite to head for. I really felt like I had nowhere to go and I didn't like it. We had a visa for 6 months and we were only 1 month into it and we were so driven to see the coast that I hadn't given much thought to what was next.
On the way back to Eureka we found Harry's bike abandoned at the side of the freeway. He really wasn't around and there wasn't anywhere he could have been. Something was wrong so we left a note on the bike and went into Arcata which was a few miles south. On the way back to his bike again we spotted Harry on the other side of the freeway. We stopped, thought for about 1 millisecond and crossed over the central reservation and caught up with Harry. We stopped downtown Arcata and got his story over sandwiches. I couldn't help but think how typical it was of Harry.
Harry had got to the beach and started talking to some guy there who was fishing. Harry thought the guy was OK so when he offered Harry a smoke of a joint Harry accepted. At this point Harry thought the guy was getting a bit strange. He was saying things like “I share but I don't care.” He also said something about the bud being cut with something. Harry took a few puffs and decided to leave now that the guy was acting really strange. Turns out the bud was cut with PCP. When Harry got back on the bike and onto the freeway he stated to feel numb and hallucinate. He managed somehow to stop and get off the bike before crashing and crawled into the bushes at the side of the freeway. In a moment of clarity he crawled out, stopped a car and asked for the police. The driver took Harry to the hospital where he recovered after a few hours. The police interviewed him but didn't really seem to care too much.
We all went back to the hill top with the bench. It was a view point with a car park and we decided to pitch tent and camp there for the night. It was pretty much uneventful except for the car zooming by after dark that kinda freaked us out. It went by several times making us think they were checking us out. But no, nothing happened expect it made us get out the tent and hunch down waiting to be attacked.
Total miles from coast to coast were about 5,340 and we spent about 25 days traveling and by God it was wonderful.
Thursday 8th
We packed and left to head south. Harry and Dave were planning on sticking to the coast on Highway 1. I had the desire to go meet my cousin who lived in Santa Rosa. I found out about him earlier in the year at a funeral and added him to the list of addresses to stop at. With this lost feeling I has it seemed like a good thing to be visiting family. So there came a point on the way south where I kept going on 101 and Harry and Dave split off and went on 1. I got to Santa Rosa some hours later and found a public phone booth and called my cousin. I got directions and a short while later I turned up at their house. Their three kids were there to greet me. They were aged from about 8 to 12 and so having some unknown cousin turn up on a motorcycle after traveling the country was a thrill.
Friday 9th – Monday 12th
Dave and Harry arrive. Hang out at the house with the guys. Get the bikes back up to snuff. Harry leaves to go home via the southern states.
Tuesday 13th – Tuesday 20th
Andy, a guy we met in Edinburgh during the summer, was on holiday in the Bay Area with his sister. They dropped by the house and we all hung out at the pool.
Dave made some trips in to San Francisco on his own first while I was hanging out at the house.
We both finally made the trip into San Francisco together stopping on the north side of the Golden Gate Bridge to soak up the view. We went to Zeitgeist, the biker bar, which Aaron had told us about. Dave had already visited it when he made some solo trips down before.
Hanging out with Aaron in Berkeley/Oakland.
Wednesday 21st
Bondage-a-Go-Go where I met Rose. [Which eventually led to kids - Rose]