July 24, 2008 - Thursday - Day 24
USA/MEXICO/CANADA
DOUBLE CROSS COUNTRY
& THE TRANSCANADA HIGHWAY
-- OR BUST - SUMMER 2008
Miles Today - 183 - Total Miles - 5404
Fresno, CA - to San Francisco 'burb of Foster City
(-staying at former 1972 second grader, June Bell's -)
(CA)
The day began pretty early when the phone rang at 4am!!! It was my friend, fellow photographer, and fellow motorcycle enthusiast, Dave Ickes. He was on his own tour this summer. He had his BMW motorcycle trucked out to the Midwest, flew out, and then began a long tour around Colorado and into Canada. There had been some hope that we'd somehow get to meet up. He thought I might be closer to him than I was - certainly not time zones away. He was apologetic for awakening me so early but it was great chatting with him. He had camped in a farmer's field that night, and still had to get his tent out and away. I managed to still get back to sleep after a good conversation with him.
I woke for good at 6am, and saw Ed, the security guard guy with whom I had a conversation last night, take off from work on his black bike.
I had arranged to meet Trish and Bob at the nearby Denny's at 7:30am and take them out for breakfast. When I arrived they were waiting for me at a table.
Trish, my friend from the Savage motorcycling discussion group, met Bob on her mail carrier route nine years ago. He had moved away for awhile from the place he was renting, and then she looked him up again. He's a lucky guy he said because love really DID come knocking on his door, not just once, but twice!! When I called him a 'lucky guy' I didn't realize how much truth there was in that phrase for him! The next paragraph helps explain why he's a lucky 'guy' in more than one way….
He was hesitant to marry Trish though, he said with a twinkle in his eye, because his last name is “GUY”, and he just didn't want to turn her into a 'guy'…. I enjoyed the little play on words, but smilingly winced none-the-less.
Bob is a strong fellow who grew up on a farm and in the mountains for most of his life. He's been battling prostate cancer, and doing a good job with that battle, putting up with the chemo treatments and all.
Trish made some interesting observations at breakfast about travelers and traveling, and having people as guests. Back in the Indian days people traveled a lot, but not that great a distance. So when people did come from long distances they were encouraged to stay a longer time so that the hosts could hear about the lands from far away.
Trish and Bob have matching Honda Silverwing scooters. I learned that the difference between a scooter and a motorcycle is the way one steps through the scooter to get on it. Their Silverwings get 50mpg and is certainly a great way to get around. It has an automatic transmission.
We walked over to the Best Western and they got to see the Nomad. Trish took a little package of stuff to the post office for me.
I went back to the room and typed and typed about yesterday, and finally got all my gear packed. It wasn't until 12:30pm that I finally left. It was much later in the day than I wanted to leave, but my stop in San Francisco wasn't that far. As it turned out, it was farther than I expected!
After a short ride through Fresno I regained Route 99, the highway north.
At 1:45pm I stopped for gas, and since the Subway at the gas stop had a veggie patty I broke for lunch. It was a good choice. The meal was delicious and I filled the camelbak bladder with ice water to keep me charged up for the rest of the day's ride.
Rode through a big section of farms this day…. They were reeking of fertilizer smells, the air pungent with the aromas of it.
The San Luis Reservoir (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Luis_Reservoir) was to my left for part of the afternoon ride in the mountains. It is a massive body of water that would appear on my left a couple of times as I passed a couple of mountain tops. Blue and dramatic, irregular in shape and enormous, it was shimmering and inviting to the eyes on this hot day.
I crossed the state from east to west on Route 152. On both sides of me as I rode through the valley was a ridge of mountains still shrouded in the recent massive California forest fire smoke.
It was windy in sections of the mountains today. I was buffeted constantly by the crosswinds. And I KNEW it was a pretty strong wind when I looked above me and saw a big bird, a crow perhaps, flapping his wings trying to get to the tree on the left side of the road… and he just wasn't going anywhere. He seemed suspended in mid-air as he tried to move forward.
More mountains. More valleys… As my consciousness went streaming down the highway today, and the scenery blurred past, it was with a certain satisfaction that I had reached this far into the trip.
There were a number of mile-long backups today - but ALL of them were on the other side of the road going the other way. Felt fortunate about that!
There was a carpool lane on most of the highways I rode today. And beneath the sign that noted only cars with two or more passengers can ride in that lane, there is a little note that read, “Motorcycles OK”. I took advantage of that lane a lot.
It got much cooler as I approached San Francisco.
It was somewhat before five that I arrived at June Bell's home. She and husband Neil and their son, Sam, have lived in San Francisco for about six years. I've known June and her folks since 1972 when June was in my second grade class. I 'see' her every day at home, in fact, because in my living room is a photo I took of her saucer-like wonderful second grade eyes. I took the negative of those eyes, sandwiched it with a great cloud picture I had taken, and came up with a composition of eyes looking out of clouds. It won a couple prizes in photo competitions.
I arrived to the home in Foster City, a 'burb of San Francisco, a little before 5pm. I stood in the drive for a few moments making some phone calls home, and then called June. We had chatted earlier in the day, and I thought she might not be home. But she was, and shortly she and Sam, a precocious 5 year old soon appeared at the door. The eager boy, with a curiosity to match the simmering intelligence behind his dark eyes, swarmed over the motorcycle with questions and smiles.
I was welcomed into the home and I remembered it well from when I was here three years ago midst the all-48 states motorcycle trip. Sam was quite different now, of course, and he fairly bubbled with observations and questions. He is a kid of this computer generation, and the son of a techie, too, and so he loved all my gadgets and things.
He was attracted to the Mac laptop, and when I opened it he knew his way around it with ease. He was able even to maneuver to different websites on line. (Yep, that's right. Five years old!)
I got my gear into the upstairs loft area. Then June had some errands to do and Sam had a choice of going with his mom or going on a little run with me. He decided to hop on his training wheeled little bicycle, and we went around the neighborhood and to a little park nearby. It was a cool and wonderful experience as I loped beside the inquisitive son of a former second grader of mine.
At one point in the park I spied a box of plastic bag doggie scoop bags supplied by the community association I surmised. I went over to it, grabbed one and told Sam I got it for him in case he needed it… After a bit of thought under a thoughtful expression, he got the joke and broke out into a big laugh. We continued, and shortly saw a fellow in his garage seated around three motorcycles, mechanical guts hanging out of one of them. He was clearly a wrenchie and effecting some kind of repair. A youngish guy, Chris, seemed bemused at our presence. We chatted, and Sam took a picture of us together.
We continued back to the house where Neil, Sam's dad had just arrived home and was sitting in the driveway chatting on his cell phone. I joked with Sam, “So does your dad have to stay in the driveway all night?” By now Sam was getting the drift of my sense of humor. He laughed.
It was wonderful being in the Ponderosa type home. The family reminded me of the one I grew up with, and irrepressible Sam brought back joys, long submerged, of the wonderfulness of being with a bright-eyed kid.
We had a perfectly scrumptious dinner of some concoction of soy cheese, fake meat, combined with veggies and noodles.
Sam went to bed around 7:30pm, and June and I reminisced about kids from our old class, and things back in the old neighborhood.
Back in that '72 second grade I would do a bunch of things with kids, and one was to meet with a group of interested parents and children down by the Schuylkill River and we'd bicycle ride the 8-mile path around part of the river, stopping to picnic along the way. This was eight whole years or so before I even got into a fitness lifestyle. I never knew whether I would make it the whole way around that bicycle path. Well, the Bell family would join in this little venture, and I recall one famous picture of June, cute pigtail framing a wide-eyed face, sitting by her dad who was laying on the ground. He was okay, and just napping, but the image looks all the world to me like a little girl grieving for her passed away dad.
So we chatted until about 10:30pm or so, and then Neil and June went to bed and I went up and lay in my little cocoon cotton sleeping pouch on the comfy bed, and typed happily away about the day's events. (I never feel I do the day justice!) Shortly, a drowsiness overcame me, and I just could not keep my eyes open any longer - no matter with what strong effort I tried. I drifted. Drifted away into a deep happy sleep with a smile on my face.
Note:
To view the many photos from today and the whole trip, you can visit
http://www.photostockplus.com/home.php?tmpl=45&user_id=42473&event=196141. Some folks have reported trouble with this link, but most find that it works. Sometimes it takes two tries… Also, you can check out the past day journal entries by going to joelperlish.com, and clicking on the appropriate trip down at the bottom on the left hand corner or just going to http://www.joelperlish.com/blog/blog.html.)
