Day 14, La Jolla HOME, 2,229 Miles!

We are home, hit the Vespa for grub & libations this afternoon. You can not imagine how great it feels to be home, check in with us in a few days for the wunderlust motolust as we are both sure that we will want to be back on the pavement shortly.

Day 14, We're Going Home, anticipated mileage near 400, temps from 50 to 90

We're heading home. Although the road trip has been phenomenal, we are both looking forward to the beach, family & friends (two legged and four). Heading out of Yosemite before the crowds, the plan is to detour from the all day freeway trek, and ride Cerro Noreoste again this morning. Keep an eye out for updates once we get home for more moto & vacation porn! We should be over 2,000 miles when we reach La Jolla. Mick & Colleen

Day 13, Yosemite & Chilnaulna Falls (Not)

Our lunch spot and furthest point on the creek

Okay, so today we are staying in the south valley of Yosemite, just outside the south gate entrance at the Tenaya Lodge. After talking with the concierge we decided to forgo the mountain biking and hike to Chilnualna Falls. What was suppose to be a 8.4 mile hike with 2,300 feet in elevation gain, and a 7 out of 10 for difficulty turned into a 5 mile hike with unknown elevation gain and many fallen trees and no detectable trail, but, an amazing portion of the Chilnualna creek was incredibly enjoyable. We possibly only saw 8 - 10 other people on the trail all day. We feasted on goat cheese and smoked salmon, which we shared with the cutter ants that we found on the rocks near the creek.

Day 12, Yosemite, 260 miles, temps from 71 to 43

Some Photo's of the amazing valley. The waterfalls have been spectacular, truly off the chart, there are so many, some that they don't normally have at this time of the year.

Day 9, 10 & 11, Carson City, NV

Mick & Papa Sak

Papa Sak on the BMW, affectionately named Trixie

We have been spending some time with Papa Sakakeeny and while it has been a very nice visit we are itching to get back on the road again and off the grid of everyday life. The weather has finally cleared and we are getting back on the bike and heading to the Ahwanhee and Yosemite for the next three days.

Day 8, Jihad & Fashion

Function over fashion - Jihad style - Colleen upon take off. Rain pants, towel head (Pashmina) and almost every layer in the saddle bags. Let's out run this storm!! sorry for orientation - just not cooperating today!

Day 8, Mendocino to Carson City, NV, storm runners, 360 miles, wet and snowy the entire way

In all our wisdom we decided to depart lovely Mendocino, avoid Eureka and out run the impending storm. We unfortunately did not calculate the possibility of the storm actually picking up energy and speed and staying with us the entire day. We put in a total of 360 miles, 9 1/2 hours of "not" fun riding and made it successfully to Dayton, NV (just outside of Carson City, NV) to push up our stay with Papa Sakakeeny. Stopped just outside of Donner Pass to add another layer, have a shot of scotch, hot cocoa and new gloves (garden gloves). The leather gloves were soaked completely through, so much it looked as if I had tattooed fingers from the black bleeding through.

Day 8, EUREKA! Detour - we're out of here

Well the BIG STORM that everyone has been talking about for the past couple days has arrived - stay tuned - detouring to Tahoe and beyond......

Day 7, Windsor to Mendocino, 160 miles

We are just catching up on the posts - we have arrived in Mendocino and finally have a couple hours to actually log in and catch up. Watch for posts tonight. We may be cutting our northbound journey short, awaiting storm to hit the coast. Stay tuned. The amazing Dolphin House (Hello Hambrecht's). One of the few sunny days in Mendocino. What an amazing piece of property, sat for a short time on the infamous bench and enjoyed the hawks flying overhead. View from Albion River Inn - watched the sunset and contemplated the storm. After anticipating Mendo burgers all the way up the coast, we were disappointed that they have changed hands and are not even a faint memory of the past deliciousness they once were. The hotel however, sublime, lit a fire, sipped our bottle of Cabernet from Post Ranch Inn, enjoyed until the last remnants of the sunset filtered in through our windows.

Day 6, Santa Rosa tour of Healdsburg, dinner with friends (again)

Post to follow

Day 5, Big Sur to Santa Rosa, via San Jose & San Francisco, 197 miles

Post to follow - just a short note - we hit winds up to 50 mph and steered the bike through them. We had a visit with Andy & Luca in San Jose, Renee in San Francisco and finally Gab & Krisha in Santa Rosa

Day 4, Cambria to Big Sur, with a detour on Nacimiento Road, 85 Miles

Post Ranch Inn - story on the amazing drive up Hwy 1, with winds up to 50 miles per hour to follow. This place is off the chart and we only hope to experience it again for a bit longer than 24 hours.

Day 3, Cambria, CA Black Cat Bistro

Unexpected great meal at the Black Cat Bistro. If you are ever in Cambria be sure to stop by and have a wonderful meal with impeccable service by the Owners/Staff. We had the most amazing heirloom tomato salad with fresh burrata cheese, abalone, scallops and ahi tuna.

Day 3, Ojai to Cambria, 252 miles of twisting winding mountain roads

Pine Mountain looking East, rode down then back up and then down again.

Pine Mountain Elevation 8,831 view looking towards the West @ the top

As close to an off the lip as you can get! Cerro Noroeste Road in the middle of nowhere Los Padres National Forest.

Day 2, Ojai - Mexican Restaurant - what do you mean you don't have any tequila

Okay, so it must be the economy or just someone that thought opening a Mexican restaurant without tequila is a good idea. One might ask then why you have a stack of Tequila bottles on the back bar.......or one might ask the bartender after a game of 21 questions to find out which bottle might actually contain the golden agave nectar if the owner intends to restock or possibly make payroll this week??? So after a beer and no shot or margarita, we headed over to another local establishment only to be told that their best margarita was made with Squirt.....okay Ojai, little town that seems to be predominately Hispanic may not be the capital of good Mexican drinks. Lucky for us we ended the evening at an Italian restaurant that actually had wine & port - who would have expected that.

Day 2, 125 miles, Toluca Lake to Ojai

Today just an easy day, taking Laurel Canyon to Mulholland Hwy, one wonders why they have never been West of the 405 fwy on Mulholland and now we know. The road doesn't go very far and it truly is a trashed piece of asphalt. No worries though, we detoured over to Topanga Canyon, headed for Gladstones for some clam chowder, oysters and seafood. Our journey took us up PCH, to the highlight of the day = Decker Canyon. Amazingly twisted and tight turns, with little traffic except for all the moto's (including a scooter) barely got out of second gear. Something that I must experience again on the RC51 without a passenger and 120 lbs of gear! Great day of riding, some highway, some city, some twisties. Ojai was the final destination, checked in at the Blue Iguana Inn and headed back to town.

Day 1, 120 miles, Dinner & friends

Okay so the best laid plans are meant to go astray - right? After planning for weeks and working deals for the best bargains, the last minute new tires had their own agenda, thus putting us back a couple hours for the one day early start we had decided upon. After much running around, San Diego BMW rose to occasion and took care of us. After packing, repacking, removing, and repacking again, a few critical items were decided to be not so critical. Mainly the DSLR that with all its attachments and weight, didn't make the cut. We put in 120 miles the first day from La Jolla to Toluca Lake, in less than 2 hours during prime time commute hours, you have to love splitting traffic on a moto. LA traffic never looked so easy to navigate. Dinner with Dubrow's & Bandini's was wonderful. Photo's to follow.

Day 1, May 18, 2010, La Jolla to Toluca Lake

We are taking off on Tuesday, looking forward to our first day on the road. La Jolla to Toluca Lake, for dinner with friends, then heading North.

The Inspiration