A meandering ride to the river's end.

The first motorcycle ride of my 40s. Decided to ride to the coast. A nice long ride, but shorter by usual touring standards - rode to Mendocino from Napa on Hwy 128, through the Napa Valley and the Alexander Valley vineyards, and then through the glorious Redwoods near the coast. It was sunny, warm but not too hot earlier in the day - the reason for tackling the in-land portion of the ride first.  Hugged the coast on the return journey, enjoying nature's air conditioning. The fog had blanketed the coast this afternoon - the sun struggled vigorously to burn it's way through. To no avail,  it remained a prisoner to the wall of fog.  

The ride was brisk and fun - few (almost none) leisure stops. The weather was melancholy on the coast, but there was no fog in my mind. Opportunities to ride come seldom these days. I was grateful to be out this day. 

I did make two or three notable stops. First at Point Arena lighthouse. The scene was guarded by the fog, but breached periodically by the beacon from the lighthouse. I ventured to do my best to capture the cliffs kissing the ocean - take it home with me in my mind, and also locked away inside my camera. 

The Sun Also Rises in Winter.

Winter has come to California. We had missed the memo last year, and maybe ignored it the year before, but we have it now. Winter is coming .. is here! It has also brought some life changes and lifestyle changes for me in particular. Gone are the days, perhaps, of riding every weekend, or taking off often on long cross-country trips for days on end. I am still young (very young?), those days might return, perhaps when I am a bit older, so maybe I can enjoy the free time a lot of my much older friends seem to enjoy, but I am in no hurry to get old. For now, professional challenges have a very firm grip on me, and I seem to be enjoying them also - I may have shirked away from responsibilities sometimes or some days, but I have never backed away from a challenge, and the new gig is nothing but..

But, the sun also rises in the Winter. Now, more so than ever, I have to grab every opportunity that presents itself - to get away, to let the wind scrub away the worries, the stress, the niggles from my mind. Let the sunlight color my face, and let the sun burn away the clouds and the fog which collect in the winter of my mind.

On these scarce days, I will ride more, and I will write less. I will extend my ride to pull in places farther away, but perhaps not extend the lens as much to do the same. New Year's Day was one such day to extend my wine country ride out to the coast. A perfect opportunity to start the year, the best way I knew how, astride perhaps the best motorcycle that I have ever owned - the tried and tested companion of many years now, the veteran, the been through hell and back, the quirkier now than before, but still the very enjoyable FJR.

I hope you enjoy the images that follow. I am going to be writing less, but I am hoping the images will convey more than my words could manage. Happy New Year!

Leave the archway open, let the sun shine through..

Touring the Golden State in their Golden Years - Redwoods and the Coast. (Not a Ride Report)

It has not been a fun task, writing the final chapter of the 'Golden Tour'. Granted the entire purpose of this blog is to serve as a memoir of sorts, call it a repository of photographic memories, enabling me to return, days, months, even years later and reminisce with a clarity which remains as precise as when the memories were made. Despite all that, I do miss my family and wish the tour could have just continued on. Writing about this last leg of our trip together, thus, puts me in a somewhat pensive mood. 

We had a bit of a slog from Mt. Shasta to get to the Avenue of Giants. Hwy 299, which keeps getting busier and busier, can still be a fun ride on the motorcycle, much less so when driving a rental car. Suffice to say, my parents were happy to stretch their legs and just stretch out and rest for a bit under these massive trees. The Giant Redwoods don't quite sport the girth of their cousins - the Giant Sequoias, but grow much taller, up to 375 feet or more. 

A 'Crappy' Ride Report.

Riding a bike is like learning to swim, they say. So they say, you never forget, but you do get a bit rusty. It had been over 4-1/2 months, notwithstanding the hour-long ride the week before to gently probe the extent of the cobwebs.

It was groundhog day, where we look to a rodent to predict the weather, which actually is just as good as any other method that we know of. The forecast was for sunny skies and 67 degrees. As I rolled over to Al's house at a leisurely 9AM, the weatherman was going to prove just as smart at predicting the weather as a rodent. No precipitation,but a chilly morning in the high 40s and the typical Sacramento valley low clouds/fog/smog had yet to burn off. Maybe after breakfast..