My little digital camera does not do justice to the brilliance of the rainbow as seen by the eyes.
We were nearing San Francisco, but got caught up in rush hour traffic that was moving particularly slowly. I made an executive decision to pull off the highway for fuel in Novato because there was no way of knowing how long it would be to the next gas station.
I signaled early enough to give Dr_bar a chance to exit calmly. I had no idea where to look for a gas station but I figured a quick tour around this nice little town would get us to one. As I came around a corner, I spotted a sign on a coffee shop…tea…This time Dr_bar barely had time to stop because I gave just one quick blink of a signal before I pulled into an empty parking space on the street. He told me he already had a feeling I was going to pull in when he saw the sign.
And the actual Dr. Insomnia.
I gotta say, the fellow who was working there was friendly and seemed happy to make acquaintance to a couple of Canadian travellers. The tea was so good. I would have liked to linger there, but we needed to keep going if we were going to make San Francisco before dark. When we went back out to the bikes, I even suggested staying in Novato and then heading to SF in the morning, but Dr_bar wasn’t interested. Instead we found a gas station to fuel the bikes and then headed back to the freeway.
Approximately 30 minutes later we saw our first glimpse of the Golden Gate Bridge. What a thrill! Although I have seen the bridge in movies and in books and newspapers,
( and in person way back in 1969), it is still a big thrill to see it in person in 2006.
That was the first stop at the bridge just to show I was there. Well, my bike anyway…..
Now, my friend Dr_bar isn’t the most co-operative of people when it comes to being photographed, so I had to sneak up on him to capture this one of him above the Golden Gate Bridge.
And another just of the bridge.
We spent several minutes at the view point over the bridge just admiring the view and reveling in the excitement of being there.
We soon had to get back down to the highway again though because we were losing light. We paid our tolls and rode over the bridge into San Francisco exiting at Lombard Street. Someone who had lived there recommended we take that exit. In my opinion that was the worst thing we could have done.
We entered into chaos.
For the next hour we rode around looking for a hotel. There is a stop sign or a light in EVERY SINGLE FREAKING CORNER. It was bumper to bumper traffic and people crossing streets everywhere and taxis stopping anywhere they pleased.
I thought I was going to go crazy if we didn’t get off the streets soon. I pulled into the driveway of a Travelodge out of sheer desperation. We made an inquiry inside about rooms. It was going to be far too noisy on that street so the clerk suggested we go to another location on Market Street. He said it would be quiet there. Insert rolling eyes here.
By now I was getting too tired to read the map without my glasses so I let Dr_bar find Market Street on the map so that he could now lead the way. He explained what streets we needed to get to and where to turn to get us to the hotel. So-o-o-o, we had to go around a couple of blocks to get to the street we were looking for. It was uphill for what seemed like miles…..with a stop sign or a red light ON EVERY FREAKING CORNER.
I WAS NOT HAVING A GOOD TIME ANYMORE.
Dr_bar directed us the wrong way adding to my crankiness. I admit I was cranky. I was so tired and it took close to an hour of riding around to find that stupid hotel. When we finally arrived it was such a let down. Everything I had read led me to believe the Market District would be interesting. It was noisy, dirty, and full of street people, graffiti and litter. We went in search of a bite to eat but everything was closed. We finally found an old style diner that was open late so we went in to get ourselves a light meal before heading back to the hotel. The plan was to get a decent sleep and then do some sightseeing in the morning. I won’t go into detail, but the hotel was awful so I didn’t get the much needed sleep I had expected.
The light of day did nothing to change my perception of San Francisco. We rode along Market Street for a mile or so, looking for a particular street to turn to being our sightseeing. However, sitting at a red light, I spotted a sign that pointed to the freeway. I made a gesture to the sign and Dr_bar picked up on the cue….
“Do you just want to get out of here?”
I nodded affirmatively.
“Let’s go, then,” he said.
When the light changed to green, I signaled for the turn and we started heading to the freeway that would take us out of San Francisco to Berkeley.
After the huge letdown and anticlimax of San Francisco, I felt a renewed sense of excitement for this trip.
I made an error in exiting the freeway one exit too soon, but it proved to be fruitful nevertheless.
As we were on a corner discussing which way to go, I spied Berkeley Yamaha.
We made tracks for the motorcycle shop as our first stop of the day. I needed to get the big Allan bolts on the forks tightened properly. I went inside to explain what I needed and the fellow working inside came out and moved my bike inside so the tech guy could take a look. While I was waiting for the tech guy, another rider on a KTM pulled into the lot.
My blue crate found its new home.
Raphael the KTM rider, claimed ownership.
He said the blue crate looked too forlorn figuring it was too much highway riding. He said what the Blue Crate needed was a life of adventure. So, the blue crate found a new home in Berkeley California.
My Blue Star now has a tour master bag for traveling and hauling my gear and groceries.
No more blue crate! Ah well, at least it found a nice new home on the back of that nice KTM... Glad you're enjoying your trip, and Happy New Year!
