Apr 18 2009
160 Miles
Had absolutely perfect weather for riding today. Sunny with a high of 76. I decided to take the bike through mountains down 236 to Santa Cruz. Ashley and I have been meaning to take a Saturday out there for quite some time, but haven’t been able to put it together quite yet. So, I wanted to ride down there and check things out since she’s out of town this weekend.
Santa Cruz is really an awesome town. It reminds me a lot of Valencia, Spain. Well, parts of it, at least. It just has all the feelings of a small coastal town. However, when you get down to the boardwalk, there is a little amusement park with roller coasters, cotton candy, and funnel cakes. There was even a section in the bay were people were surfing. It was really awesome to cruise through there!
Since I had gotten a little bit of a late start and the sun was starting to head down, I decided to take Highway 1 back instead of going through the twistys. Of course, I also wanted to take the 1 for its utterly incredible scenery. Driving on that highway blows my mind every time. It’s like your on top of the world as you look across the ocean and see the clouds of fog hovering over it. It was truly incredible!
However, my late start came back to bite me. At about 6:50pm, the fog rolled in. The pleasure of the ride went from awesome to pretty much awful in 30 seconds, haha. The fog covered up the sun, so the temperature dropped to about 55 degrees, and it was so thick that I could barely see in front of me. It was even condensing into droplets on my helmet shield, so I had to keep wiping it off. It was really getting dark and cold and I did not want to ride back through the mountains in such conditions. I made it up to Half Moon Bay and cut across on 92 to 101 which was an easy trek home.
Well, it was an awesome day to ride and I had a blast! I am always amazed at how awesome riding a motorcycle is. I don’t think I’ll ever tire of it. 160 miles today, and hopefully another 100 tomorrow! Here’s the route I took: