Day 5, Saturday AM, we rolled out and hit the road to Aptos, near Santa Cruz for the last night's stay. The Seacliff Inn is a great little hotel if you're looking for some decently priced digs and easy access to the freeway. The food is great and entertainment usually pretty good.
This pic was taken in Tahoe at the Cabo Wabo Bar. They have a great breakfast and the ladies say the Bloody Marys are delicious.
Small digital cameras don't excel in dark lighting conditions. Every one of the above pictures were taken with my iPhone 3GS. They do an acceptable job of capturing an image, but lack in scope. The newer ones are much better. I'm going for the 5G!
By the way, since it is a ‘ride report’, a little about the ride to the coast from Tahoe.
We took Hwy 50 out of South Tahoe. There is construction on both 50 and Pioneer Trail, so no bypassing traffic on the trail at this time. They’re both impacted, especially during the week. Since it was a Saturday, no worries. We took the main Hwy.
In one area on the West slope, someone had run off the road and traffic was down to one lane until it was cleared. We lucked out and got by fairly early. Traffic headed to Tahoe was in for a bit of a wait, until the tow truck could pull it up from the slope. We could not see the vehicle, so do not know if it was a two or four wheeled vehicle. No ambulances or fire trucks, so hopefully no one hurt.
We took 50 to I-5, then down to Hwy 152. The section of Hwy between Sacramento and Stockton is nasty. The road surface is cut up and patched with asphalt in sections on a concrete Hwy. We tried to stay in lane 1 as much as possible, but good citizens we are and moved over for faster moving vehicles. It was a hellofa bumpy ride for a while.
The worst part was the wind. It was gusting and was unnerving on a few occasions. It got especially bad when tractor trailers were near. There were lots of tractor trailers, hauling all sorts of goods from the port of Stockton and nearby farms. There were quite a few tomatoes on the road.
I found that by just relaxing and putting the bike on cruise control when possible, it was not as taxing physically trying to fight the gusts. Crossing by San Luis Reservoir is often very gusty and I’ve gotten used to expecting it. But this part of the ride was over 100 miles of strong winds on a heavily loaded bike in heavy traffic of very big trucks. It was a nice test of the whole package and it did exceptionally well.
We continued on 152 all the way to the coast, via Hecker Pass at Mt. Madonna. That part was enjoyable and made the rest of the ride quite worth it. I love twisties! Seeing the Pacific Ocean and riding roads I know well through the Pajaro Valley was relaxing and a nice end to the day. The Pajaro Valley at Watsonville is the original home of the Jolly Green Giant, we saw in commercials as a kid.
By the way, not once did the bike desplay the front end wobble that occurs so often. I was anticipating some, but it did not happen at all.
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Topic: Ride to Reno for Street Vibrations (Read 3171 times)