June 20, 1997 Sacramento, CA

It was our regular routine, up at 7am, on the road by 8am. Bonzai to breakfast somewhere down the road. Our night's stay was in Cave Junction, OR. A staging area for our run down Rt. 101, the Redwood Highway. Dave was especially excited about today's agenda, because he's a tree hugger. Ewel Gibbons has nothing on this boy when it comes to the appreciation of nature. All he needs now is his own cereal....Dave's Nuts! We won't go there!

Within the first hour we had reached the Northern California coastline which was a bit hazy yet still magnificent. Being from the east, I still can't get used to the mountainous surroundings of the beach. Back home, the land turns flat hundreds of miles before the beach appears. Sorry folks, I'll take the pacific landscape anyday. South of the Klamath River we jump on the Redwood Scenic Byway. It offers a better view of the leviathons known as the Redwoods. It's not enough to look at pictures or watch a movie. You must SEE these giant's to believe it! One, simply known as Big Tree is 1500 years old and towers above the rest. Trunks as big as silo's are commonplace and not much sunlight reaches the ground. Remember "Return of the Jedi" where Luke was riding his space vehicle through the forest? It was just like that on our motorcycles today! The setting is exactly like that! Not being totally satisfied with that road, we found "Avenue of the Giants." Just look at the pictures! Phenomenal!

Having experienced northern California first hand now, I'm happy to announce that this place is the largest free range zoo I've ever visited. Not the animals, the people. With the tree huggers fighting the loggers, this place is a great social experiment gone wrong! Filling up the GTS at a local gas station, it took $8 to do the deed. $1.71 per gallon for premium!! I go in to settle up and every man in the station is either bald or has hair down to their shoulders. I didn't dare take off my helmet.

Not having his fill of redwoods, Dave see's a sign on the side of the road. DRIVE THROUGH A TREE!! He keys the mic on the chatterbox and says "I saw this on television one night, we've got to do it!" I agree regretfully and lead the way into a small homemade park with a booth. It cost $1.50 per bike to see this incredible natural occurence. Dave says "I smell a tourist trap." Sure enough, as we round the bend, there is a redwood that has a hole cut through barely big enough for our bikes to fit. "You saw this on television?" I said. "You owe me a buck fifty and we're not leaving this cheesy park till I get it. Dave just dances the ST1100 around me like I'm a flag person on a construction sight and he's gone! We hang a left on Rt. 20 and enter God's own oven. The valley! Temperatures rose 30 degrees in 20 miles as we descended past Clear Lake towards Wilbur Springs. Wilbur needs a spring there, it's hot! I feel like a thanksgiving bird in the oven but refuse to remove my Aerostitch. With all vents open and moving at 70mph it's tolerable. We arrive in Davis around 6pm to the smiles of tonight's host, Erik Astrup. We visit a micro-brewery down the street and enjoy a few laughs with dinner. Tomorrow's our day off!! I'm getting a new rear tire for the GTS and visiting some friends from the internet. We've needed an off day for a while now, and I've convinced Dave to delay his epidural for at least 24 hrs. Saturday, we head back east.

I awake at 8am from the best nights sleep I've had since the trip began. I won't be needing the ibuprofen today! I stretch...hey no leg cramp. Around 9am we head over to North Highlands(Sacramento) to visit Don and Beth McClellan, our friends from the GTS1000 mail list. We ride over to Cycle Gear where they sell me a D205 rear tire at full retail but get me in and out quickly. A fair trade. I'll feel better going back east with new rubber. I inspect the plug in the old tire from the inside and see that it wasn't going to be long before it went. The rest of the day was spent relaxing thank you very much. We bench raced with Don and his wife for a while then went to dinner at a local japanese restaurant. We are revitalized and ready for our trip back east. We'll start tomorrow by visiting Yosemite and eventually make our way to Lake Eufala, OK for the Honda Sport Touring Association Rendevous '97.