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July 31, 2017
Some parting notes from SLO
My odometer says that I went 888 miles this weekend. So, it was a nice little trip up the coast.
One of the things that strikes me as I ride is that I see a lot of names, and I wonder who these people were. Quintana Roo is a province in Mexico. And Quintana is a street in Morro Bay. Who was San Luis O' Bispo?
The mission at SLO was built in 1772, 4 years before the American Revolution.
Highway 1 is named the Cabrillo Highway (in some sections). Who was Cabrillo? I mean, sure, I presume that he was an early conquistador, but this is not something they taught us in class growing up. We didn't really study the conquest of the south and west by the spanish, or by Mexico, etc. I don't recall any of this.
Lately, I've come to realize that "Baja California" just meant "Lower California". It seems like maybe studing the history of California would be interesting, to fill in some of the gaps.
The rock formation at Morro Bay is not unique. There are several of these rock formations in the general vicinity. One notable one is between Morro Bay and SLO to the west of CA1. Not clear how these were formed.
The internet said that all of the rooms were sold out in SLO and Morro Bay and Pismo and Santa Maria, etc. They were not. So, I'm not clear what the disconnect is, but Hotels.com doesn't know about all of the hotels, or the hotels are holding back rooms. I'm not clear what's going on, but my strategy has always been to never make hotel reservations in advance, and I should have stuck with that plan for this time.
On the return trip, I followed CA-1 for a short part at Santa Barbara, and I remember that section of the coast. There's another loop where CA-1 follows the coast that I never took o this trip. That part follows the coast down to the area of Malibu.
It's hard for me to remember why I was down here before, but at some point, I was down here and I tried to surf at Malibu (unsuccessfully). Also, there is a university campus near here also, I think.
I used to work for HR Textron in the general area. Maybe that was when I came down to the coast and tried to surf.
Also, I stopped to see the bus station where I changed buses on my bus trip from Cambria to SLO.
So, I have successfully retraced much of my route from when my XR broke down on me on the coast a few years back.
It looks like I first drove down to Pismo in my Honda Prelude back in February of 2005.
http://www.peeniewallie.com/2005/02/california-high.html
This was when I was working in South San Francisco (South City), and drove the prelude onto the beach. I think it always made a grinding noise after that, and I sold it as soon as I got back. I'm thinking that I was working for Genentech at this point.
I was at Electronic Arts in 2002 (Feb 02 - Aug 02).
I was at Genentech 2004-05 (Sep 04 - March 05).
I was at PetCo in San Diego (April 09 - Jun 09). After this project, I rode an XR to Cabo and back, but left it in California and sold it there.
October 2009 is when I rode my XR from San Diego down to Cabo and back.
2012 is when I rode an XR down the coast and left it on the side of CA-1 somewhere north of Ragged Point. So, this was just over 5 years ago.
This link shows all of my vehicles that I've owned, but needs to be updated with the 2017 Honda AT.
But, I reference the time when I drove a Prelude down to the border with Mexico, chickened out, and came back and "left the car at the airpot". (I've never left a car at the airport, permanently anyway.) So, my best guess as to when this happened would have been Genentech 2004-05. I think that that would have been my first trip down the Pacific Coast Highway, I think. (Not counting when Michelle and I went down there in '93. We were in Carmel and went down the coast to San Simeon in '93.) And also not counting the work that I did for HR Textron back in....?
So, I think that February of 2005 is when I drove the Honda Prelude down the coast. Let's see if I have any photos from then that indicate I went further south than Pismo. Yeah, I do. I have photos of the murals at Lompoc on here dated 2/3/2005. So, if I was in Lompoc, I was well south of Pismo.
12 years Ago
Feb 5. 2005 - After leaving the project at Genentech, I drove my Honda Prelude down the Pacific Coast Highway (CA-1) to the Mexican border. I was planning on driving it to El Salvador, but I chickened out, turn around and drove back to SF, sold the car to a dealership, and flew back to Colorado.
5 years ago
I rode my XR down the Pacific Coast. I think I was headed to Pismo, but the bike broke down on the side of the road somewhere north of Ragged Point. I hitched a ride with some strangers, spent the night at the Bluebird in Cambria, got up and caught the bus to Morro Bay, connected to another bus to SLO, caught the Amtrak back from SLO to SF.
1 year ago
Last year, in July of 2016, I rode my KTM from Denver to CA in one day, (1,013 miles). I got to Lee Vining, but they had no rooms, and sent me south to June Lake where I spent the night. Then, I spent a few days in SF, and headed down the coast to Riverside.
< 1 year ago
Last fall, in September of 2016, I rode my bike up the coast of CA to have the bike in SF for a week. My thought was to get the bike up to SF so I had it in the city for a week or so, then ride it down the coast to Los Angeles. Along the way, I stopped in SLO and spent 2 nights. I made it up to CA, but then the clutch went out on me (again). So, I left the bike at a shop in El Cerrito, and flew home. Came back when it was fixed, and on October 8th, I rode it down to Los Angeles in one day on the I-5.
Posted by Rob Kiser on July 31, 2017 at 12:26 PM
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