Day 2 – Sacramento, California to Crescent City, California, ~420 miles
Missed the start? Click here to go back to Day 1.
Spent the night at a friend’s place in Sacramento, and got an early morning start. The plan was to ditch this grapefruit tree and head west to the coast.
I’m pretty sure this sign is telling you to watch for falling pumpkins of death. Luckily, I managed to avoid them all.
Randomly spotted this next to a fire station and I had to pull over to check it out. There weren’t any signs explaining the situation though – I couldn’t tell if it was some sort of anti drunk driving example or some bizarre art piece. Then a firefighter buddy of mine explained that these were used as sacrificial lambs for firefighters to practice using the Jaws of Life.
Poor CR-X.
Got stuck behind a Harley for a while. I don’t even mind that he was slow enough that I could comfortably tail him and take a photo, but his bike was obnoxiously loud and I couldn’t hear my music over his pipes.
On Route 12, I met a painter who was on the side of the road. Her sister bought her the Beetle as transport for all her materials.
She just started her most recent work. Apparently she’s out painting every weekend.
I asked her to get back to work so I could pretend to capture an authentic moment.
Eventually, I was able to get to the coast once I hit Bodega Bay. I pulled over to check out this guy, who was really throwing his weight around to keep the sail in the air, very cool to watch.
Story time: My father started a textile manufacturing company many years ago, and he was one of the first people in his industry to have a website. Because of that, he once got a request from an Alaskan salmon fishing company who was looking to have filters made for their diesel boat engines. My dad asked why they were reaching out to him, seeing as we were out in Massachusetts – turns out no one they asked in Alaska was willing to deal with such a small order of filters.
So, my dad waits for all his employees to leave, sets up all the dies, and runs the manufacturing line late at night to create the filters. For compensation, he didn’t ask for cash – he instead asked the fishing company to send over as much salmon as they thought was fair. Our family then woke up to a styrofoam cooler about 18″x36″x12″ of fresh Alaskan salmon delivered to our front door every Tuesday for about 6 months. That’s how I got addicted to salmon…and that’s why I absolutely could not pass up a ‘drive-thru salmon shack’.
I’ve unfortunately forgotten the proprietor’s name, but he’s been doing this since 1974 and has a Canadian accent.
He says the Cherokee blood in him won’t let him pose for photos, so he just said to take one of him at work.
Mmmmmmmmmmm…salmon. He gave me a bunch to enjoy and then I bought some to enjoy on the road.
Someone else being a gentleman and a scholar, enjoying the PCH on a BMW.
Appropriately named, as it takes you right to the ocean. Then again, the road starts just 5 blocks from the ocean, so maybe it’s not that impressive.
More PCH.
There’s an odd private residential community off the 1. I stopped to check out an interesting building which turned out to be a chapel.
I’m pretty terrible at planning. Typically, my eating schedule depends solely on if I drive by a place that I think has good beer. I lucked out as I ended up going right by North Coast, home of Brother Thelonious!
Beer menu 1
Beer menu 2
I had a hard time deciding between an ACME IPA cause it’s hard to find down in LA, or a Brother Thelonious just because I love that beer and here it’d be fresh from the brewery. So I did the reasonable thing, and had both.
Clam chowder with spices and bacon bits. Delicious.
They sell a sample pack of every beer offered at the restaurant. They have a laminated 3×4 chart with the logo of each beer and then put the 12 tasters on the corresponding logos.
After some delicious beer, I headed north through the redwoods.
Baby Jack is in awe of how tall these trees are.
In Leggett, there’s a tree you can drive through. I’ve wanted to take a picture of my bike underneath it for years, and it’s finally time!
On the way out, I saw a sign that was amusingly predicting two of my destinations in the next week…
Fairly self-explanatory.
They make some of these wood sculptures out with a chainsaw. Power tools = instantly cool, but still: who’s ever going to buy the Shrek one, you know?
Someone threw some paint on the road.
Wrapped up the night at a restaurant to grab a bite. One of the best parts of this trip was being able to try beer that I can’t find back in LA.
Today was Halloween, and some local kids felt Baby Jack deserved some candy.
The bike’s unpacked and done for the night…
…and so am I.
Back to Day 1 – Los Angeles to Sacramento, ~520 miles
On to Day 3 – Crescent City, California to Lincoln City, Oregon, ~250 miles
Want more ride reports? Check out my Travel page!