Kickstand up for Tillamook Day 7

Day 7 September 14, 2007

I wake up pretty early about 6 am. I can't get back to sleep so I decide to head over to the lobby and get a cup of coffee. I open the door to go outside and it is pitch dark outside. What the heck? I look at my clock and it is really only 5 am. I guess I must of misread it when I first woke up. I didn't have my wrist watch with me because I took the advice of Peter Fonda and I "Lost my Watch" before I started on this trip, well actually I just left it home instead of throwing it away like in "Easy Rider". I decide to go ahead and leave early so after I pack up I hit the road. In case you haven't noticed by now I have avoided I-5 and tried to stick with the back roads on this trip. This morning though I decide to go ahead and head out on I-5 towards Sacramento. The miles go by pretty fast and by 10:30 I am pulling into Old Town Sacramento. This is a great place to visit and I spend a while there walking around and making some phone calls. After that I head out and follow the Sacramento River Levee roads west. This is a great ride and worthy of a complete ride report about the levee roads alone. I didn't stop much to take pictures I just rode and enjoyed the scenery as it unfolded. I made a stop for lunch along the way and then continued over the hills to the town of Livermore and then to my last stop before home, Sunol. I stopped at a place I had wanted to see but it was usually closed. It has been restored and re-opened on work days to the public. It is called the Sunol Water Temple.
It seems kind of strange today with the technological advances of the modern age but back in 1910 the idea of bringing pure drinking water all the way from Sunol to San Francisco was a major accomplishment. The temple was built to allow the public to come and see the wonder of pure water cascading over the 40 foot high waterfall inside of the temple. Today only a small amount of water cascades over the falls and it is just for effect only it really does not connect with the water system of San Francisco. Our expectations today are for bigger and better things and ever more complicated technology so it is nice to see a monument to something we all take for granted today, pure drinking water, right out of the tap! Amazing isn't it?

After my visit to Sunol I hit the freeway and headed home to Salinas. I was glad to be home.

357 miles.

So, why does a guy in his mid-fifties go alone on a 2000 mile motorcycle trip? When I tell others about my journey even if they don't ask the same question I can still see it in their eyes. The only answer I can come up with is about the same as the mountain climber who was asked why he climbs mountains. He said because they are there. Its really the same reason John Muir filled his pockets full of biscuits and headed to the High Sierras for weeks at a time. Humans seem to have a desire to go into the unknown, to find out what is over the next mountain, to explore and to travel, and to eventually return home. After some time on my own on my motorcycle the return home was just as pleasurable as the trip itself. Maybe that is why I went in the first place. Will I ever take a trip like this again? Hum, lets see now where is my map of the southwest? I wonder how long it would take to ride to Durango Colorado? They have a great train ride there I would like to go on again someday........

Trip total miles: About 2000.