Rock Store

[furious_blue_imp]

Today my wife and I visited a motorcycle " rock legend", the Rock Store on Mulholland Highway in Cornell California. Unfortunately it was closed, and also unfortunately we were in a rental car. I was surprised how small the place is. Not much area to park cars or bikes. I've read there can be over 150 bikes here at one time. Some real exotics... But not today. Hard to believe Jay Leno goes there. We then proceeded to drive the "Snake" over to Kanan road. This road deserves what ever reputation it has..it is a wicked road. Kind of like the Dragon on an angle with open sides. I can see why it is so popular. Actually we got lucky in that we were the only vehicle on the road at 9 am on a Monday, so I nether held anyone up, nor had to fear anyone missing a turn and taking me out.

then we drove north on the Pacific Coast Highway mirroring the trip I made on my ST1300 last year. Not quite as good in the car, but easier to stop and take good pictures.

Now in an under value over priced motel in Carmel, home of Clint Eastwood.
Tomorrow a place I didn't get to ride in on last years motorcycle trip..San Fran.

It's probably too late by the time you read this, but, if heading to SF from Carmel, a stop at Alice's Restaurant on the way up is a must though it too is not as dense with bikes on the weekdays (but at least they are open !)...

[Randy B]

HWY 9 is under construction and it's a bit of a mess over there right now.

[TINK_imp]

The nice thing about visiting the Rock Store during the week, you can park your bike right out front for a great photo op:

[furious_blue_imp]

Rockin' it !

[the Ferret]

Randy sorry I didn't get your pm until 7:30 Pm Cali time. We took off about 7:30 am from Carmel with the intention to spend 2 days in San Fran. Got here early in the AM and did the Lombard Street drive, went to Fisherman's Warf for Lunch. Went and found our hotel in the seedy part of downtown on Eddy St. Since we got an indoor parking place at the motel we walked about 8 blocks to Union Square, through hoards of homeless people all begging for a quarter, stood in line for a couple hours to ride the cable car to Fisherman's Warf, at which point they kick you off and make you wait in line for another hour or so in another line to ride the cable car back to Union Square so we could walk 8 blocks back thru the homeless people to our seedy motel.

Hiker.... I would not live in this city if you offered to give me a million dollars.

We have seen lots of bikes here in town, neat bikes, a real Moto Guzzi V7, lots of SM's, lots of bobbers and cafes, a few sportbikes, but NO CB1100s. I can tell you this is another place I would not own a bike in. Guess I am spoiled with no traffic, trees, curvy roads, and did I mention no traffic? Last year on the ST I was headed here, when we got stopped in bumper to bumper traffic and decided to bail on the idea and headed east to Colorado. What a blessing it was that we got diverted. I am so glad we didn't make it into this mess on our touring bikes. The steepness of many of these city streets cannot be comprehended from only seeing them on TV.

Anyhow instead of spending 2 nights here we are pulling out in the morning and headed further north. Still need to see the Golden Gate bridge on the way out.

[Randy B]

They have added a moving divider to the bridge to reduce the possibility of head on collisions so the view has changed a little. Oh, and they JUST opened the new approach to the bridge about 2 weeks ago and it should be pretty nice.
I don't know your plans, but if you have time make the bridge tour around the bay. It will take you over the GGB, Richmond/San Rafael bridge and the bay bridge. You should still be able to see the deconstruction of the old eastern span at this point. It's been over a year since I went over it so I have no clue of the present condition of the old structure. If you do that there is only the one toll if you do a clockwise route and re-enter SF from the Bay bridge.

Just a thought.

[the Ferret]

Lol I have no idea what you've said. It's like a foreign language. We hope to be able to find the bridge and get the heck out of here. You come here on purpose? On your bike?

[Randy B]

I used to work for an orthopedic company and I was in the city at hospitals all the time. It's a bit of a nightmare traffic wise for sure, and if you think it's bad on a clear day, try it in a rain storm. Nope. Not gonna do it.
It took me 3 hours just to get onto the Bay Bridge one day trying to get back to the office.
Oh, and I have gone up there twice on my bike. Once was to photograph the space shuttle on it's fly by on the 747 as it was going to LA and the other time I went to a baseball game at AT&T park to watch the Cubs beat the Giants.

[Jonz_imp]

Hope you find it doesn't take long to get to the beautiful parts of northern California, Oregon, and Washington. On the coast any state park that has "Cape" or "Point" in the name is worth a stop. Jon Z

[Randy B]

This is one of the shots I got of the space shuttle and the chase plane.


It actually made two passes by the bridge. It was the only location where we had more than one chance to get pictures of it going by. This was the first pass and then they circled around over the city to my south, back up the bay and then west directly over Alcatraz and passed the bridge in my first picture.