San Francisco to Santa Barbara

After weeks of planning, gearing up and a trial run to Guerneville, I was ready to head off on my month-long trip to Baja.

The trip began yesterday morning with a degree of haste. The weather reports were calling for five days of "the storms of the decade" and I wanted to get south as quickly as possible. The first storm was due to hit later that morning and I didn't really want to start off with a road-test of the waterproof gear I have. So I loaded up the bike and Kirk, Schatz, and Jeung saw me off.


The trip down to Santa Barbara took about 5.5 hours and was (thankfully) uneventful. Fully loaded the bike still rides very nice and in looking at the tires I was reminded to change the pressure depending upon load and/or road conditions. So thus begins a process of discovering tweaks I will make as the journey continues.

About 2/3 of the way to SB my GPS reminded me that I was near Nipomo, and that means only one thing: Jockos. Arguably the best steak in the world, it's the focus of a pilgrimage a group of us men take about twice a year. So, while storms lurked in my rear-view mirrors, I swung off the 101 and snapped this for the SF crew.

I arrived safely to my Santa Barbara "home" and was welcomed by the Askews. I will weather the storms out here and once the sun returns, will head out for LA, SD and then the border. Ah, Mexico.