Dawson Creek - Fort Nelson

Saturday 31st May First day on the Alaska Hwy

A 4.8km run and a really good breakfast and we are on the road by 9am.  It's quite warm and the roads in this part of Canada are REALLY dusty.

Our first stop is at Maccas in Fort St John just a stretch and a loo break.  We planned to stop for coffee at Wonowon but we blinked and missed it so then kept our eyes peeled for Pink Mountain RV park.  As we pulled up it started to rain very lightly.  The driveway of the petrol station was gravel, yuk! and you could only access the pumps from one side.  Then we had to get back on the bike and ride across the road for lunch.  There are a lot of gas and oil workers living in camps around this area so when we walk into the restaurant we have to remove our boots!!! Dave is NOT happy ha ha lunch was yummy though so that makes up for it.  By the time we finish lunch the rain has stopped.  But it's quite muddly underfoot and I slip getting back on the bike if it wasn't for Dave's backrest I would have landed in the mud!  caulked my thigh badly though I was half laughing half crying!!!

A lttle way down the road we stop for a pit stop at Sikanni River RV park where the only loo is a thunderbox not bad as thunderboxes go!!  Our next stop was to be Prophet River but both the roadhouses were shut we just needed a stretch so we pull off the road just a short way past the abandoned roadhouses.  The mossies are mega huge and we only stop long enough for a short stretch.

Today we saw our first moose munching on grass beside the road.  It was a fair way from the road and it was kneeling to eat I figured as long as it was down kneeling to eat we were safe.  We also saw what we think was an elk must look that up on google.

We get to our hotel at 3pm and I put the washing on while Dave goes to fuel up the bike, fill the tyres and wash the windscreen.  While the washing is in the dryer we get a cup of tea and share a peice of pecan pie oh joy!! 

The hotel rooms are really big they have a door coming off a corridor on the 'outside' of the hotel while there is a sliding door that leads to an indoor 'courtyard' where there is a pool (it's closed) we see two men (John & Terry) walking along the 'verandah' outside our sliding glass window with helmets and Dave strikes up a conversation with them they are from England and are travelling for 6 months they are also heading to Alaska.  But they are planning to ride to Prudhoe Bay which is on the artic circle and the only way there is on about 300 miles of UNSEALED roads.  No we are not going!!  I think we are being adventurous enough.

We had dinner in the restaurant tonight I had a steak with yorkshire pud and baked potato & veges.  David had a stir fry really good food and we tried some canadian beer very nice.

Mackenzie - Dawson Creek

Friday 30th May

Ran 3.2kms this morning not very far but there wasn't far to run in Mackenzie.  We had breakfast at Kelly's Bakery this morning very tasty.  We didn't have very far at all to ride today but had been warned at breakfast that we are heading into moose and bear country.  The guy said "oh you've probably seen heaps already!" um no we have seen none.

We have seen lots of cautionary signs but no wildlife as yet.  Riding through Chetwynd today there were heaps of chainsaw carvings on the sides of the road I tried to take photos but none of them really do it justice.

We arrive in Dawson Creek at 1pm but then realise we have gone into another time zone so it's really 2pm.  We head straight over the road to find some food and find Safeway what a little treasure trove yheu have acafe there where you can buy all sorts of food and then take a seat and eat there too.  So we share some soup and a sandwich which is huge and feed ourselves for $10 cool.  We contact Esther the young woman we met at Tioga Pass and agree to meet for tea this afternoon after her first aid class.

David tries to find a motorcycle mechanic in town to do our oil change.  But the place he finds on the internet isn't there so he goes to a muffler repairer who has the oil he needs thank goodness we have the new filter with us and Dave does the change and gives the guy $40 for letting him use his facilities.

We have afternoon tea and a lovely chat with Esther at a local bakery and when we get back Dave washes the bike we notice it's 8pm so we head back over to Safeway to get some soup and rolls for dinner, another cheap meal thankyou Safeway LOL

It's now 10pm and still very light wow!!!

Did I mention that today was a beautiful day??

Williams Lake - Mackenzie

Thursday 29th May

We pack up and ride over to Maccas for breakfast.  Not too shabby.  We have been sitting there for quite some time and can't help but overhear the conversation of the couple sitting behind us.  It seems the husband has had an operation recently and managed to score a hospital acquired infection.  Their friend then turns up.  Dave leaves me sitting at the table for a few minutes and I overhear this conversation:

Friend: "Hi how are you?"

Husband: "oh yeah you know eh?"
Friend: "do you feel better?"
Husband: "yeah I've had to have some tests, I'm just waiting on results"
Friend: "oh yeah what kind of tests?"
HUsband: "some blood tests, and I had to make a stool and cut some off and take it to the hospital"
Friend: "Did you use a chainsaw?"

I couldn't help it I laughed and they noticed me laughing and I said "Oh I'm a nurse so I totally get that!"
We then had a chat about our trip, while we were chatting another friend turned up.  They all meet there for breakfast every morning!!

We rode up to Prince George and decided to wait until Bear Lake for lunch, we ride into and out of Bear Lake and have to chuck a Uey or miss out on lunch ha ha  I blinked and missed it!!

We then ride from Bear Lake all the way to Mackenzie and arrive early afternoon and manage to ride around some rain patches and only score a few drops.  As you eneter town there is the World's largest tree crusher (the towns claim to fame) LOL  The hotel we are staying in is HUGE and is connected to the mall so we don't have to walk outside to go for dinner.  This feature would be helpful if we were here in Winter as they have 40ft of snow!!! WOW  David goes out for beer and mixed nuts.  We have Chinese tonight yum
yum

wiping off a dirty wet girl!

world's largest tree crusher

Vancouver - Williams Lake

Wednesday 28th May

We packed everything up and then went to breakfast at The Spot Cafe again and both had waffles this time.  We arrived just as the cafe was opening and ordered and sat down.  There was a young man there cleaning the tables (I think he had a developmental delay) he made a joke that our breakfast would be ready in a few hours.  I think we messed up his cleaning routine by sitting at that table ha ha

We checked out and asked the man at the hotel the quickest way to highway 99 it was very straightforward as opposed to our instructions from google not sure what went wrong there!

We needed petrol and once out of the city 'proper' we took an exit showing that there was a petrol station off the exit.  We drove down the road and could we find it?? NO! so we waited to the next exit and there it was straight off the exit Hurray!!

We rode all the way to Whistler and stopped for a cuppa yawn seen one ski town you've seen them all oops did I say that out loud??? seriously it was just a town .... but beautiful scenery around every corner.

We then drove through the mountains getting caught in roadworks for ages. 

Lillooet was our lunch stop, well the roadhouse just south of the town the young man out pumping petrol said "nice day eh?" about half a dozen times LOL think he was nervous of the bikers.  We had slamon sandwiches for lunch and as we were finishing the weather started to close in.  We had just passed the turn to Lillooet 'proper' when it started to rain.  I noticed a bike had come out of Lillooet behind us.  We had just passed an RV and ridden around a corner and........oops stopped traffic on the narrow mountain road.  The car in front had been stopped for quite some time (the ground under the car was dry!!) they keep you waiting at roadworks for inordinate amounts of time in the country!!!  After a while the other biker pulled up next to us for a chat.  He lives and works in Lillooet as a phone technician and was just driving up the road to go fishing with his friends.  He tells us that the road ahead has collapsed on the edge and they are fixing it but have been for 7 years!!!!!!  After 30 minutes waiting we are finally allowed through and when we get to the area they are working on it's mud OMG!!! slippery sliding mud for about 500m!!! we made it through.  We ride in and out of rain all the way to Williams Lake which is dry when we arrive thankfully but I am freezing from being wet and flying at 120kms/hr!!! so when I get in the room I turn on the heater mmm bliss.  We walk up to C J's bar & grill for dinner not too bad.

view from morning tea in Whistler

why do people think that they can park willy nilly next to a motorcycle!!!!

view along the road

Butterfly House/Butchart Gardens and then back to Vancouver

Tuesday 27th May

A nice run through Beacon Hill park before breakfast.  We pack up and head over to the Butterfly House, it's sooo cool way more than just butterflies there's a macaw, tortoise, turtles, ducks, flamingoes, koi carp, geckoes, frogs oh and butterflies LOL  I can't help taking heaps of photos and we sit at times and just watch the butterflies flit around at times landing on us.  One even landed on my SOFT Australia patch :))

Butchart Gardens is our next stop.  We wander around and lots more photos are taken.  While we are walking through the gardens we notice that a huge black cloud is threatening sure it enough as we enter the Japanese Garden it starts to rain.  There are stacks of complimentry umbrellas all around the garden so we help ourselves to one each and keep walking then we remember that our jackets and helmets are hanging on the bike so we go up there to rescue them, we take the helmets to the info counter and the staff keep them behind the counter for us until we are ready to leave while we are walking around it stops raining wooohooo

We get back to the bike and after drying it off we ride over to the ferry terminal and board.

We check into the Buchan Hotel where we stayed on Saturday night and get comfy.  I skype Mum and Dad while David does our washing and then goes to buy a pizza for dinner mmmmm it goes down well with what is left of our bottle of wine.

poison frog

ran a mighty long way this morning ALL around Victoria LOL

Monday 26th May

A phone call from my cousin John so we organise to talk tomorrow to arrange a meeting.  Lori John's wife has a swimwear shop in town.

We run around Victoria for about 7kms I love this city it has a very relaxed feel and is a lot like Newcastle, I feel really at home I think I could live here.  On our run we checked out where Lori's shop is.  So we walk up town after breakfast and go to the pharmacy, the dollar store and then the swimwear shop.  I walk into the shop and there are two women there, one asks "what can we do for you"  I said 1. "I need a new swimsuit" and 2."I need to meet Lori".  Lori stands up and says "Oh you're Tracey!!" after introductions Lori shows me some swimsuits and I take 6 or more into the change room.  There is a lovely polka dot one I really love but it just doesn't feel right I end up getting a fairly plain one and it isn't until I look at the receipt later that I realise Lori gave me a 40% discount..... very kind.  We organise to meet at 6pm for dinner.

On the way back to our hotel we buy some sandwiches for lunch and remember that we have a bottle of wine back in the room a glass for lunch?? oh why not?

After lunch we walk around the corner to the BC Museum they have an exhibition on Vikings at the moment and an IMAX theatre showing a Vikings movie.  The museum is very interesting the movie not so much but we have an enjoyable afternoon wandering and looking.

We meet John and Lori for dinner and have a wonderful evening with them, very excited to hear that they are buying a house in Nelson Bay.

Vancouver BC - Victoria BC via ferry

Sunday 25th May 2014

We slept in until 8am!!! must have needed that!
When we left the room for breakfast it was trying hard to rain and then it really did start raining but not hard enough that it was wet under the trees, very strange.
We had breakky at a cafe called The Spot it was delicious.  Waffles and juice for Dave and bacon and egg sandwich and latte for me.

It is just lightly raining when we leave the hotel for the ferry terminal.  We navigate our way quite easily out of the city but then I direct us to do a left turn towards Tsawassen cause I thought I saw the ferry sign so we ride down this road for about 8kms and then we come to a narrow one way road which turns out to be a border crossing back to the USA and we know this is wrong, I see a sign that says "return to Canada" off to the left so Dave turns to follow the sign and it directs us to a border crossing going into Canada dammit so we then turn towards the sign that says "return to USA" LOL we are caught in a no man's land, a purgatory of sorts, so because there is NO traffic coming towards the USA border crossing from Canada Dave heads back up the short one way section back to Canada when suddenly a border guard comes running out calling to us ha ha it was so funny but my heart was in my throat for a while thinking she would jump in a car and chase us down hopefully she didn't get our license plate number bahahahahahaha!!!!

We found the ferry terminal after talking to a local when we stopped for directions.  It was dry there thank goodness although we didn't have to wait for long and as with all vehicular ferries the motorcycles get loaded first.  There was one other motorcycle boarding but he was very antisocial (the first biker in USA/Canada that has been) so we parked the bike and headed upstairs for the journey.  At the cafeteria we had buns with turkey and swiss cheese on them and a shared a sweet treat Nanaimo bar (yummy).  We walked out onto the deck and it was soooo cold.  We saw an otter and a seal but no whales.  We went back inside to warm up until the ferry docked.  The call went out for us to go down to our bike, it often goes so quickly once the ferry docks so we went down straight away and started getting ready.  It is raining again when we ride off and we find our hotel quite easily.  Victoria is beautiful, the buildings are so pretty.

Once we check out the room, which is so beautiful we walk over to a local supermarket.  It's so nice to cook our dinner tonight.  Sausages, potato, peas/corn/carrot/beans mmmmmmm with a local cider.

waiting for the ferry

bike block on the ferry ha ha

near Victoria

ferry selfie

is this Drew Lemons' tree??

our room

HUGE bed!!

Twisp WA USA - Vancouver BC CANADA!!!!!!!!!!!!

Saturday 24th May

The day started out brilliantly with a 3.8km run through Twisp.  Felt so good to be out running again.

We had THE most delightful breakfast at Methow Suites B&B, Sandy our hostess served fresh blueberries and strawberries followed by baked french toast with homemade pear syrup, locally grown eggs scrambled and locally cured slab of bacon, fresh juice and coffee (locally grown and roasted beans) mm delicious.

We share our meal with a young couple from Seattle celebrating their third wedding anniversary both are originally from India and Harish is so happy to be able to talk cricket.  And we chat with them for ages.

Consequently we don't leave until about 10am but we have had such a great time at the B&B.

Our first stop is 80miles down the road after rising over Washington and Rainy Passes fortunately the latter did not live up to it's name.  It was so nice not to have to ride through the rain today.  It was quite cold up the top so a hot coffee was very welcomed at Newhamel.

Our lunch stop is is Sedro-Woolley at Dairy Queen.  We then find the I5 to head up towrds the border crossing we stop about 5 miles short of the crossing to use the loo and fill up with petrol.  Petrol is more expensive in Canada and we have heard that the wait to cross the border is sometimes quite long.

As we approach the border there is an illuminated sign above the freeway stating I5 border wait 70mins Hwy 573 border wait 45mins so we decide to go the lesser wait option.  As we come off the exit we see traffic banked back through the traffic lights and only 1 or 2 cars per light change getting through we wait patiently in line at the lights like everyone else and then when we get closer (having been in that queue 15mins or more already) David rides down the line of traffic and tries to slide in front of a car, the driver starts abusing us saying "I have been waiting 20 mins!!!" I did feel cheeky but our bike is water-cooled so if we are not moving it overheats plus we were dressed for snow conditions so we too were overheating.  While he sat in his comfy car, dressed in a T-shirt not having to hold up a 400+kg bike ....my heart did bleed for him!!!  in the scheme of things once we got further down the queue split into about 7 lines and he ended up getting through before us anyway!!!

We ride into Vancouver and find our hotel once we are settled we go for a walk to find some dinner and end up at a Greek restaurant yummo!!

Riding up to Washington Pass

Vancouver

Border Crossing USA-Canada

Vancouver

thanks Seattle for the leaky goodbye!!!

Friday 23rd May

Yes you guessed it!!!!  Raining when we left I was stressed to the max as we found our way to the I5, partly the rain, partly not knowing where we were going and partly because I could see that David couldn't see a thing through the screen.

Once we got onto the 97 we both relaxed a but and at Skykomish we got some petrol and some rain-x (for those that don't know rain-x helps to strip the water away from your windscreen it's magic!!) so we coated the screen front and back, the dash and Dave's helmet.  After a nice hot coffee/tea we got back on the road oh oh btw Dave tried some cheese cheetos they are soooo close to cheese twisties his craving was sated!!

The ride across Stevens Pass was cold but the road was really good with dual lanes the whole way and once over the pass the rain STOPPED Hallelujah!!!!!!!!  We rode through Leveanworth what a beautiful German inspired town sooo pretty.  and on to Chelum for lunch, we stopped and were about to back inot a car space when a car pulled in I said "oh really!" and shook my head so Dave rode a bit further down the road and found another space and we parked.  The gentleman in the car came to us and apologised and then I felt so bad I did overreact oops.

We found a lovely Indonesian/Japanese restaurant.  Some of the best food I have had this holiday.  Pad Thai for me and Nasi Goreng for David.  The two chefs are Indonesian and we get talking to them one is from Jakarta and the other is from Bandung.

After lunch it's a short ride to Twisp to our accomodation at Methow Suites where we are met by our hostess Sandy.  The room is so pretty, I had a lovely shower and cup of tea with homemade zuchinni slice yum and we chat to Sandy.

Then we head down to Twisp River Pub for dinner we sit at the bar and chat to Patrick the barman while we sip our beer and cider.  The surf and Turf for dinner went down a treat!!  Looking forward to Vancouver CANADA tomorrow!!!!!!!!

view from the bed

bike service and more siteseeing Seattle

Thursday 22nd May

David is STILL feeling a little poorly, not much for breakfast.  Due to the room being a bit stuffy we open the window and the door to enjoy some fresh air while we eat breakfast and the guy next door comes and lights up right out the front of our room gggrrr so I slam the window...he doesn't get a clue and just stays there!!

We head up the road to get the bike serviced.  The guys at Seattle Cycle fit us in straight away and $80.00 for a service is so good!!  While we are waiting for the service we walk across the road for Starbucks and I try iced chai mmmm yum!!

Sunny at Seattle Cycle sorts us out and we are back on the road.  We thought it might be nice to head down to Fremont for lunch but 3 blocks down the street the bike dies........ the guy had turned the petrol off to service it ha ha we found the problem quickly and got back on the road.  We parked the bike in a side street and wandered through the streets and found an organic supermarket so we got some food for lunch.  Really quite amazing food from the supermarket.  They have chairs and tables out front to eat at, we found a table and right next to us was a woman breastfeeding her child very beautiful to see.

Back at the hotel we had a short nap (read David had a nap I read my kindle LOL)

We hopped on a bus to head into Seattle to check out the Folklife Festival at Seattle Centre but by the time we got there it was all closed up....seems to be the pattern for us.

We looked around the sculpture garden.  There are these 'flowers' that sing when you walk near them I had some fun playing with them for ages.  We walked along the street for a bit and found a glass blowing studio there were some amazing peices there and we watched a private class for a short while which was really interesting.  We then caught another bus to Pioneer Square to have a look.  When we got off the bus there was the largest concentration of homeless people that we have ever seen in any city, very very sad.

We find Pioneer Square and the first place we see is a bar advertising an underground tour, this took my fancy so we booked a tour and sat up to the bar to order food and a beer while we waited.  The barman Jordon reminded us sooo much of Aidan Vogt (only African American!).  Poor David just couldn't finish his food or his cider soooo oh dear I had to finish his cider soo sad.

We got called in to our tour and our guide Megan started giving us an intro to Seattle's history who knew Seattle was built on the taxes of prostitutes and upflushing toilets!!  The tour was great and Megan very entertaining, thouroughly enjoyed it and some amazing facts and scenery down below the street level.  We caught a bus back to the hotel and enjoyed a nice hot tea before bed mmmmmmmmmm

Seattle

mine and his :)

Siteseeing Seattle

Wednesday 21st May
David still not 100% only had OJ for breakfast. 

bahahahahahahaha sooo funny we went to the front desk of the hotel to ask about buses to the city.
Front desk clerk: "are you here to...mumble mumble mumble........whaddya want!!"

we then walked to the bus stop and caught the bus to the city.  A young woman on the bus told us where to get off and that Pike Place was a good place to go visit.  It was amazing some of the stalls looked like that were out of the 1950's, we then hopped on another bus and went up to the Space Needle, built in 1962 for the World's Fair it is an amazing peice of engineering, we had coffee up the top and stayed up there for over an hour looking around trying out the telescopes and interactive screens.

We got on yet another bus to go to the zoo.  At one stop we approached the driver to ask if it was the stop for the zoo.
Bus driver: Looking ahead, straight, dead pan face, shaking head.
it cracked us up!!!

Then at the ticket office for the zoo we are the ONLY people within cooee of the ticket window.
David: 2 adults please
ticket guy: 2 adults?
Me: yes please
ticket guy: 6????? quizzical look on face
us: no 2 please
OMG so funny

The zoo is so cool.  Although I am a little disappointed with the elephant enclosure ( you CANNOT beat Taronga for an elephant enclosure).  As zoos go it's very pretty and it does help that it's a cool day we have worn jackets all day!!

We catch another bus to the market we went to last night so we can buy some food for dinner.  We buy delicious premade meals and come home to watch Survivor the finale.

Space Needle

Space Needle selfie

elephant selfie

how cool is this???

Salem - Seattle

Tuesday 20th May

Today was all about just getting here.  I found some gatorade and crackers for David and he slept till about 10am.  Then we got ourselves together and left around 10:30am.  because we were leaving so late we didn't do the Mt St Helens loop like we wanted to and just drove straight up the I5 to Seattle.

One thing that we noticed about riding through Oregon as opposed to California/Nevada is when riding past farms they have very helpful signs on the fences to let you know what is growing in the farms (very friendly for us blueberry farmers!! we are nosey!!).

We headed straight to the market and got some chicken noodle soup for dinner.  Looking forward to a good night's sleep.

Redding - Salem OR

Monday 19th May
We left after another yummy perfectly ordinary Australian style breakfast.  We said goodbye to Jen and maybe see you again.  Bethel is the closest church to Medowie-like that we have ever been to! so could stay there for a time.
We are expecting to maybe encounter snow today through Willamette Pass (so many new kids names for our grandchildren LOL) and rain after lunch.
Willamette Pass is so beautiful and once we get there we don't even see any snow on the side of the road let alone any falling on us while we ride along.  We've been seeing a lot of animal caution signs on the side on the road mostly for deer.  Prior to today the caution signs for deer have depicted a leaping deer today the depiction was of a huge stationary stag!!  Other wildlife signs seen today was a sign that just said ELK and lots with cattle, and for the first time a bear one, cool!! 

We arrive at Corner Bar & grill right on 2pm, great timing they just opened.  While we are eating our burger and fries at the bar we talk to Zedda the barmaid, she is so excited that we picked the bar out of other places to eat on the internet.  She went and asked the owner to come out and meet us.  The whole time we are talking to Zedda the man cleaning the taps Bullet. must have been listening just as we were going to leave he comes back into the bar and hands me 2 pens and 2 torches as gifts what a sweetie!
We stop just north of Eugene and I phoned Darcy to let her know what time we will arrive and that I will ring again when we get to the hotel.  We arrive at about 5:30pm so I ring Darcy to let her know we have arrived.  They came to pick us up and take us to Olive Garden for dinner.  We had a really lovely time with them.

And then we got back to the hotel almost instantly David became very unwell and there began a really rough night OMG!!! poor honey...

our room Salem

Don & Darcy

Darcy & I

Sensational Sunday

Sunday 18th May

It was nice not to have to wake up so early this morning.  After a nice breakfast of cerealwith banana and yoghurt we headed back over to Bethel for Church.  We had a number of tips about how to get a good seat so armed with this info and already having scoped out the motorcycle parking we rode over.  We got to the car park and parked very quickly.  There were cars lined up everywhere!! We walked inside expecting to line up and wait but just as we neared the doors of the church the usher opened them and in we walked 2nd and 3rd through the door.  We found seats in the second row (I really wanted to sit up front and there were 2 unreserved seats available but I thought that might be a bit cheeky LOL) as we waited for church to start we noticed Bill Johnson come to sit at the front near us and so we went over to say Hi and ask if we could have a photo with him.  Church was wonderful and we met a few of the people around us there were a lot of viaitors in Church this morning most here for the Healing conference that is on this week.  One couple sittinhg behind us from Colorado have been living in Redding for 3 months but are going home soon and we plan to catch up with Joshua & Hava (sp?) when we are there in July.
Home for lunch and another nap ...bliss
We rode over to Best Buy to swap the adapter we got that we didn't need and to buy a flash drive to store our GoPro stuff on.
When we got to the church I went in and reserved 2 seats for us and then we had a cuppa.  We got talking to a guy Kirk (he commented on Dave's T-shirt) and he was so fired up about our trip and was telling us how he'd like to come to Australia.
Tonight there were 22 people being baptised but by the end of the night over 50 people were baptised it was off the chain!!
By the time we got home it was 10pm we had some dinner and went to bed.

we're at Bethel woohoo!!

with Bill Johnson even!

Baptisms

Relaxing in Redding

Saturday 17th May - unofficial Redding Parkrun

We woke at 7am and crept out of the house to go for a run.  We ran down by the river and up into town covering a bit of the ground we covered when we ran here our very first morning in America :)  We ran 6.6kms and probably walked about another 4kms to find our way back to Almond House.

We headed over to College view Bethel for the Healing Rooms this morning it was a lovely morning and I'm looking forward to church here tomorrow.

We came back to the house and made sandwiches for lunch felt just like home and then we had a wonderful nap it was so nice to be resting.  We thought there was church tonight at 6pm so we headed over only to find the carpark empty so we visited Alabaster House (24hr prayer room) and then went to dinner at Applebees for a steak mmmm and  my new favourite beer Blue Moon yum yum!!!  We shared a dessert tonight Triple Chocolate meltdown WOW it was so delicious!!

Sundial bridge

Sundial Bridge on our run today

if you look closely you can see a man fishing in the river!!

Fort Bragg - Redding CA

Friday 16th May

We left chilly Fort Bragg after skyping all the kids and having a yummy breakfast in the diner of the hotel Eggs Benedict (shared) mmm.

We rode mostly along the highway today our first stop was the drive thru tree.  Not sure what I was ezpecting but it was quite a small hole LOL we fit through easily but there were those who had to abandon the attempt due to their vehicle being too high/wide.  We made it our morning tea stop and got coffee/hot choc and a danish for $2.50.  While having our drinks in the sun we were endlessly entertained by everyone trying to drive through the tree.

After turning off the main highway we rode along for a very long time before we found somewhere suitable to stop OMG I was busting big time by the time we did stop!!!  Lunch was some sandwiches purchased from a small grocery store we sat out front and chatted with a local Jim who has a BSA at home that he is fixing up.

A little further down the road we stop for petrol in a really small place called Platina, there is a T-shirt in the shop there and on the front it says "End of the world 9 miles, Platina 12 miles" hahahaha we get petrol and have a cuppa and share a muffin (homemade blackberry mmmmmmm) and chast to Darcie working behind the counter. 

The next bit of our journey takes us on an extremely narrow, winding road yiiihaaaa!!! fortunately Redding isn't too far down the road and we arrive at about 5:30pm.  We find our accomodation at Almond House and the lovely Jen welcomes us and shows us around.  We get settled and then head to the grocery store to buy food for the next 3 days.  It's nice to be able to choose our own cereal and have some 'normalish' food.  We decide that Saturday night will be dinner out and the rest of our meals we will have in while here.

selfie in Platina

narrow country road- my view

aaarrrrrggghhhh bendy!!

San Francisco - Fort Bragg

Thursday 15th May

Today we leave behind San Francisco.  We are both fairly sore from our exercising yesterday, so panadol with breakfast is a must ha ha must be getting old!.  We pack up and get on the road.  We cross the Golden Gate bridge and stop for some photos on the Northern side (like we did with the kids back in 2000) and then we ride through Sausilito pretty little town north of SF.  The road north along the coast is reminicsent of the Great Ocean road.  It's a very strange day with fog rolling over the coast all day we took our warm gear off at Petaluna and had to put it back on at Bodega Bay after coffee.  We thought we would have to look out for the birds but ended up having to look out for gravel!!  Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" was filmed here LOL
Lunch was at Bones Roadhouse I finally had some clam chowder I'm sure it won't be the last this trip yum yum!!!
We arrive in the arty farty town of Mendocino at around 4pm, we look around the shops and buy from the handmade chocolate shop a salted caramel milk chocolate sand dollar and a dark chocolate mint slice OMG the sand dollar was to die for with sea salt on the top and caramel encased in milk chocolate it's like nothng else I've ever tasted.
Fort Bragg is our stop for tonight and it is FREEZING!!!! and there is not much around our hotel.

ridng over the bridge

Golden Gate Bridge with bike

mmm chowder and crackers

ha ha Jen & Alex AND it's Thursday LOL

our room Fort Bragg