Day 15 – Cali, We Made It!

The morning was cool and we packed up our stuff. While packing we meet Jim, yet another person on the way to Burning Man. Jim’s from Florida and he tells us all about Burning Man and gives us itineraries that we need to check out on the bike, not just on the west coast but on the east as well. We trade information and agree to contact him next time we’re down near Florida so we can ride together.

  
We hit the road with the same plan as yesterday. Ride in about hour or so intervals and stop to charge the battery. With about 20 minutes of riding this morning, we finally hit California. We have made it! The excitement is there as we’ve hit our halfway point but at the same time we are not in the clear just yet. We must still travel about another 250 miles before we get to tonight’s checkpoint of San Francisco. After a quick photo-shoot at the “Welcome To California” sign we head into the mountains near Tahoe and make our first charging stop at a gas station stop just before Yuba Pass. We hang out and rest for a few minutes while the battery charges and then head for Sacramento.

  
We make our next stop in North Highlands just outside Sacramento, to fill up our tanks, have lunch and charge the battery. Marco also purchases a volt gauge at Pep Boys so he has a read out while riding. We meet another guy from Jersey while at the Pep Boys. He tells us he also rides and normally goes out with his buddies around these areas mainly taking dirt roads. We exchange some pleasantries and then head out on our way. From here we’re going to try to hit Napa and cross west over the Bay into the Redwoods. We get as far as route 12 off of 80 which is the way we wanted to go. Marco alerts us that his battery voltage is low and we pull off at the nearest place where we think we may be able to use their electricity. It happens to be some sort of restaurant and we hang out there for about 25 minutes and then leave. 

  
We will now try to make it all the way to San Francisco before stopping for a charge. We don’t make it. Marco’s bike stops in San Rafael. We strap it to Gomes’ bike and tow it into the next exit to find an outlet somewhere. We make it into a mini mall and find some usable outlets but the charger is no longer working. We’re stuck and need another solution.

  
Marco gets on Gomes’ bike and heads for a Battery Plus store nearby. I didn’t even know they sold motorcycle batteries. He gets there just before they close, at 7pm. Gomes and I patiently wait for him to return and at about 7:45 he makes it back. Marco finds a way to strap the larger battery and with little sunlight at this point we have to scrap the Redwoods and head straight to Belmont, where we’re staying at a friend of Gomes’ from back home. Mark also grew up in Newark, NJ like us and moved out to San Francisco a few years back. He gladly takes us in and immediately shows us the Portuguese hospitality. We settle in and decide on what we’ll do tomorrow.

Since the last ride in with the new battery proved alright we agree to hit the Redwoods in the morning and give the battery a test run. If all checks out we’ll set out on the Pacific Coast Highway in the afternoon, headed for Los Angeles.