A very early 5:30 am start gets me going and Stan is packed ready to go in no time;

The good news is that there is no fog around and the temp is a very cool 14’c.  My first stop is going to be breakfast at Alice’s Restaurant which is a well known motorcycle hangout as the road(s) to get there are meant to be fun riding.

I head off and take a back route that gets me on the 101 north.  Traffic is really heavy going past Santa Cruz to the point I am riding between the lanes to keep moving – most drivers are really good over here and make room for motorcycle riders.

After a while I get off the main freeway and eventually on the mountain road to the restaurant.  It is a lot of fun and view is fantastic;

The first section of the road is very tight and twisty through thick forest.   The tree branches overlap over you making it a ride in the shade.  For the last 20 miles the road opens up and it feels like you are riding on the very top of the mountain range – in one section you have the sea right next to you.

I pull Stan up outside the restaurant and it’s 9:30 am.  I am really pleased that I have finally made it as I missed out in 2017 when roadworks blocked off my route and to go another way round was all too hard;

When I pulled up there were a few other riders standing around and Stan drew a lot of attention – I regularly get asked about the number plate and where SA is but as soon as they hear my accent they work it out.  I think Stan is pretty happy that he is now getting the same fame as his mate Fred.

At the restaurant I order a bacon/egg breakfast.  It was a pretty cool place to have something to eat and also do a bit on the blog;

My next stop is the Redwood City Police Department which is only 13 miles away – I had a look on google maps and decide to take La Honda Road which turns out to be a stroke of genius (luck) as it turns out to be a really great ride.  Although the distance is not great it takes me a fair bit of time due to the road being so tight.

I go into the Station and the girl at the front desk makes a call to the duty sergeant who agrees to come in from patrol to meet me.  No dramas as I have plenty of time so I take a seat.  Just as I sit down a woman comes into the foyer and she clearly has mental health issues as she is talking to herself and acting weird.

She makes her way over to me and stares at me before going nuts by shouting, screaming and running around in circles – I look over to the girl who is rolling her eyes but is safe behind the bullet proof glass.  The woman suddenly stops and approaches the speaker at the front counter – she talks calmly to the girl and asks for her property back.  Talk about a scene from the twilight zone!

After about 20 mins the patrol sergeant turns up and we have a good chat – I end up being given several patches.  It turns out the crazy woman is well known and harmless (?).

Immediately across the road looks what appears to be the Sheriffs Department so I walk over and go in.  I have a laugh with the guy at the front desk because I am in the county jail.  Ha.

Back on Stan and ride up the 101 to the San Mateo Police Department.  Again I have to wait a while until one of the Administration girls comes down with a patch and a huge travel mug – the mug is ceramic so I can’t take it as I would most likely break it within a few miles.

Turns out the lady has been to Australia and toured around with a couple of Aussie girls when she was in her early 20’s.  We have a laugh when she tells me that she has never told her husband what she got up to as he would never believe it!  Whilst inside Stan also got to meet a local;

My next stop is the Daly Police Department where this time I call in and swap a patch straight away with the shift Lieutenant.  Whilst in the front foyer it was interesting to hear a uniform officer having a conversation in Spanish with a young woman at the front counter.

That ends the patch swapping for the day and I get back on the 101 and make my way through San Francisco and over the Golden Gate Bridge;

The ride through San Francisco was great as it dropped from the low 30’s to around 21’c.  The negative was just how windy it was and it was hard work due to being blown around.

I follow the 101 right to Santa Rosa and then make my way to Bill’s address which is located in the mountain area between the wine regions of Napa Valley and Sonoma County.  The ride again is a lot of fun through the winding roads;

I have trouble finding Bill’s driveway so I stop at a removal truck that is parked on the side of the road.  I speak to the guys but they have no idea so they go and get the owner of the house.  Turns out she knows Bill and gives me directions on how to get there.

Bill did warn me about his driveway and I am glad he did as it was challenge to get a fully laden Stan up it.  The loose gravel and steep incline had me smoking the rear up under full gas;

Stan makes it up the hill and out comes Bill with a big smile on his face as he could hear all of the racket.  I get shown around and see what a great cabin he has in such a top location;

Bill breaks out the cheese and crackers and for the rest of the evening we catch up on what each other has been doing since we saw each other in Shamrock, Texas 2017.

Next morning I cook my now Internationally renowned poached eggs for us and make Bill a convert from fried.  I then go about sorting out the next stage of my trip which now looks like taking a slight detour to the top of Nevada.

Around mid-morning we head off into town as Bill wants to show me the Charles Schultz museum – I had no idea that Charles Schultz was even from Santa Rosa;

The next picture is of a massive mural that is made up of 3,800 different wall tiles that has on each one a daily cartoon strip – overall it represents 10 years of work;

Schultz’s original office has also been moved and is on display;

Once we finished in the museum we went next door and had lunch at ‘The warm puppy” which was where Schultz had his breakfast and lunch every day.  The cafe is located inside the Ice Arena that Schultz built given his passion for ice skating.  Every year he would hold a Xmas extravaganza on ice and invite well known players/performers;

I grew up with Peanuts (Charlie Brown) and it was no surprise I had a ball going through the museum and reading about the inspirations behind each character and more about Schultz’s life.   One of the really interesting things I discovered was that the red haired girl actually existed (Charlie Brown could never get the courage to speak to her) and there is a video of her talking about how she knocked back multiple marriage proposals from Schultz.

It did not take me long to work out that Bill is old school (in a good way) in that he hated anything to do with technology that took away from personal communication.  I wanted to go to the Post Office to send some gear from the Superbikes back home so I hop on the phone and bring up google maps.  “No need for that” says Bill and stops next to an old Mexican woman who was lucky to be 4 ft tall.

Bill then has a conversation in fluent Spanish with the woman and it takes 10 minutes before he is satisfied that he has the directions right to the nearest Post Office – I am having trouble keeping a straight face as I had the directions 9 minutes ago!  All good as we get to the Post Office and the parcel is in the mail.

We get back to the Cabin and just hang out – I ask a lot of questions of Bill and find his life story fascinating.  Among a lot of other things Bill went to war in Vietnam at a very young age and survived 2 x tours.  He tells me that on his very first patrol over 70 of them went out and he was one of only 12 that came back.  I think this has a lot to do with his obvious passion to make the most of life now.

Bill fires up the bar-b-que and makes tri-tip steaks, grilled asparagus and roasted potatoes – dinner fit for a king (or maybe two old detectives).  We clean up and I later catch up with Helen on Skype.

Next morning Bill is lining up for his poached eggs so now I know he is totally converted.  Whilst I make breakfast he puts on Billy Thorpe’s “Most people I know think that I am crazy” which perfectly sums up his character!  Bill heads off for a prior commitment and I stay at the cabin and take care of my washing and other chores.

Around mid morning I take Stan for a ride and go down the mountain to Santa Rosa and pick up some groceries.  I had a great ride given I was luggage free and was able to get into it a lot more.

Bill has been great fun and I will be keeping in touch – one of the options he put forward early on when I first made contact was to stay on his boat that he has moored in South Sausalito which is located just north of San Francisco near the Golden Gate Bridge.  Unfortunately this was ruled out as the boat had to be put in for maintenance in dry dock.

My friend the ‘Mayor’ put me in touch with another motorcycle enthusiast (Jim) that lives in Minden, Nevada.  Jim wants me to come over for a visit and show me around the area which is right next to Lake Tahoe.  I head off tomorrow morning and it should be fun.

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