Good morning from Comfort Inn Hanford
Trip Start
Sep 29, 2007
1
6
45
Trip End
Dec 01, 2007
Hanford,
California,
United States
Sunday, September 30, 2007
My ride preparations are changing slightly, as I am discarding one of my 3 California maps, I am keeping the Thomas Bros. California book and a fold-up cali I can fold at my current location and place in my handlebar pack and view it periodically. I am also discarding an old pair of "flip-flops, a big cotton towel, (I have two smaller ones), and a big green 10 year-old lower sheet, which has served me well as the lower sheet in both of my VW buses. It has served me well, and I used it on the trip up to protect the rear set from my bicycle. It has served me well, it is almost see through, has men mended a couple of times and has a couple more tears from the sprocket on the ride up.
I am up early, as usual. The travelpod has many auto-features, and date/time is one of them. Although, I usually manually fix it when I make an entry, it's auto time is about 3 hours ahead. I will make a mental note to see if the time remains according to my corrections when I write again
I know I have made a lot of preparation entries, I had a lot to document, as well as learning the system.
I believe today will be a relatively short day, and I will wait for it to get light out to begin. Depending on the roads, the accuracy of my maps, and the elevation as I head toward Coalinga, which is west 198 toward the coast, I will decide whether or not to meander more in a northbound direction to check out the boat in Stockton. I understand that Stockton has rivers that dump into the San Francisco Bay. If I do that, I can follow the rivers, which are the same in which the whales get lost into and are seen on television broadcasts. Those rivers might have a bike path to the Bay and the more I think about it, the more that seems like something I would like to see.
As I have mention my attraction to boats, I should mention that in the late 90's, My cousin Todd and I took an ill fated sailboat cruise from LA to several miles south of Ensenada Mexico, where we we caught in a major storm. The boat we were on was a Ranger 26, and we were both inexperienced sailors at the time. We were probably luck to have survived and lucky to again even find Ensenada Bay, as we had absolutely no navigation equipment. we limped back into the bay, where I remained for about 6 months, and Todd took off with another sailor heading south and returned a few weeks later, with an adventure story of his own. I, on the other hand, hooked up with a commercial fisherman, where I signed on for a trip to "Midway," fishing for Albacore. In time I will document this trip, which has some interesting turn of events, in which I will explain later. I will just say that the fishing was brief and I ended up the Captain, sailing into Pearl Harbor without anyone but the NOAA, teenage observer/fish measurer, refusing to sit watches at the helm and riding out the rest of the trip, seasick in his cabin. Another hint, the original captain disembarked in the middle of the ocean, and as he left, he told my dump all the automatic weapons located in the bilge, into the sea in case the Coast Guard boarded due to the unusual circumstances. I will write the complete story later. Now I need to get showered and ride.
Steve
