NorCal Revisited Part 3: Reclaiming San Francisco

My homework was done, and I was ready to jump on Eleanor and play! I looked on Google Maps and found out that there was a road that leads out of Petaluma onto some really nice twisties and headed out toward PCH. It was going to be a bit cooler going into this region (around the mid-60s), so I made sure that I inserted my rain liner into my mesh jacket to add more layers to battle the winds and fog on my way down toward San Francisco.

I had no idea what visually stunning sights I was in for as I was riding down these serene, two-lane roads. There were small lakes, seemingly unending hills, and very picturesque land forms as I rode through on a good clip. However, I had to come to a complete stop for this lake area amid the hills, otherwise known as the Nicasio Reservoir.

Once I made it onto the US-101 southbound heading into San Francisco (around 10:30 AM), the fog was so bad that I delayed taking a photo at Battery Spencer until later in the day when I was on my way out. Temps had also dropped down to the upper-50s so getting through the Golden Gate Bridge and into the city where it was warmer was a priority. It was surreal to cross back into San Francisco again from the north; it had been over six years since I had done it, and the third time that Eleanor had seen the bridge. I had ridden across the Golden Gate Bridge on another motorcycle before this, my 2005 Suzuki SV650.

It was quite #foggy riding in. It should burn off for a good pic later. #GoldenGateBridge #SanFrancisco

A post shared by Christine (@twowheeledtourist) on Jul 13, 2017 at 11:07am PDT

I learned a couple things once I made it to Fisherman's Wharf. First, with a motorcycle, you can park for free right in the entrance of the wharf. Second, I need to bring my FastTrak transponder with me the next time I return to Northern California. All of the toll roads are using the system now.

My first stop in the Fisherman's Wharf was the Musée Mécanique, a penny arcade and museum filled with video games and arcade machines from various decades, all of them fully playable. As I had done a decade prior, I threw a few quarters into the X-Men vs. Street Fighter game and beat the snot out of another patron. After that, I ventured outside to check out Alcatraz from a distance as it could be seen in plain view the day I was there.

Hmm. That's not what I think about when I envision a bunch of bimbos in a box.

There were too many food selections to choose from for lunch, and I had a little too much fun taking photos of everything. This may involve multiple visits back up here. I'm not complaining about that.

If it lived in the ocean, it'll probably end up on a roll. The options were endless. Would you like some rolls with your crab, lobster, or shrimp?

A pair of disgruntled giant lobster and an indifferent crab.

That's a long way to swim if you're planning to make any sort of escape.

Getting my clam-on-clam fix with a little help from the squid. This was totally worth the ride down to the city by the bay.

Even the Magikarp couldn't resist all the attention!

Cooked crab...master of the resting bitch face.

I have a feeling that these socks wouldn't fly well at my job. The kids would find it funny, though.

After lunch, I headed over the hilly parts of the city into Japantown to Daiso in an attempt to find a budget Apple Lightning cable to charge my iPad (I had forgotten mine at home). Unfortunately, they were sold out of them so I made my way to the flagship Apple Store in Union Square.

Things that aren't awkward: motorcycle-specific parking meters are only $0.35 an hour. Bless you, #SanFrancisco. Things that are kinda awkward: this photo if you're familiar enough with my life story. At least it's not red. 😅 #motorcycleprobs #Yamaha #FJR1300 #K1200RS #somestoriesarenotmeanttoberepeated

A post shared by Christine (@twowheeledtourist) on Jul 13, 2017 at 1:38pm PDT

I spent a little time perusing this two-story, open air store and had the chance to plug my iPad in to get a little juice while I surfed the Internet on a display MacBook and took a break. It's a pretty cool location and it was packed with all sorts of visitors. I ended up getting out of there with a Lightning cable. (Tip: You have a 14-day return window if you buy anything from the Apple Store.) This is great for those people who just happen to be out of town and are forgetting anything.

Tangela is here to inquire about the new MacBook Pro.

Switching gears from technology and back to motorcycles, I rode to BMW Motorcycles of San Francisco to check out the store and ask for some assistance in topping off the oil on Eleanor. She tends to burn a little more oil than normal because of her mileage and age, and I was receiving an oil light on my dash while I was near the Nicasio Reservoir. It's a level, not a pressure, sensor. The service manager there wasn't too busy and helped me out in the service bay. I even got a t-shirt and stickers out of the whole deal. I'd definitely come back and visit again.

After that, I made a quick stop to the nearby D-Store to see if there were any good deals on motorcycle gear before riding back to Battery Spencer to get that view of the Golden Gate Bridge. By the time I got there (about 7:30 PM), the view was just perfect.

I made it back to Petaluma around 9 PM and had to find some creative parking on the street. The roads are severely banked here so I had to be careful where I put my kickstand down. In reference to the title of this blog, returning to San Francisco and some destinations that I have not seen in ten years brought closure to what were tumultuous times in my life. In many ways, even being back up here was a cleansing experience.

My next stop the following day, the Corbin Seats World Headquarters in Hollister, CA, would bring some of that healing energy onto my trusty Yamaha FJR1300 in the form of a completely restored rider seat.

That parking angle is just slightly unnerving...

Tales from the Battle Wagon - how a slightly broken BMW repaired a part of my heart.

I may call myself the Two-Wheeled Tourist, but I wouldn't be where I am now without a little help from my four-wheeled companion, a 1999 BMW 528i (E39) wagon in Oxford Green Metallic.

I acquired this vehicle in May 2011 as a replacement to my beloved 2003 Subaru Outback that found its demise in a collision in the middle of Columbus, Ohio after an impromptu makeout session with a 1993 Honda Civic hatchback at the hands of a roommate. Luckily, I wasn't the one driving the car when this happened; however, the things that did happen to me not much long after the acquisition of this BMW were a clear sign that my time inhabiting the Midwest was coming to an end.

Here's the wagon the day I bought it. I set it free, and it would return the favor several years later.

I was the third owner of this wagon, inheriting it at 102,000 miles on the odometer. It was far from perfect; several hundred dollars from the remainder of my insurance claim check were invested to replace broken pieces, the radiator, and other minor details (thank you eBay and Bavarian Autosport). At first, I didn't like this car very much, but the reasons were more emotional than logical. I missed my Subaru and was quite bitter about the way that car met its end - like in many aspects of my life in Ohio, out of my control and without a satisfying solution or conclusion. This "replacement" of a wagon took a little getting used to because of its larger frame and heavier handling than the nimbler Outback that took me through college and my first foray into a teaching career. The new (to me) car had a large set of tires to fill; replacing what was my escape vehicle before I became a full-fledged motorcyclist was going to be a tough undertaking.

In Memoriam: the Subaru "Taxi" (9/29/04-5/13/11)

After six years and 109,881 miles, the 2003 Subaru Outback wagon that I've owned since college was totaled by insurance under unforseen circumstances. Not the way I wanted to see that machine go.

I'm going to miss this car. I acquired it during at the beginning of my second year at USC as a replacement to my "first" car, a 2000 Ford Taurus SE, a vehicle that my brother put more miles on than I did due to the fact that my parents didn't allow me to drive to school because I was female and by default, inferior and unable to operate a vehicle safely. (That's a story/social commentary on Asian parents for another day.) That Taurus got me around from Point A to Point B, but it didn't capture my heart like this Subaru station wagon did.

I chose the Subaru for a few reasons. I wanted a car that was a wagon to carry all my hockey goalie gear, all-wheel drive, reliable with an excellent track record, and NOT a Honda or Toyota because damn near everyone in CA owned one. But most importantly, it was a functional car that did everything I needed it to do. And as soon as I got it, I was free to roam wherever I desired to go.

I rolled out of the dealer lot of Timmons Subaru in Long Beach, CA with exactly 18k miles on the odometer. By the next week, torrential rains had hit Southern CA and stuck around for more than two weeks straight. As streets flooded due to clogged-up drains and non-desert level rain, my car sliced through the daily commute as other vehicles stalled and were trapped in the watery mess. Within the next couple years, that car would see many a hockey trip, long drives of the CA coast to San Francisco, the occasional trip to Las Vegas, moving days for friends, professional videography sessions, and more drop-offs and pick-ups from LAX airport for more people than I could count. Thanks to all those passengers that I moved from here to there with the Subaru, it earned the name "Taxi."

The Subaru was my motorcycle before I became a fully competent and confident rider. It was my freedom and escape from the "nos" and "you can'ts" that I'd hear in my household on a regular basis. Heck, at one time, a trip to Vancouver, BC, Canada was even in the works! When the motorcycles became my primary vehicles, the car was always there whenever I was ready to travel to another hockey game or had to take more passengers than the bike would allow. Here's some of the interesting moments I was able to get with the camera:

Las Vegas (January 2008): I make the super-wise decision to drive the Taxi STRAIGHT into a packed pile of Zamboni-dumped snow at the hockey rink. Matt triumphantly stands in front of my mess. Ironically, it never got stuck in snow in Ohio, and there was whole lot more of it here!

Las Vegas (August 2009): The Taxi proves that it can haul more than just passengers. It manages to pull a trailer containing two full-size motorcycles, a scooter, and every possible inside orifice stuffed with things to take to Ohio. With the car now gone, we no longer own any of the vehicles in this picture, trailer included. :(

Somewhere in Iowa (August 2009): Fuzzy takes full advantage of the Subaru's A/C system. He was in the front seat for the entire trip!

Columbus, OH (11/27/09): The Subaru sees REAL snow for the first time. It survived two Ohio winters, not bad for a car that was never expected to leave California!

December 2009: Oh Taxi, where did you end up taking us to? On a bright note, we were able to drive to much larger frozen ponds to do some real pond hockey!

On a bright note, the car won't see its demise in a junk yard crushed into a cube. The owner of Mullins Body Shop in Galloway, OH, the place that I had the car towed to, liked it so much that he bought the car off of me with the intention of repairing and using it again. I wish him the best of luck, especially because the car's front suspension was twisted like a twig.

That car was a tough act to follow, but I'm sure that its replacement will serve us well as it did. The Subaru's successor is a Forest Green 1999 BMW E39 528i wagon with 108k miles on the odometer that we picked up from Carmean Auto Group in Carroll, OH. Matt pointed out that, according to BMW nomenclature, the wagon is technically a 528tai (t = touring, a = automatic, i = fuel injection). If it were an all-wheel drive version (designated by BMW as "x"), it would've been a 528taxi! That would've been quite fitting, actually.

Here's to [hopefully] many years of potential adventures with the Bimmer. Now it just needs to earn a name!