Day 2, Aug 7

What can I say about our ride today?  We left Reno about 8:15 and had a beautiful ride up through the Truckee and Donner Pass area into Sacramento.  It was a little crisp on the top but very pleasant as we pulled into to Sacramento HD.  The visit was not unlike so many others we've made.  We bought pins and poker chips. Ok, it was a little different in that all the boys were looking for gel pads and new seats!  "It's only Day 2!", Shannon and I chuckled to one another. We joked that it must be the extra padding we've added over the last few summers that have spared our backsides from feeling any pain.  Oh yes, I bought rain gear! 

It was 10:50 as we were pulling out of Sacramento heading to Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco for lunch.  Shortly after that our plans took a slight left turn.  We learned another lesson from the age old miles vs minutes lesson book.  We weren't too far out of Sacramento when we started encountering traffic congestion.  There were probably 3-4 spots before Vallejo where traffic slowed to 10-15 miles per hour for short shots.  It seemed like we were still doing okay though.  As we neared San Francisco that changed dramatically. I remember one sign said 27 miles, but the digital reader on the highway cautioned 47 minutes.  The closer we got the more the traffic came to a snail's pace.  The extra gear that had kept me warm coming over the pass was now serving as oven wrap.  We were moving often enough that we really couldn't get off the bikes to remove/adjust gear.  It was one car length at a time for what was starting to feel like an hour.

As we inched our way closer to the Bay Bridge toll booth it occurred to me that I was likely to run out fuel on the bridge if I made it that far.  Alan lead the ride today as his cruise control is helpful on the interstate and his GPS is handy in town.  I signaled to Alan that I needed fuel and he indicated he would too.  As we approached the last exit before the bridge we reluctantly decided to abandon our place in line and bailed to go find fuel.  Three out of four bikes had hit reserve. We found a fuel stop in a sketchy part of Oakland.  It had the less preferable 87 Octane only, but at that point fuel is fuel.  We again discussed lunch plans and we decided to make another attempt for a late lunch at the Wharf.  Options in sketchy Oakland didn't look to promising so I chose a granola bar to tide me over and we left to give the Bay Bridge another shot. 

As 880 merged into the traffic headed to the bridge, we were almost back to where we had abandoned our place in line.  It took almost another hour to make it to the bridge.  We watched cars around us getting into fender benders and over heating.  It was certainly a test of the Syn 3 that runs through our engines.  I was hopeful the bikes wouldn't over heat.  The pools of oil in the tollbooth were an extra hazard to be avoided.  We all are amazed that people choose to live here and deal with this kind of traffic everyday.  And in the year 2016 with all the technology available, it is ridiculous to think there isn't a more efficient way to process 40,000 cars through a toll booth.  We finally made it to the Dudley's HD in SF.  At that point we were hot, tired and HANGRY. The first two restaurants we tried were closed.  We settled for the Chowder Hut at 4pm.  It tooks us 5 hours to go 110 ish miles.  Ridiculous!!

Following lunch we were all in agreement that we needed to find the Golden Gate Bridge and get across it as soon as we could to find some open road.  En route to the bridge we were reminded that we were riding manual transmissions on the steep streets of San Franscisco.  The bridge itself had heavy traffic but at least it kept moving. Tim recalled despite it's grandeur,  it wasn't quite the same ride it was when he rode across it as a child.  We were all glad to find the open road north of San Francisco into Windsor.  We all opted for 101 over 1 as we just wanted to get to our rooms. 

It's fair to say the Bay Bridge kicked our butts.

Stats for the day -  Total miles: 295.  Time to travel that distance: 11 hours!!  Poker hand (3 card stud) winner: Tim with a pair of 9's.  Torrey to deal tomorrow.