6. Pasadena

Jul 22, 2009 Uncategorized

I decided to take highway 1 (the Pacific Coast Highway) for the trip to L.A./Pasadena. Multiple people suggested it so I figured it was a better alternative than just mindless freeways.

Bryce mention a pyramid shaped building that was in downtown San Fransisco. Since I left as Bryce was leaving for work, I figured I had a little bit of spare time to spend in the city. I made one mistake though. For some reason I thought I had to take the Bay Bridge to get to downtown San Fran. I actually rode right past downtown San Fran to get on the bridge. The bridge took me to Oakland. It didn’t seem like that bad of a place; I don’t know why it get such a bad reputation.

After back tracking to San Fran I spent 20 minutes trying to find the building before quitting. My next struggle was to find the correct road to take me to the coast. That also involved getting lost and back tracking. I eventually got my bearings and headed to the coast. I believe it was highway 152 that was a fun ride. Lots of twists and hills. I would recommend it to other riders.

Before I managed to make it to the coast I spent an hour on the freeway. 101 South to be exact. I don’t know if California looks the other way when it comes to speeding, but I was definitely going 80-100 mph the whole way. I hit 100 a number of times. It’s quite enjoyable and has me thinking about buying a sport bike someday.

The California coast was a beautiful ride. I hit the coast at Monterey and stayed on it till San Lius Obisipo. By the time I got to SLO I was behind schedule so I went to back to the 101 freeway the rest of the way. The Cali coast was like Heaven on a stick. It’s amazing because the road is on the edge of a cliff 300-500 feet above the water. The only bad part was the traffic. I cycled through intervals of no traffic for 20 minutes and then a line of traffic for another 20-30.

After the coast I raced to Pasadena before the sun went down. As I said before, the California freeways are where it’s at. The flow of traffic in the left lane was doing a healthy 80-90 mph the whole way. I made it to Pasadena on time and met up with Peter. I took a glorious shower (it had been about 3 days), and then went to dinner at the Yard House with Pete. They claim to have 100 beers on tap. We had a few beers and I had a full rack of ribs. It was delicious. I’ll be in Pasadena for the next few days. The plan is to hit up Six Flags tomorrow and catch a Dodgers game later in the week. No pics today I was too busy trying to get here on time to pull over and snap some shots.