From Yosemite to San Francisco

Thru. Nov. 13 It's 48 degrees and very foggy this morning in Exeter, Ca so we sit at the tables in lobby of the motel while munching on doughnuts and drinking orange juice. We talk to an equipment rep. from Santa Maria while waiting for the fog to lift. He tells us about some of the different crops grown in the areas. He said the highest rent paid per acre runs around $2500 for the land you see strawberries growing on. There has been a lot of the ag. land lost to development especially close to cities like where he lives. The fog has lift around 9:00 so we head to the drug store to pick up some medicine Joe had phoned in from Dr. Flautt for his sinus crud. Leaving Exeter at 10:00 we hit hwy 99 to Fresno and then get on hwy 41 thru town on our way to Yosemite Nat. Park. Hwy 41 took us by the Wanona Hotel. It's an old wooden hotel, the first building built in 1876 as part of a stage stop. The main building was built in 1879. There are six different buildings to the hotel. There is no tv nor telephone at the hotel, but the rooms are furnished in victorian period pieces and antiques. If you ever decide to vacation in the area check out this place as one of your night stops. On past the hotel and golf course we travel the scenic curvy road thru the redwoods and several tunnels to the waterfall on the Merced River. I was disipointed we didn't see any large animals as we rode thru the park, maybe if we had gone hwy 140 instead which was along the river valley we would have seen some. We ride along the river for aways until we get to hwy 120, there is a sign for hwy 140, which runs along the river saying road is flooded, so we take hwy 120. This take us to Chinese Camp and on to Oakdale for the night.

Fri Nov. 14 We leave Oakdale, it's 53 degrees, and take hwy 99 up to Lodi where we get on hwy 12 west. We cross a couple of waterways, one of them Potato Slough, before getting to Rio Vista where we cross the Sacramento River. It is between those rivers we go thru what they call The Delta. There was a lot of flooded corn fields with a lot of geese and ducks. East of Fairfield we see more wind turbines. The wind around Fairfield and the Travis Air Force Base was really strong. The C5 planes flying in and out of the base looked like the were sitting still in the air. Hwy 12 takes us thru Napa and on to Sonoma with all their vineyards and wineries. Up town Sonoma, we stop for a drink, has the look as being pricey. We reach Santa Rosa and with the temp at 94, we pull our long sleeve shirts off. We get on hwy 101 heading south to San Fransico. Before we know it we are crossing the Golden Gate Bridge, looking to our right at the Pacific Ocean and to our left, San Francisco and the Bay. Boy, is this cool or what, on my Harley, all the way from Mississippi and riding it across this beautiful bridge and way too soon , we are stopping at the south end to pay our $6 for the privilege of crossing it. As we start into town I notice how pretty and pristine all the building are along the highway. We turn left to the wharf where we park to take the views of the Golden Gate on our left, Alcatraz out in front, and Fisherman's Wharf on our right. There is so much to see it's hard to soah it all in. After leaving the wharf we were parked on, we ride down Fisherman's Wharf and then onto hwy 101 heading out of San Francisco. We stop in Morgan Hill for the night.