Raven's Roads
Living an interesting life: the travels and musings
of motorcycling author Linda R. Moore

Jul 8, 2004

Friday

Filed in Santa Cruz 2004

Friday morning I was up earlier and brighter than usual. For some reason, bright sunlight and being on vacation, not to mention the sound of coffee brewing, motivates me to get my butt out of bed.

The coffee would have been nice if there were any sugar, btw, but at least it smelled nice. We had soup for breakfast. (This was stranger for Barb than it was for me, I think.)

I was leading us to Watsonville, a little dash down highway 1. I managed to get us lost within about two minutes of leaving the apartment, so Barb led us to highway 1 and then I took over. It’s a fast road, a freeway on this section, and I found it a bit windy and disconcerting for some reason. But we only had to travel ten miles, and then we were off to find the KOA.

The road we took was nice - two lanes (one in each direction for those unfamiliar with the phrasing), nice curves, rural with pretty houses, a bit of up and down. The turn into the campground was a bit iffy, what with the swathes of gravel and the railroad tracks to cross, but we both managed just fine.

We got parked and stuff and admired the leafy campground. It looked nice on first glance. I did some postcard shopping and then we went outdoors to wait for Jamie and Sandy.

As it turned out, they were late, but knowing this it was fine to just hang out. I got to watch my first gopher, which popped up out of the ground like a little…well, gopher. I now understand the game Whack-A-Mole.

I left the gopher a corn nut. It popped out, sniffed, popped out, grabbed. The grab was literally a fraction of a second: too quick to see. Then it popped out again with its cheeks bulging, like a hamster. We derived a lot of entertainment out of that gopher, and a big freight train that meandered by.

Jamie and Sandy arrived, and we went to talk to the people inside, and got the go-ahead to check out the campground. We fell in love with the layout and the possibilities, and had a good look around, and schemed things for the rally which I shall not mention here lest anyone be listening (it’s supposed to be a secret to spring on the members when we get there). Then we went to check availability.

O, poo.

There is absolutely no availability on a Friday and Saturday until November, and that’s too late for us. So, essentially, if you think in terms of the rally this was a waste of time, but if you think in terms of an excuse for a four-day weekend, it was grand. ;-)

We went down the rest of the road as a group of four; it drops us into Watsonville. The ride was a delight; it opened up into farmland, and I got quite a rush when we all overtook a farm vehicle one after another, riding in conjunction with one another as you are supposed to do (there are “rules” for group riding, and it is a rush when you do it - like dancing. Everyone is responsible for her own ride, but there are things we can do to help the group stay together and be visible.)

Sandy seemed to know her way around, and we were soon settled down into a Mexican restaurant for plates of tacos and other fine things.