Tom and I left Fresno Friday morning , Sept 12th @ 0645, we picked up hwy 99 north-bound to Stockton, in Stockton we picked up hwy 4 west for about 4 miles to I - 5. From there we took I - 5 all the way to Redding Ca. In Redding we picked up hwy 299 west to Weaverville. While we were transiting from Redding to Weaverville we got behind two riders, one was on a cruiser and the other was on a Kawasaki ZN1300, I told Tom that the rider on the Kawasaki looked like Don Brubaker but I couldn't identify the rider on the cruiser, plus Don was supposed to be bringing Doris with him. There were a couple of cars between us so I couldn't be sure about the ZN1300 rider. I tried to contact him on the CB but couldn't make contact. We were about 8 miles out of Weaverville when they turned off and headed north up to Trinity dam, so I decided that we were mistaken about it being Don.
Tom and I pulled into Weaverville at 1530 (3:30) for you civilians, we looked up our motel and checked in. I asked the lady if there were anymore riders from the Nor Cal Voyagers here yet, she informed me that we are the first ones there. I asked her to call David and let him know we were there and to also tell the others what room we were in when they arrived. We found our room just fine and I headed over to the 7 - 11 for a six pack. I'm glad it was only a six pack, I couldn't afford a case, $6.04 for a six packer.
We had been in our room about 45 minutes when David Rhodes came knocking on the door. He introduced himself to me and Tom. Now you have to understand David has been a member for a little over a year now, and this is the first time any of us have ever met. It's kinda hard to socialize with each other when you have 450 miles separating you. That's the main reason we set this tour up, I wanted to meet David and I have always wanted to look this part of California over, so when I approached David with the suggestion that he set up a tour of this part of the country, He was more than willing to do it.
It was almost 1900 (7:00PM) when Don called to let me know that Chris & Ida had arrived. By the way, The members on this tour were Tom Anderson, Don Brubaker, Chris & Ida Caputo myself and the cruiser rider Dennis O'Brian Don's guest and long time friend. I told them that we had a meeting with our tour guide at 1900 at the roundtable pizza parlor, we all gathered ourselves up and rode down to the pizza joint. There we met David and Cindy, Now Cindy is David's lady friend, I don't know just how close they are to each other, so I will just leave it as his lady friend. But I will add that she is a darn good sport and a good passenger on a motorcycle. We held our meeting over a picture of beer and two very large pizzas. David presented us with the original tour he had set up, than he presented us with an optional extra day up into Oregon. Dennis O'Brian had to be back to work on Tuesday morning so he had to refuse the extra day, and since he had come with Don. Don decided he would skip it also and ride back with Dennis. Oh yes as it turned out it was Don and Dennis we were behind there on 299, Dennis was just showing Don the Dam and some extra scenery before they checked into the motel. Chris & Ida chose to do the extra day, so that made six of us to do the extra days ride. A few photos were taken a few hands were shook and it was decided we would meet for breakfast at 0700 the next morning, and try to be on our way by 0800.
Day #2, Tom and I were up and ready to go by 0630, We made a couple of phone calls to make sure everyone was up and ready to go, We all got on our bikes to ride down the street for breakfast, when we were greeted by some bad news, Dennis's Yamaha Virago wouldn't start, the battery was dead, so some of us pushed it and it started right up. We went on down for breakfast where we met David & Cindy, they were all dressed up in their leathers and ready to ride. It took us a little longer for breakfast than we had anticipated, The service was a little slow, but the food was good, so all was forgiven.
David & Cindy led us out of Weaverville on hwy 3 north - bound, we went through several small villages such as Callahan, Etna and Ft Jones, at Ft Jones we left hwy 3 and took Scotts River road running right along side the Scotts River for miles, this was so beautiful I was amazed at how pretty and green it was. We went through Hamburg -Seiad Valley & Happy Camp. At Happy Camp we picked up Indian Creek road north to the Illinois Valley road north - bound into the state of Oregon from there we went through Takilma, Bridge View & on into Cave Junction. Here we spent our second night on the road. The accommodations were very nice and very reasonable, we had our usual six pack and than a nice dinner, was in bed by 2130 and ready to arise by 0600. David wanted to get out of town by 0800 so we could be in the first tour group at the Oregon caves.
Day #3 and Tom and I were up and ready to go by 0700, we all just kind of drifted into the restaurant one or two at a time, but we were all ready to go at the same time. Everyone got mounted up and the same thing happened again the Virago wouldn't start, we pushed it and it started right up, Dennis was very embarrassed about this situation, But he had just bought the bike about a week before and this was the first sign of trouble he had with it, Since it was Sunday and the motorcycle shops were all closed we decide to just put up with it until he could get another battery. We left for the cave around 0830, somewhat later than scheduled, it took us a little over an hour to get to the caves. There were about four other people in front of us for the tour, Since they take around 10 people per tour, we were just in time to get on this tour. It took an hour and 45 minutes to do the tour. If you have never been through any caves before, I would highly recommend you do this tour or any cave tour for that matter, it's very interesting to see what's under the ground you are walking on, very interesting indeed.
When the tour was over and we (mostly me) had caught our breaths again we decided to head North for our extra days ride. Sometime during the previous day Chris & Ida remembered they had reservations down in Eureka and had to be there by 1700 (5:00PM) Today. This left just Tom and I to do the ride with David. I wish now I would have suggested we forgo the extra day and just do the original ride, But I was so excited about it, I just didn't think about it until a long time later, than it was to late. Anyway we left Don, Dennis, Chris & Ida there at the caves and headed back to Cave Junction where we had started out from earlier in the day. When we arrived in Cave junction we decide to have a bite to eat since it was 1330 already.
We departed Cave Junction on hwy 199 north, we followed this road all the way to Grants Pass Oregon. Here we picked up I-5 North to Sutherlin Oregon, Here we picked up hwy 138 west to Elkton where we picked up hwy 38 west into Reedsport, hwy 138 & 38 run along the river banks of the Umpqua river all the way from I -5 to the pacific ocean, I know we crossed this darned river 10 times, because I counted ten bridges and there were a few I didn't count, so I'm sure we crossed it at least 13 or 14 times. That's a lot of bridges just for one river in a space of around 70 miles, Only God knows how many they have East of I-5. We spent our third night in Reedsport, Tom and I demanded a no smoking room and we had to take one with three beds which cost us an extra $5.00. This was to be the worst night I have spent in a motel room ever, we had a room on the ground floor right on the corner of the motel and right on the edge of a shopping center. We got cleaned up and walked down the street for the evening meal, tonight we would have Mexican food, It was, I might add; very good. We returned to our room showered and watched TV for about an hour than the brown stuff hit the fan. It seems as though there was a punk rock place right out the back window of our motel room about 75 yards away, unfortunately for me they were having a concert this very night. Tom had already gone to sleep before it started and he didn't hear a thing, ( I started to check him I was sure he was dead) I couldn't see how it was possible for anyone to sleep through all that racket. Finally at 2300 I called the motel office and told her I wasn't paying to be entertained by a rock band and I wanted some quite time, she said she would see what she could do about it. They finally shut it down at 2400 (midnight). I had just fallen to sleep when something woke me up, I got up to see what the heck it was, it was two boys about 13 years old using the black top and a concrete loading ramp next door to practice their skate boarding. I went out side and asked them if they had a home to go to and they said yes, so I told them they had better get their little butts headed in that direction, It was 0130 in the morning. I am still wondering where mom & dad was at that time in the morning.
Day #4 dawned with the noise of trucks backing up to the loading docks of the store next door, Tom didn't hear a thing all night. It was decide we would have breakfast in the café right behind us, in fact two doors down from the punk rock place. We had a nice breakfast and headed south on hwy 101, we ran along the coast and stopped for a photo shoot from time to time, the weather was beautiful, so was the scenery. David stopped in Port Orchard for lunch, said he knew of a place that had wonderful food, he did and it was. We left Port Orchard and went south into California, went through Crescent City to Arcata. Here we were supposed to hang a left on hwy 299 and go back into Weaverville, but to our surprise we found out there was a big fire over around Big Bar, (where David lives) and were advised to stay away. This being the case we decided to just bed down in Arcata for the night. During the evening Tom and I decided it would be best for us to just go on south on 101 until we could cross back over to I-5.
Day #5, everyone was up early and wiping the dew from our bikes, we had forgotten we were on the coast where it's wet every night. We had breakfast with David & Cindy and said our good by's there. After breakfast Tom and I headed south while David & Cindy headed into the fire & smoke, sure hope everything came out OK for them. We went south on 101 to Calpella, from Arcata to Calpella we hit at least 5 different road constructions stops, some were just a couple of minutes and a couple were for ten to fifteen minutes each. At Calpella we picked up hwy 20 east over to I-5, We had gone about 45 miles when we hit our 8th construction on hwy 20, the guy said we would be there for at least 30 minutes. We had just passed hwy 16 south into Woodlake, I decide it was time to make a change, so we turned around and went back to hwy 16 about 1.5 miles, we hung a left and headed south to Woodlake about 47 miles, I had never been up through this area before and was surprised to see how good the road was, we had one area of road construction about 17 miles north of Woodlake, there's an Indian casino up there and they are doing some major construction on the place, I saw a 5 story hotel and it looked like they were going on up with it, there was a 5 story parking garage under construction too. Looks like the Indians are going to get some of the money back the white man owes him for his land after all.
We arrived in Woodlake around 1530, picked up I -5 south and headed into the Sacramento rush hour traffic, It looked as though we were going to be lucky, all the traffic was going north. But you know your luck can't hold out forever, just south of hwy 50 we hit some heavy traffic, stop and go for about 30 minutes, but after we passed all the on & off ramps in the area the traffic picked up speed and we breezed right on into Stockton where we picked up hwy 4 east over to hwy 99. From there it was a straight shot on into Fresno, we arrived home at 1930 on the16th.
Now for an over view of the trip, we saw some very beautiful country, rode some very nice roads, had some wonderful company, did a whole lot of BS'ing. This trip is something I have been wanting to do for a long time, Now that it's over with I can turn my attention to the Western Regional Ride In, in June of 2004.
I want to thank David Rhodes & Cindy Craig for putting up with all of us, especially Tom Anderson. David and Cindy are mighty fine people and I, am happy to be able to call them my friends, and I want to thank them from the bottom of my heart for going to all that trouble for someone they had never met. This world needs a few million more David & Cindy's. If you ever decide to do an extended ride up in the NW part of Calif and the SW corner of Oregon, I would highly recommend this ride. Thank you so very much David & Cindy.
(Uncle) Ray Walls
President
Nor Cal Voyagers