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I woke up at 9am. Most of my gear was damp with the blowing mist that characterizes morning in that part of the world. After breakfast and about 40 cups of coffee I had my bike packed. It was noon and there was nothing to do but make my departure. It was hard saying good-bye to these people. Some were my good friends; the others had just become so. Stephan had left the night before so it was just Nick and Vinnie who walked me to my bike. A quick "man hug" from Nick and I was on my way. What a great bunch. Had I stayed in the area I know I would have had a whole new batch of great friends. Thanks Anna, Bob, Vinnie, Roxanne, Stephan, Nick, Mike, Pete and Melissa. You gave me some great memories I'll always appreciate.
The first order of business was to head into Santa Cruz to hit AAA for a couple of maps I didn't have and then onto Santa Cruz Harley Davidson to see if I could get a list of all the H-D dealers along the way (I couldn't). After heading out of SC I stopped in Watsonville for lunch at an old hot dog stand. Heading out of Watsonville I was really starting to hate the stock seat on the bike. My ass was dying and my thighs felt like they were draped over a fence pole. An hour later the pain was becoming really bad and I was thinking how much this sucked.
One of the incredible things about this trip was that whenever I needed something a solution presented itself. I was driving on roads I'd never been on, in a part of California I was unfamiliar with when the stock seat became simply unbearable. I figured I couldn't be too far from Hollister, home of the Corbin seat factory. I took a right on an unmarked 2-lane road, which shortly turned into a 4 lane divided highway. At this time I noticed a small, odd-looking airplane flying low off to my left. As I watched, the plane flew right over a large warehouse. The warehouse was the Corbin seat factory. Cool.
I u-turned and pulled into the factory. One of the tech's approached me; I explained my situation and asked if they could make a seat on the spot. They could, but he said, they had had a couple of no shows for Sportster seats, would I be interested in taking a look? He popped the new seat on and I took a spin. I couldn't believe the difference. I bought the seat with a shorty backrest; they shipped the stock seat to my parent's house. An hour later I was comfortably back on the road thanking the Gods of serendipity and MasterCard.
I made it to Kings Canyon by nightfall and stayed the night at the Snowline Lodge where I had a great steak dinner (if you're ever there get the house salad dressing... it's great). The trip to Kings Canyon was pretty uneventful except for an enormous headwind along route 152 over Pacheco Pass. I had only been to Kings Canyon once, years before with Brenda and I found myself recognizing some of the places we had stopped and shared some good times. By the time night fell I was feeling pretty down. It felt damn good to have dinner a hot shower and a comfortable bed.
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