Thursday, July 7



Up but not quite as early as we have been when traveling. Went down to breakfast then over to the meeting place to wait for the bus that would take us on our drive-by tour of San Francisco.


Once boarded we were heading to the Dudley Perkins Harley shop to pick up our tour guide as she lives close by there.


We had what they call a "drive by" tour, driving all over the place but only getting off a few times for photos. I do believe we were in places most people never get to unless they live here. Our guide was born in San Francisco, and lived most of her life here.


There were colorful murals painted on the walls of buildings and she (can't remember her name) said that gangs usually left those buildings alone and recognized other graffiti artist's work. Maybe a kind of consideration? I don't know, but thought it interesting. Some of the murals were so beautiful and while it was difficult to get photos of them in a bus, I took a few that give a flavor of what you might see. There were all kinds, including religious for various parts of the city and their cultures, animals, and flowers. They are all beautiful and interesting to see.


We got to walk down what's known as the Crooked Street. It's a little street with switchbacks because when there were horse and carriages it was easier for them to go up and down if they did it at an angle. I'd guess kind of like skiiing and traversing the hill rather than just heading straight down. The street is planted with bushes and flowers that are all maintained by those who live in the neighborhood and is quite a sight.

The Golden Gate and Bay bridges were part of the tour, and we had lunch down on Pier 39. Birdie and I just grabbed lunch on the go so we could do a little power shopping and see the seals at the end of the pier. Even stopped by Bubba Gump's, from the movie "Forest Gump" with Tom Hanks. It's one of my favorites and would have liked to eat there, but time did not allow.


We hit Treasure Island, drove by the Presidio and saw so much I can't even remember it all. But I do have photo back up of a lot of it.


Many of the homes are built to a code of 1 inch apart, to allow water to drain through. You can see that some truly are like that, but many more do not have any space at all. Lots of them are colorful and there are Victorian-style ones with bay windows to allow more sunlight in and to give the feeling of spaciousness to the home. Space is at a premium and San Francisco is not a truly big town. It's a small piece of many others, and actually only has about 800-850,000 people. It just seems so large because they all connect.


The bus let us off at Dudley Perkins Harley shop. It's a new one or at least newer than when Jaz and I were down here and rented the bikes for a week. Then we had to ride them up from underground from the shop which is where the service area was. It was located downtown on a bunch of one-way streets that made it difficult to get to it. And we didn't have a GPS back then to help us out. GPSs are very helpful in big cities and worth their weight in gold.


Some of the ladies on the bus were grumping because they don't own Harleys and thought it a waste of time to stop for a half hour or so at the shop, but they had goody bags for us and coffee and cookies. Plus, of course, the opportunity to get a shirt and some poker chips!!! lol I love it, of course, since I never met a shop I didn't want to buy a shirt at on my travels. That's all I intend to wear for the rest of my life ... and I've got a lot of them to wear ...


Got back to the mansion and had a little time to get ready to go to the banquet. It's always nice, and you get to say good by to your new friends and old before they hit the road the next day. It's also the time for the awards to the ride in committee, longest distance riders, oldest, and so on. We were so sure Birdie would get the award for the longest distance ridden to get to the rally. Alas, it was not to be. A lady rode from Novia Scotia, Canada and beat her out by 400 miles or so. Guess she'll have to go again, maybe to next year's South Carolina event.


Said our goodbyes to everyone and headed for the barn as Birdie was leaving early to get to Boise to join Daisy Corn for the Idaho State HOG rally. Me? I would be left behind to see about my bike.