Picto Diary - 08 November 2019 - Pacific Coast Highway
Above: Bishop with Pebble Beach golf course in background. Carmel, CA. 08 November 2019.
Out and about on the Duc.
If visiting St. Andrews Golf Club in September was St. Peters, this one is Notre Dame. You don't have to be a Catholic or a golfer to enjoy any of these destinations.
Above: Sand Pipers. Carmel Beach. Carmel, CA. 08 November 2019.
Out and about on the Duc.
Though I've been up and down the Pacific Highway on motorcycle a couple of times in recent years, the last time I stopped in Carmel was about 1953 when I was eight years old. We took three or four family vacations in the Monterey area to join family friends who owned a cabin on the beach at Pacific Grove. My first experiences frolicking in the surf were on beaches like this nearby.
A cursory look, walking around Carmel down town last night... Carmel has a resort town flavor: Park City, Ashland, Santa Fe, Ashville, Dillon, Aspen replete with art galleries, t-shirt stores, expensive housing, upscale boutiques etc. Except, you don't ski in Carmel... you go to the beach... and enjoy year round equable weather.
The physical Carmel seemed a bit frayed. The $200 a night Best Western in which I stayed looked like it was built in the 50's... remodeled a couple of times... not even a "BW Plus," since it had multiple stories with no elevator. Much of the town looked aged like this. Not bad... just saying. Maybe that's a good thing... one of the attractions being time-worn funkiness. And, I'm sure I missed a lot. My visit was, as I said, just down town and cursory.
Whaa? They won't let motorcycles go on the 17 mile drive? Clearly class discrimination that should be challenged. Where's the AMA on this?
Above: Duc. Pacific Coast Highway. CA SR 1. 08 November 2019.
Out and about on the Duc.
The 90 miles of single-lane-each-direction highway between Carmel and St. Simeon (Hearst Castle) is fabulous. The scenery is fantastic and the motorcycle rider spends most of the ride on a lean, wearing a wide swath of tire... on pretty good, well maintained highway.
The location where the highway was taken out by a landslide a couple of years ago is still a construction zone... but, the road appears finished and vehicles move through, albeit slowly.
Shortly out of Carmel I found myself following a CHP SUV. I bemoaned the situation considering that I thought pushing the envelope on curve speed wouldn't be an option. But, was I surprised! The cop wanted to go faster than everyone else. Jeffery Epstein did not take his own life. Coming upon a car ahead he would tail very closely, to the point where the nervous driver would pull over to the side and let him by. I don't think he was illuminating his forward warning lights, but, I he could have been. The cop would then overtake the humbled,pulled-over vehicle, and cruise along at 60 to 65 in a posted 55, and I, powering the Duc at sensible, not crazy, leans, would stay right behind him.
I followed the cop for about fifty miles before stopping to take the above image. The rest of the way to St. Simeon was less curvy, mostly bereft of traffic.
This road is kind of out of the way. Its not a highway you would take to get anyplace. San Simeon can be reached via the 101 freeway which plys the north south coastal route further inland. But, it (CA SR 1) should be on the bucket list for a serious motorcyclist.
Above: Elephant Seals. Pacific Coast Highway. 08 November 2019.
Out and about on the Duc.
It's a seals life?
The vista point for these seals is very near St. Simeon. What's a motorcycle tour sans a good wildlife sighting?
Above: Bishop. Hearst Castle. St. Simeon, California. 08 November 2019.
Out and about on the Duc.
I've driven/ridden past this spot two times sans stopping. While in Reno a few days ago, Dave Rankine, world motorcycle adventurer, told me I should stop here, and especially, I should see the film at the end.
In recent years I've visited mansions of the gilded age.... Newport, RI, and the Biltmore mansion in Asheville, NC. Hearst Castle was built forty years later in the 1930's.
The Hearst Castle story is this: 1880's. Young boy, only child, living in New York City, visits his wealthy father's cattle ranch on the central coast of California every summer. These visits, he later says, were the best times of his life. At eleven, the boy accompanies his mother (then separated from her husband) on an eighteen month trip of Europe. The boy internalizes, to the extent possible for and eleven year old, much of the architecture and art he sees. The boy goes to Harvard. He's a cut-up, a trouble maker (think John McCain at Annapolis) but his parents' money keeps him enrolled. The kid was given a $10K per month allowance while at Harvard. Imagine the parties. Imagine the consternation of the Harvard administrators.
Dad has bought the San Francisco Examiner news paper and gives the kid, now 24, the chance to be the youngest newspaper editor in the US. The kid is nothing if not inventive. He increases readership of his paper with... bigger headlines and yellow journalism... the original purveyor of Fake News. The "kid" eventually builds the nation's largest newspaper/communications empire with one in four Americans getting their news from one of his papers.
On building a net worth of $30 billion in today's dollars, the "kid" realizes his dream, held secret since his European visit as an eleven year old, and builds the mansion of mansions on the California cattle ranch... hundreds of thousands of acres... he inherited from his Dad. The mansion is full of expensive European art and designed to reflect European and classical architecture. Voila. Mansion turned over to the state of California for humongous tax breaks and the little people of the nation are served with a tour to see how the other half lives.
The boy inherited the wealth and platform off of which to launch his newspaper empire. Despite his advantaged beginning, the Hearst newspaper empire was his creation... not that of his donor father. He could have lived life rich just living off of his inherited wealth. So, give him some credit as he did not live life as an elitist, Palm Beach, coupon clipping no-account (I've known a few of these elitist, often non achieving, boring people). William Randolf Hearst started as a left winger but joined forces with conservatives in his later years.
Dad's (George Hearst) story is in some ways more interesting. Dad, in his 20's came west to pan for gold. He didn't find gold in California, but, found a silver load in Utah and turned it into a mining empire. Park City's Ontario Mine (silver) was part of his empire. George Hearst was a US senator from California.
The house is in fabulous condition. Its architect was Julia Morgan, a rarity as a female architect in her day. The interior of the house is chock full of European art, reflecting the culmination of the hopes dreamt by a young boy touring Europe fifty years previously.
The movie following the tour is fabulous. Narrated by Donald Sutherland. Very professionally done. Myth making type of film... not warts and all... still excellent.
Reflecting while riding the Duc after the visit to the castle, I noted how different was the wealth creation a century ago as compared to today.
One hundered years ago, California wealth was created by individuals, generally young men, lower class, not particularly well educated, who left the midwest in their twenties, to seek their fortunes in the west. George Hearst hits the mother lode. Young shopkeepers Leland Stanford, Collis Huntington, Charles Crocker, and Mark Hopkins were young shopkeepers moved west who, crazy as it seems, invested in the ridiculous idea of creating a transcontinental railway. And, the rest is history, so to speak.
Compare that with today. Technology is what created today's wealth. How different were Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and Larry Ellison from the scrappy California entrepreneurs of one hundred years ago?
Above; Humming Bird. Hearst Castle, St. Simeon, California. 08 November 2019
Addendum:
I’ve been surprised at the amount of education that UDOT has done in regards to lane filtering in Utah. Haven’t had a bad experience yet, but It has only been allowed a few months. Only downside, for me, is remembering not to try it when I’m driving the sidecar rig.
Guzzi,
Park City, UT
If you had taken the Victoria exit off the 101 you would’ve been five minutes from my new house in channel Islands 🏍 🙈
Mr. Z3
Oxnard, CA
Should a done it... but, not enough time, 300 miles further down the coast was more than I could bite off this time.
So glad your lane splitting was safe. As a long time resident of CA, I will say we are accustomed to motorcycles splitting lanes in stalled or slow traffic—but it is still a dangerous practice and I have heard several stories with tragic ends—hence the nickname for young motorcycle commuters—organ donors. I have had a few close calls in these traffic situations myself—wrapped up in a radio show or conversation and not hearing or looking for the unexpected. Good luck and safe travels. A very enjoyable visit with you.
Sara,
Palo Alto, CA
All due respect to Woody Allen ( “Right turn on red is California’s sole cultural advantage”), motorcycle lane splitting is NOW California’s sole cultural advantage. So, “welcome to the club, Utah.
Ahn Rhee,
Larkspur, CA
Comic Mom,
You have successfully used one word to sum up the homeless situation: “Wily”.
Well said,
Ahn Rhee,
Larkspur, CA
Bill H. looks vigorous!
Panama,
Los Angeles, CA
True. First impression is that here is a very fit, active, senior.