Day 4: Miles of Smiles

// Stephanie //

Ok, here we go.

It’s that time of night again, where part of me just wants to fall back into my sleeping bag and fall asleep without writing this, but today was just too awesome not to share right away.

This morning started off around 7:30 when my amazing niece woke us up with some French spelling games followed by a moving rendition of Moonlight Sonatta.

Fueled up on a cup of coffee and love, we left her house in San Francisco to say hi to our friends also living in the city. We were inspired by tales of their own travels and stories and left the city feeling excited to get back on the road.

This is the second time now that I’ve ridden motorcycle across the Golden Gate Bridge, and it is just so exciting! I love that bridge so much-I actually did an oil painting of it when I was 18 and living in South Dakota!

Anyhow, driving under those gorgeous towers is incredible, and I was all smiles as we pulled into the vista overlook for some pictures.

After meeting a very helpful local and getting a tip on lunch joints, we headed north on Highway 1 to Saulsilito.

There was a mellow fish and chips place in the edge of town with just the lunch we needed 🙂 Now we are really ready to head north.

This is one of my favorite stretches of road up here, and I honestly think the universe hooked us up for what we had to ride through in Big Sur… The weather was epic! The roads newly paved! The curves gorgeous and the wind nearly nonexistent.

After we passed Point Reyes, the road just kept getting better and better-the cows alongside the roads looked happier and happier, and the smells of the grasses and alfalfa got sweeter and sweeter.

It was amazing. I kept asking Bear if he could hear me smiling in the helmet mic, we were both just so happy to be riding motorcycle together, through this beautiful state!

California really is so amazing and diverse, and this is such a great way to get to know her.

We passed a town called Jenner, and began to climb up these stunning switchbacks along a grassy cliff. The views were incredible! I finally got to wear the GoPro and I can’t wait to see the footage… I hope it looks one tenth as amazing as it did in real life.

I just couldn’t believe how every mile we would go, it just kept getting better.

Plus-we even got to a lovely campground before sunrise 🙂 so this was the night to do a time lapse of our camp setup. We made an amazing team, setting up so much quicker than before.

I also cooked “real” food in our stove, not just heating water for oatmeal or coffee. I made a quinoa and tofu gumbo! It tasted amazing and I feel so full and ready to sleep, recounting the miles of smiles that were spread across the land 🙂

Goodnight!!!