Day 25 – Heaven and Hell.

Total Miles – 4,236.

I MAAAAAAAAADDDDDEEEEEE ITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT !!!!!
khkfhkladhfklhskldfhlksafkjasjkvbmbfiuhqofw;oiahf.

Ok now that’s out of the way normal service shall resume.

I woke up at 6am excited about completing my journey,hung around in my room for a bit,paced and then made friends with a cat while waiting for breakfast to be served.

The cat decided to sleep on my bed and FF decided to get a little to friendly with it.

I got talking to all the other guests over breakfast,the lady cooking the breakfast told some stories about ‘Cochise’ one of the Bison they keep in a field near the hotel. Apparently Cochise is a fan of charging things including a helicopter that made the mistake of landing in his field. Well done Cochise.

They were all in disbelief about what I was undertaking. They thought I had just ridden in from the next town 60 miles away. Apparently I had made their day and they all made me pose for a photo. As they were leaving one of the builders who were staying at the hotel shook my hand,called me a crazy son of a bitch and then laughed at how slow I was going to go when I hit the mountains…..again.

After saying my goodbyes and posing for another photo I saddled up on lucky and pointed myself in the direction of Yosemite national park on highway 120.

The first 20 minutes or so were like a roller coaster,the road undulated beneath me and a couple of times I nearly left the ground when reaching the crest of one of the ramps. As I continued down the road the scenery got greener and more breathtaking.

The weather was perfect and lucky was running as good as new,today was a good day.

The climb was easy compared to the rockies and we stopped off at a few points along the way so that FF could stretch his legs and I could take some photos.

We paid the fee to enter Yosemite and started working out way back down the mountain. Yosemite is so beautiful and perfect that if I was going to stop and take photos of everything I would still be riding now.

Its hard to capture in a photo but the roads have quarts in them from the mountains so they literally sparkle in the sun light as you ride along them. Heaven !

We rode for another couple of hours until we eventually left Yosemite. I had an odd feeling that we were all working as a team. Lucky was my trusty reliable companion who got me where I needed to go,I pointed him the right direction and FF sat behind me taking in the view,thinking about food and provided light hearted relief when I got tired.

The roads were amazing,perfectly paved,full of twists and turns and relatively free of traffic. I made the most of them as I new I had the peril of the interstate to come.

As I pulled up to a junction to leave highway 120 lucky cut out and wouldnt rev high enough to move forward from a stop. I made it across the busy junction and then pulled over on the side of the road as the trucks raced passed to try and work what was going on. I topped up the fuel and checked a few basic things but he was having none of it. He is as exhausted as I am and he was going to take some seriously coaxing to get us to San Franciso.

I eventually got him to cough and splutter in to life enough to get us back on the road (FF said there is always one who lets the team down) and we rode for another hour or so before pulling over for fuel.

After filling up I went to pull away from the pump and lucky cut out again so we pulled into a car park in the shade to try and work out what was going on.

For the scooterists amongst you I will explain what I did –

Changed the plug ( the old one looked fine but it was worth a try).
Checked the routing of the fuel pipe.
Changed the HT lead and cap. I am 99% sure its a fuelling issue but it was worth a try.
Changed the coil.
Added some seafoam to the tank.
Checked the exhaust was tight against the manifold.

None of the above seemed to have an affect, I considered calling a recovery truck but I had made it this far so there was no way I was arriving at the finish line in the back of a truck. So after some words of desperate encouragement I convinced lucky to carry on with the last 2 hours to San Francisco.

I found that if I kept the revs above a certain point and slipped the clutch I could get enough power to get us moving. Eventually we hit the interstate and it was rush hour which means 4 or maybe 5 lanes (I cant remember exactly) of solid fast moving (75mph plus) traffic.

Lucky was happy for a while but every now and then he would lose power and jerk around as if he was trying to through me and FF off his back. We hung on for dear life as we ran the gauntlet of the interstate.

We pulled over when we could to let the engine call down but re-joining the freeway was difficult because of the lack of power spluttering problem.

At one point the traffic in front came to a standstill,I closed the throttle but nothing happened.The engine continued to rev and I sped towards the back of the car in front of me at 65mph. I pulled the clutch in,switched off ignition and coasted to the side of the road.

I investigated the problem,removed and re-fitted the carb slide,cable and spring which cured the issue. Not sure what happened there.

At the side of the interstate –

We carried on down the interstate counting down the miles as we bounced around the pot holed roads at speed until we eventually reached the queue for the toll bridge. We sat in the queue for about 45 minutes, I had to constantly rev the engine to keep it alive and to make sure I had enough power to creep forward every time the traffic moved.

When I got to the booth I realised I didnt have enough cash so the booth lady gave me bit of paper that said something about a fine on it. Ill deal with that when I get home,probably by ignoring it. FF called her a bitch and we rode off as quickly as we could.

The traffic was gridlocked for miles which is not ideal when you are on a knackered scooter but we eventually pulled up outside the hotel only to be told we had to park a couple of blocks away.

So there I am outside a very fancy hotel in the San Fran financial district,surrounded by posh cars trying to get my beaten up scooter covered in bits of desert,with a fake greyhound strapped behind me to start and pull away just so I can go and park it. I had crossed the finish line but it certainly wasnt over yet !

Eventually we parked,I checked in and then headed straight to the bar for a drink or 5.

It was over.

I imagined the end of the trip to be more emotional than it was. I think that fact that I was so concentrated on not breaking down in a flow of fast moving traffic kinda took away from the momentous occasion. I am relived I am here,its been the most amazing experience of my life and I think it will finally set in over the next couple of days.

Tomorrow I have to try and convince the depot who are taking care of shipping my scooter back to come and pick it up in a van rather than making me ride through the city to where ever they are.

Once that is done I think I will finally feel like the trip is complete and will probably post some kind of awe inspiring wrap up to the whole experience.

Right now I am exhuasted,dazed,slightly drunk and off to have a bath.

NIGHT !