Miles traveled: 316
miles
Route Taken:
Highway 101 to
Route 38 east to Interstate 5 to
As much as I was enjoying the beauty, and more importantly
the cool temperatures of the coast, I had to turn inland to get to
The day began with a bit of a scare. I was riding just
outside of
Usually I leave late enough in the morning to avoid most of
the deer that will wander across the roads in search of food or water.
They generally come out early in the morning and right around
sunset, so I avoid riding at those times.
It was a little after
I
was in
He noticed how shaken up I was and I told him what had happened.
He then told me a story about hitting a deer when he was a teenager
with his pick
up truck. He clipped it and the deer was hurt. He stayed with it,
giving it
water and put a blanket over it. His father came down the street
looking for
his son at
In the morning he walked into the kitchen where his mom and
dad were and asked his dad what happened to the deer. The father told
him he
had to shoot the deer because it was suffering. He told me about how he
cried when
his dad told him.
I couldn’t believe this stranger was telling me this story in
the middle of a gas station and tearing up while doing so.
The trucker was on my mind as I continued up Highway 101 and
I was wondering what he was doing these days when I saw a sign for
Pelican Bay
Prison.
Prisons have always fascinated me. I don’t know why. I knew
somebody once who was a guard at Corcoran Prison in central
The tour was incredible. I got to go into a cell and talk to
a couple of inmates, it was extremely scary. It just floors me how
these guys
live like that.
I was free on a motorcycle and doing what they couldn’t do. I
knew that. In some ways I almost felt like I was taunting them. I
didn’t mean
to, I just wanted to see this prison and think about what it was like
to be in
there. It was the antithesis of what I was doing.
It was odd, really. I stared at them much like you would animals
at the zoo. I was tempted to talk to them, but didn’t know what I would
say,
plus I was in enough trouble being on the grounds without permission.
That became more apparent when a white van pulled up
alongside me and three guards got out. They wondered what I was doing
on prison
grounds and I didn’t really have a good excuse.
They asked for identification and really put on quite a show
for the inmates. One guard was to my right, another to my left and the
third
directly behind me. I think it is in their nature to expect
confrontation and
you can’t really blame them. What I was doing was quite out of the
ordinary and
being out of a routine is not good for them.
After a couple of minutes they were satisfied I wasn’t an
escaped convict and told me to leave.
The rest of the drive to
Right before one of the towns, Scottsburg, was an elk viewing
area. There were about 30 elk visible and I stopped to look at them.
Once I hit the interstate things got really boring. The
concrete and asphalt moves you along quicker, but there is little
scenery and
even if there is it is tough to enjoy it when you fly by it at 70 mph.
Tomorrow I head towards