Optimistically estimating the ride to be about 7-8 hours.
Doing so traded a cool morning for a very cool, late evening.
Arriving home at about 8:15 after about 10 hours and thoroughly chilled.
I hadn't realized it but this might be my most photographed location.
From King City, I head south on 101 for about 5-6 miles and pick up state highway 198 eastward. On this road, one needs to be prepared. There is a sign "Next Services 52 Miles" Not a time to be iffy on gasoline.
This is a beautiful ride. I have not been here in the Spring time before. The rest of the year, it is much dryer. Everything is green now, other times brown hues prevail.
Wild flowers are everywhere. There are literally acres of yellow, white and violet. Breath taking.
Unfortunately, not too many places to pull over to take photos. The road shoulders are mostly narrow, uneven and gravel.
There is a big advantage in having a companionable co-pilot sitting aft with camera in hand. Today, I had none. Too bad.
As I got back to my bike, two young men in uniform with the initials M.P. on the arm band drove up and asked what I was doing.
"Taking photos of the airplanes", I said.
"You can't do that."
"Why not, I'm in a public area?"
"We're at a heightened state of alert."
They were very professional, very polite, very young. No use arguing, they were merely doing as they were ordered. One asked to see the camera and went through and deleted all the photos I had taken there. The other carefully wrote down the information from my driver's license. I'm probably on the list that is prohibited from flying now (I know the real name but do not want to put it in writing on the web.)
They watched me as I suited up and got onto the bike and left. Of course, I did not hurry.
The rest of the day I used a different camera. Good thing I brought a spare. My primary traveling camera has a rechargeable battery. If it runs out of juice, I'm out of luck. My spare, although not as good, uses AA cells which can be bought just about anywhere.
I'm sure that the military boys did precisely what they were trained to do re: deleting the photos. But that procedure was as poorly thought out as was the policy prohibiting photos of objects in open public view. We are not in a state of martial law. Military authorities do not have powers over citizens in public places.
Of course, when I got home, since I had not overwritten the deleted photos, it was simple enough to recover them. Not particularly effective to match wits with a computer nerd on his own field of expertise.
From Hanford, I headed north on 43 to catch Hwy-99. Selma, Fowler, Fresno, Madera (refueled) and up to Hwy-152. Then west into the setting sun with a windshield full of bug parts.
The last thing that goes through a bug's mind as he hits a windshield? His butt.
On 152, is Casa de Fruta. I have not stopped there in decades. In fact, the last time I stopped, what is now a frontage road for Casa was the highway and you made a left turn across the on-coming lane to get to the shops.
Now, it's turning into a pretty big deal. Candy shop, fruit stand, huge play yard, train ride, restaurant, and much more. I bought a cup of corn chowder and a cup of coffee trying to get some warmth back into my body and then put on every stitch of clothing and leather that I had with me.
While I was there, there were two bus loads of kids with what seemed like too few adults, boisterously enjoying themselves. As they piled back onto the buses, I wondered how they ever knew if they got them all. But I guess they had and on their way they went.
It was getting very dusky and the place was pretty much abandoned, the shops closing down one by one. There were peacocks coming out searching the area for tidbits that might have been left by us tourists.
I had just bought a handful of Boston Baked Bean candies at the little shop and when one peacock came near I tossed him one. Oooh, he liked that and looked for more. He was not particularly shy. Came right up to me within about three feet of the bike. About that time, a family of four were walking by. I gave a few to the little girl of about ten and she timidly dumped them in front of the colorful fellow. Both were very happy with that arrangement.
All in all, a really nice time.