Jamestown and Sonora, Friday June 8, 2007
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Route Overview and Start: This is my second "long" ride in preparation for my Midwest ride. Somehow this seems more difficult than I remember. This is an out and back about 135 miles in each direction. Actually, the day went well. A little tired and sore, but good overall. |
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Livermore -- 116.9 / 38,609 / 10:58 In the past, I always spotted the Livermore Harley-Davidson dealer as I passed it. It is located on the last off-ramp in Livermore and when spotted, the next opportunity to turn around is miles up the freeway. In the other direction, the dealership is not visible easily from the road. So this is the first time I've visited and gotten my dealer pin. I also stopped just up the street a couple blocks at the Chevron dealer. Premium gas $3.819. One of the highest priced stations in the bay area. With buying only 4 gallons at a time, I can afford to not worry too much. |
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 East
on 580 and 205 past 5 and then 99 the little town of
Escalon on Highway 120
is my next destination. I already
have an ABC's "E" lettered city, East Palo Alto, but Escalon sounds
more exotic so I will replace my my old photo.While driving around Escalon, I came upon The Horseless Carriage Garage, Antique Auto Museum - Escalon . In front of the little shop sat an old Maxwell automobile. It seems in beautiful condition considering it was built in the 1900-1905 time period. Note the horn. I would like to add something like that to my Harley. The headlights are actually kerosene burning lamps. Finally, note the relaxed work hours notice posted in the window. Nope, Don was not around for me to meet. |
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From Escalon, a short jaunt south-east takes me into the town of
Riverbank. This is an "R" city which is surprisingly rare in
the greater bay area. This also must be where the action is
because the city greeting sign says so:: "The City of Action". They have a really nice park and playground for the young folks. It is situated adjacent to the area's sewage treatment plant. It is beneath extremely dangerous high voltage power lines. And, if you're not careful, you might severely damage your tires. Other than that, it seems a very nice place to allow the kids to play.
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 Oakdale
is one of the homes of
Hershey's Chocolate.
There are only two
places in the U.S. that Hershey Kisses and Bars are made.
Hershey, Pennsylvania is the other. Years ago, they had factory tours
in Oakdale and you could witness the little
tissue flags being added to the Kisses by ladies who obviously
enjoyed quite a lot of their sweet product. Now they have a
tourist gift shop at which
I've
stopped many times but opted not to today.Oakdale is an "O" city and there aren't too many of them. Sure, there's Oakland, but who the heck wants to go into the city of Oakland and deal with their poorly maintained streets and all that traffic? |
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Next
stop is
Jamestown. This is quaint little town is really driven
by tourists. So it is nearly empty on a non-summer weekday like this
even if it is a Friday. I parked Lola in the shade of a
convenient tree and took a
walk up and down the three blocks that constitute the downtown area.
The buildings are quaint and rustic and kept that way. The
gold panning tourist trap has had that poor fellow hanging from that
rope as long as I can remember. Along the way, I stopped and had a taco and tostado in the Morelia Mexican Restaurant. They were reasonably good and much more food than I was expecting. I knew that if I finished them, particularly after snacking on the complimentary chips and salsa, I would be overstuffed and uncomfortable. So, of course, I did eat almost all of it. When I got back to Lola, it seems she had made a couple friends and was happily sharing the shade beneath the big tree. |
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 I visited and tithed at the
Jamestown Harley-Davidson dealer. I have been here a few
times before, but I never got a dealer pin for some reason.
Today I remedied that omission.Sonora is a somewhat larger little town just about 15 miles up the road from Jamestown. Traffic is always slow through here because almost everyone traverses the three main routes into and out of town. At the "T" intersection there is a slow cycling traffic signal. |
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 In Sonora, there are a number of facilities for the County
of
Tuolumne. There are not a lot of "T" counties near San
Jose, so I planned on taking this opportunity to notch the county
"T" on my tally for the year. I carefully prepared a
map with the
addresses of a number of county locations. I was wandering around
town looking for a convenient spot to park so I could get my
map out and figure out how to find one of these places. Luckily,
as I turned a corner
and there was the county DA's building. Exactly what I was
looking for. |
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Dublin
is a city that starts with "D" and I need one for my ABC's. It is located in the North-East
corner of Highways 580 and 680, but somehow I can never manage to
catch the off ramp correctly. This was no exception.
Before I knew it, I was heading North on 680 past Dublin, turning
off and winding back through the little city. At least with my
GPS, I was able to miss most of the dead end streets as I was
finding my way through the neighborhoods.From Dublin, I was ready to head home without further ado. A good ride, not too tired, back a little sore. All in all I'm ready to hit the couch and stare at the inside of my eyelids for a while. |
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And home. 108.2 / 38,850 / 6:55 |
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2007 ABC Letters: Cities: D, E (replaced), J, R, Counties: T Total: 290 miles, 8 hours 50 minutes |
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Updated: Friday, July 07, 2017 06:00:49 PM