California, here we come…

The day we had spent nearly 3 weeks gearing up for (literally) was now upon us. 

There had been a moving ceremony the evening before in Carson City, Nevada where all the cross-country riders,  complete strangers just three weeks earlier, celebrated our small and huge achievements like a family. 

We also celebrated the induction of our last (but not least) honourary Canadian, Vivian Gerstetter. (pink crocs)

As with every other morning on this journey we were not entirely sure what to expect. This day was different though, plans that had been put in place months, maybe even years, before were now coming to fruition. There was to be a group photo under the Golden Gate Bridge at 2 PM. Press from around the country were going to be in attendance. We were then scheduled to ride, as a group, across the illustrious Bridge at 2:30 PM. Since Colorado, we had been joined by dozens of new riders doing the last leg of the ride. A rough count had us at 200 riders going across the Bridge. But I’m jumping ahead. We still had to get to San Francisco on time. 

Olivia, one of the original 7 Sisters’ Rogue Riders, approached Zandra at the ceremony and suggested we ride to San Francisco and across the GGB as a group again. A wonderful idea. With the welcomed inclusion of Dan and Sofie Ruderman, the group from the first days in Massachusetts, which seemed like a life time ago, were rogue-riding again.  We were also thankfully joined during the ride by one of the Sisters’ staff and ride leader extrordinaire, Lisa Malachowsky, but I’ll get to that in a minute. 

Today’s ride was entirely goal-oriented. Get to the Golden Gate Bridge before 2 PM. California traffic had an entirely different goal – make it as difficult as possible to reach our destination. 

Zandra did an amazing job getting us out of Nevada and past Sacramento but about 50 miles from San Francisco we hit our first traffic jam. 

While we might be very proud, even a bit smug, about how polite Canadians are, it is no match for California traffic. Fortunately, Olivia, our New Yorker who had lived in California, saw the Canadian hand-wringing going on at the front of our group. She maneuvered up to Zandra and yelled “lane-splitting”. Seeing the confusion on our faces she proceeded to ride between two lanes of stopped cars while summoning us to follow. Yikes!! 

Poor Zandra had to hear my panic through our intercom. “I’m not comfortable with this!”, was the understated but rather shrill statement that came out of me. But, seconds later, there I was riding up the middle of two lanes of traffic focussed on Zandra ahead of me and doing my best to alert the drivers by growling my throttle. Pathetic sounding compared to a Harley but the best my Suzuki cruiser could come up with. And while I am loath to make biblical comparisons, I was shocked when the sea of cars parted willingly for our rogue ride along the broken white line. I was no longer a lane-splitting virgin!

Full disclosure here. As much as it felt very daring, rogue, and a little cheeky to ride through the middle of bumper-to-bumper traffic it is actually legal for motorcycles to do this in California. There is a practical reason for this. Many bikes are carbureted, requiring air circulation and cannot sustain sitting idle in traffic for very long without over-heating. 

Regardless, I was very relieved when the traffic started moving again and I could take a break from being hyper-vigilant to being just vigilant. 

My relief was short lived. A few miles ahead the traffic started slowing down again. By this time I spotted Lisa, one of the Sisters’ ride leaders, in her florescent yellow ‘ride marshal’ vest winding her way through the traffic like a professional hockey player with the puck (that one is for you Andy). Zandra caught up with her, exchanged some words and hand gestures and then dropped back signalling me to keep going behind Lisa. At the time, I had no idea that Zandra’s iPhone had over-heated leaving her without GPS. After a few confusing minutes I reached her on the intercom and she yelled “follow Lisa”. So I followed Lisa. 

For the next 20 miles or so (could have been 5 or 500) I stayed on Lisa tail, ducking and diving through the traffic and so focussed that I thankfully didn’t have time to think about what I was doing or the possible consequences of doing it. 

Finally, after what seemed like both minutes and hours, we got off the highway and pulled into a gas station for much-needed fuel and, more importantly, to decompress. 

There were many high fives, hugs and selfies. I inhaled the last piece of my Milky Way to try and normalize my blood sugar. Dawn, a sister rogue rider who was behind me during our lane-spitting adventure, laughed at how Canadian I was with my waving and flashing peace signs to drivers who moved out of my way. All agreed that we had done an amazing job under the circumstances.

While we still had 22 miles to our destination, the tension was now broken. With Lisa leading the pack we arrived at the staging area in the park under the Bridge about 20 minutes before the 2 o’clock deadline. Wow!!!

Great pic of Johanne and Zandra in the staging area. (Photo credit to Tina). Zandra had the flag signed by all the cross-country riders – it will have pride of place in our home. 

Stay tuned for the next post, working title: Shutting Down San Francisco. 

Whatever you ride – ride safe. 

Helen