It wasn't long until the cage population in their rented Mustang Convertibles, Chevy Impalas, Pontiac Grand Prix's began arriving in droves from Monterey. The rain had stopped falling there for a couple of hourse and that was enough to get everyone going down south. It was time for us to leave the Vista Point and head further north and into the city of Monterey.
The ride into the Monterey Peninsula may as well have been the ride into Laguna Beach or Newport Beach back in SoCal. The mansions overlooking the coast began filling up, the roads were full of high end European cars & SUV's driven by slow, old people, or slow beautiful people. The well to do were everywhere. Pebble Beach, Pacific Grove, the world class Golf Courses overlooking the coast, 17 Mile Drive with its multi-million dollar homes, they were all here. Not everyone in the Monterey Peninsula are rich of course. The middle class and the working classe filled in the cracks along with the starving artists, some hippies, writers, and the occassional Migrant Worker make up the rest of the overwhelming tourist economy here in the Monterey Peninsula. Did I mention they all drive slow here? Yup. At least we were able to lane split up to the front of intersections. We needed to. The traffic in Monterey is heavy, coupled to that intersections every block, stop signs every 20 feet, and what results is a beautiful town that is more suited to walking and scooters, not sportbikes. In fact, I'd consider this sportbike hell.
Asphalt_Carver wanted his special Ice Tea at Starbucks so we went off looking for a Starbucks Coffee shop. We went to old down town Monterey and Cannery Row, both had no Starbuck's. After 30 minutes of dredging through Monterey stop and go traffic, my neck had stiffened like a 2x4, my head began pounding, I began to break a sweat inside my multiple layers and winter gloves, the fan on our Buell's were on nonstop, it was all I could take and I began to loose that love and feeling for the place. After I went into a wrong way alley due to confusion, fatigue, and hunger, I figured it was time to park the bikes and walk. We ended up at the Monterey Outdoor Mall where we got so desperate, we actually asked for directions! Indeed there was a Starbuck's in town, which of course was all the way at the OTHER side of the mall! So off we went walking. AS's boots were made out of plastic so with each and every step they squeaked like disturbed mice. People began giving us weird looks. So I quit tailgating him and kept at least a 5 second following distance until we found the coffee shop. Relief at last! |
