Friday, May 02

Woke to more rain. Continental breakfast in the lobby of the Gualala Country Inn. Packed up, donned all the rain gear, and headed south on route 1. Had a lovely, if wet, ride down to Fort Ross. Visited the re-constructed Russian fort. The fort was a Russian settlement established in the early 19th century which was occupied until about the 1840's. Its purpose was to 1) collect sea otter pelts to sell to the Chinese and others for cash, 2) later, after the sea otters were all gone, to grow wheat and vegatables to feed the Russian settlements in Alaska, and 3) to keep the Spanish from claiming any more of the Pacific coast.

After visiting the museum and the re-constructed fort, we saddled back up and headed south on route 1 to Bodega Bay. Stopped at a Mexican restaurant for lunch, with Carol and Tom. After lunch, rode into the center of Bodega Bay (where Hitchcock's "The Birds" was filmed) where Kate gassed the Yamaha up.

Then south again. The rain was on and off again all day. Got to Point Reyes, Petaluma Road, took that to Petaluma, then picked up the 101 and rode the 10 miles south to Novato, where we checked into our Best Western again.

Had the final, farewell tour dinner, and Frank presented the traditional awards. I (Bill) got an award for prosletyzing about Goop, Kate got one for riding the smallest bike on an AMA tour, and John for telling "Don's" jokes so well. All participants got an event t-shirt (long sleeved, good for this weather) and a nice AMA racing baseball cap.