I had my RX3 out this Memorial Day weekend. It’s an iconic motorcycle, and it’s one I’ve ridden on three continents. I hadn’t ridden the RX3 in a few months, and it felt good to be on it again. Light, responsive, fully equipped, and five years old, my RX3 can and has gone the distance.
I’m thinking about a motorcycle ride up the Pacific Coast Highway to Hearst Castle, and Hearst Castle is a bucket list destination on a bucket list road. I’d like to do it on my RX3. Trust me on this: It doesn’t get much better than the Pacific Coast Highway and Hearst Castle.
What’s Hearst Castle all about? Here’s the Reader’s Digest version: William Randolph Hearst is a dude who had more money than God. His dad came to California during the Gold Rush and somehow managed not to find any gold, but he went a few hills over and hit it big with silver. Ever hear of the Comstock Lode? Well, that was George Hearst back in the 1800s. Father George was a mining guy, and he sort of fell into the newspaper business when he accepted the San Francisco Examiner as payment for a gambling debt. While all this was going on, young William Randolph Hearst (George’s son) got himself expelled from Harvard, and somehow after that landed a job on the Examiner (ah, nepotism in action). And while all that was occurring, George bought 40,000 acres in the Santa Lucia Mountains (on the central California coast) so the family had a place to go camping.
I guess some folks run out of things to do when they’re rich, but not young William. He decided to he needed a castle. So he built one. On the family property (which he inherited in 1919) in San Simeon. It’s one hell of story, and there’s more to it than I can cover here in the blog, but it will soon be in a major motorcycle magazine (and when that happens, I’ll give you the link here). In advance of that, though, I’ll share a few Hearst Castle photos with you.
So there you have it. But there’s more…lots more. You have to see Hearst Castle to believe it, and it is a stellar thing to see. Hearst Castle and the Pacific Coast Highway make for a great motorcycle ride.
I first rode up the Coast Highway when I was 22 . I’d ridden there from Kentucky , low budget. So low that when we stopped at the parking lot , that was as close as we got.
I made up for that 25 years later when I flew to San Jose to pick up a sidecar rig to ride back to Kentucky for it’s buyer.
When/if I win the Lottery , I want to rent it for a party and you’re invited.
That’s an invitation I’ll accept, Ken. Thanks!
I have always wanted to see it and one day when I was crewing on the planes I crew on we were moving up north . I was on the B-24 at the left waist gun position which is just a mounted .50 cal and a large open hatch area that makes for great sight seeing. We flew over some hills and there it was . Flew right over it. So I got my wish and got to see it but it was from about 3,500 feet and I did not get to see the inside. Pretty much the same story for Crater Lake up in Oregon except I was on the B-17 that time. And yes, it is unbelievably magnificent even from 3,500 feet up.
Very cool. You can actually see the castle from the PCH if you know where to look. I was once on a pig hunt in those mountains and we could see it from the east (at a great distance).
Crater Lake is also cool. I did a piece on it for Motorcycle Classics a few years ago (it’s at Crater Lake). Good buddy Marty and I had a close encounter with a bull elk on the way to Crater Lake on a sunny but frigid morning.
I’ve been on PCH, but in a 3/4-ton van. I did a lot of stopping at pull-outs to let the motorcyclists get by. 😉 You just can’t hustle 7,000 pounds through the twisties.
Thank you for doing that.