To: labiker@motohaus.org Date: Wed, 17 Jul 2002 20:58:42 -0400 From: gayathri Big thanks to PEter and CAtherine for providing crash space for me and Squidboy for the weekend. Squidboy and I left a little later then planned on Thursday morning and headed out -- odo read 44,888 miles. :) After getting gas at the infamous Shell Station at the base of the Crest, (odo read 45,000) we made a last minute change and headed up the Crest to Angeles Forest Highway -- pretty calm riding out this way. Aliso was also lots of fun, really clean and I got a good rythmn going. Then when we headed out onto Lake Elizabeth Road, we were passed by a couple of sportbikes. We gave chase and ended up at Three Corners (there is a little cafe that seems worth checking out some weekend. Its only opened on weekends. ) The sportbikes turned onto N2, and so did we. Squidboy caught up to and passed a bunch of them, but the guy on the fj1200 was a litle shakey, so I kept a good ways behind him. N2 is a tiny newly paved but dirty road. Lots of fun. ends up at the start of the Old Ridge Route before THAT gets to be a messy broken road. I'm starving at this point, so we have breakfast in Gorman at this little cafe, and I watch with some consternation as a group of guys are testing all the tanks at the Chevron... boy, was that stinky!! Of course, I'm worried that these tanks might have bad gas too... Head on towards Frazier Mountain Road and towards Cerro Noreste... the little towns are still little and cute. The road's been repaved in some parts, but has dirt and sand 'til we get out of the towns and over the green parts and into the more desert areas. its getting hot now, and I remember why I wanted to do this earlier in the day. The desert areas are so beautiful, especially with the contrast of the green and trees in the mountain... I love how its all the different colours brown and the odd grass and trees that grow. (moo! I yell to the cows...) We stop just south of the 58 in Taft (I think) and gas up to head out onto my fave road! We of course run into a bunch of bikers, and of course, we know someone in the group -- I'm blanking on his name, but he put together the Daytona viewing this year in OC, so it was him and his crew heading out as well. They started before us, and were heading to santa maria, while I was aiming for paso robles, so we didnt see 'em afterwards. 58! whoohoo! the first part is nice and tight -- it was repaved about 2 years ago and the road is still nice. Some sand and stuff but otherwise good. then the straight parts, with the whoops! whoohooooooooooo!!!! ok, I was good. And didnt push it too hard, speed wise, but I did get the front end off the ground. :) Then turn off to Creston to head up to Paso Robles. Passed this cow farm where they grow some kinda curly tailed HUGE cattle. And fields of alfalfa, hay, etc... as usual, get lost trying to get to g14 in paso robles, so I give up and hit the 101 N for an exit. We have lunch at Margie's Diner. I'm so overheated that all I want is fruit and a milkshake. That was too much, and I end up packing the fruit. I run into a couple of folks from Superbike School, and one person transporting a done up Falco for the magazine guys. See lots of bikers. Schmooze to a few of 'em about hiring my sorry out of work ass. (hey, ya never know!) We hit G14 and some stupid annoying traffic -- 5 cars in a row that couldnt bother getting out of the way. No exciting maneuvers going on in Fort Hunter Liggett, since I guess they are all out using the real thing in Afghanistan, but we had some excitement doing r a bunch of double yellow passing. G14 ends in King City -- stop and get more gas. Some guy stops a newish s10 pickup truck and runs into the store with his truck running. I consider how easy it would be to steal the truck at this point. head north on the 101 to g16 in GreenField. I lose Squidboy on the 101 -- he misses the exit. I wait at the end of the exit ramp, hoping he turns around and gets the 101 S exit... Smart boy, he does. We head onto g16. I hated this part. I'm tired and over heated and the road was crowded with trucks, SUV's and cars who couldnt stay in their own lane. I was almost squished a few times, and only avoided it 'cause I was going so slow I could literally just stop. Argh. Squidboy slowed down to point out a bit of sand that I of course immediately run into and feel the front end try to tuck (stay on gas!!!) and now I'm tired, cranky, tense and wondering how dumb it would be to crash on the way... G20 in Carmel had little traffic and while the 68 was crowded, we were close to 'home' for the weekend. We find the Monterey Pines Golf Course and find PEter and CAtherine and then head out to dinner -- Italian food 'cause I couldnt find the Chinese resturant I wanted to eat at and got tired of riding around. Of course, the resturant had a couple of familiar faces. :) Jack and his wife from the track, Chris and Zina Kelley at another table. As we're eating, PEter notices a cute blond and a huge Venture pack on the back of a VFR. He sez, "George!" and runs out to yell at George and Sabine. they come in to say hi while we're eating and head back to their hotel. We head back to the camper and hit the sack after watching "A Beautiful Mind" on PEter's laptop, with the music piped thru the camper's stereo. Awesome! *snore* Next, Day 2! we head to the track! Gayathri >-------------------------------------------------------------- gayathri@world.std.com Calamari Club #002, WSMC #98 '88 FZR400, "gurlzbike" '98 T595, "Huckleberry Hound" _______________________________________________ Labiker mailing list Labiker@motohaus.org http://www.motohaus.org/mailman/listinfo/labiker