Our Ride … Tuesday, Dec 30, 2003

Here is a little recap of our ride on Tuesday … one that we weren’t sure was going to happen.

A little history … for the week leading up to our planned ride, the weatherman had been issuing severe rain storm warnings. Looking at the Weather.Com site .. the Weather Channel, etc .. you would believe we were going to get something … seeing these massive “green” splotches on the weather map .. (indicating rain cells) … you would believe we were going to get hit .. get hit hard.

We could see the city services department with large crews of front-end loaders and tractor trailer dump trucks at all the storm drain entrances cleaning out the channels. Everyone was trying to prepare for the heavy rains onto barren soil … as a result of the fires in October.

The tragedy in San Bernardino the week before was definitely on everyone’s minds … flooding, mudslides, whatever.

The night before the ride, I was saying to myself “No Way” …. so I didn’t bother to go to bed too early. Set the alarm … with every intention of turning it off, looking out the window and seeing it wet … “Going to sleep in”, I’m saying to myself.

Wake up … it’s still dark .. look out the window … it’s still dry. In my mind I smile .. say to myself “Cool .. didn’t even start raining yet … must only be about midnight .. I get to go back to sleep”.

See .. the weather people were saying it would start late Monday … and rain thru the night and next day. Well … I turn my head and look at the clock …. 2 more minutes before it is supposed to go off.

“SHIT ….” I’m really tired … deep down inside I wanted to roll over and nod off.

“Let me go look at the weather …..” I stumble out to the tv room .. turn on the tv to catch some of the traffic report stuff. Everyone still talking about the storm .. but some “inverted hi-pressure / low ridge / upside down doo-hicky” is pushing the weather far south …..

JUST TELL ME ITS GONNA RAIN IN 5 MINUTES …. I WANNA GO BACK TO BED.

No such luck. Then they show a traffic cam on what I thought was the Grapevine. Snow flurries … this reporter standing at a 45 degree tilt saying (something) … uugghhh.

Steve was planning on driving across that.

Hell with it …. Let’s go.

I start getting dressed. End up waking up Candy … all I hear is “Are you going?”

“Yep” … I reply.

“Stupid asses …”, she mumbles.

“Who us?”, I ask.

“No .. the f*#$ing weather people” as she rolls over and goes back to sleep.

“Actually … it’s us … we are the stupid asses … getting out of a real cozy bed … to go ride around the countryside in the cold …. Running noses …. Dodging cars … what.. are we nuts”, I’m saying to myself.

Got ready … opened up the garage door … again .. re-enforcing my original idea that we’re crazy.

Anyways .. warmed up the bike … headed over to meet the rest of the guys .. who at that point wasn’t sure who was going.

As it turns out, Mike, Craig and myself were at the meet spot. Mike tries Steve’s cell phone .. but no answer. He wants to try the house number … “Don’t wake up Linda” I suggest .. “Give him time”.

After a few minutes he pulls up …he over-slept … too much golf and snow-boarding in the previous days.

We chit chat … then hit the road. Steve was leading …. then Craig, Mike and myself tail gunning. Pretty much kept that position all day.

I quickly fall into my “numb” mode of following the leader … enjoy the scenery. I won’t let them loose me … and I don’t have to pay attention to where I’m going.

Now normally that isn’t a problem … because I usually have my GPS running so I know where I’ve been.

But since I am working on a new system and I don’t have the installed yet AND … it’s going to rain like hell today, I decided not to mount that stuff … will be easier when the deluge starts …. Like our last trip.

Funny thing … once we get going … it’s not all that cold … actually the sky is real pretty. There are massive, sky-hiding clouds … with patches of blue trying to peak out.

We head over Grimes Canyon, heading out towards the 5 … gonna head over the Grapevine. Oh yeah .. the Grapevine .. with the flashbacks of the tv report I saw in the morning.

Funny thing … we get to the 5 and head south a little bit .. then pull into a gas station. Rode thru the parking lot then sort of U turned back towards where we came from.

How nice … Steve (Mr. Uturn) is warming us up .. getting in a little practice for the day ahead.

Actually .. he was just making sure that no one showed up at our second meet spot … the original people that were supposed to meet us had cancelled on the forums.

Onto the 5 .. heading north.

Chilly … brisk … nah. DOWNRIGHT friggin’ cold. I look up and see Craig reaching down towards his engine.

“Shit … he’s having problems” I say to myself. Nope … he was grabbing the engine trying to warm his hand.

Mike later said he looked down at his air temp gauge to see it in the 20’s.

I didn’t mount my temp data logger either … damn .. I should have .. it would have been interesting.

We get over the Grapevine, exit at the bottom .. and pull into a rest area to get some coffee. Not necessarily to drink .. but it would be nice to hold.

As we walk into the restaurant, I glance up at the Grapevine … and the northern top half is all covered in snow .. really pretty to look at.

Inside we get coffee and sit and warm up a little bit … also trying to decide where to go. The high deserts and hill are going to be real windy and cold if it’s anything like where we are at.

While inside, I go over to the “convenience” part of the store to find winter clothing and such .. since they get snow up there pretty regular. I have been looking for good riding gloves and/or rain gloves. The only thing I found was some “hazardous” material rubber gloves kinda thingy. What the hell … for 3 bucks .. they will be good if it rains.

(Still on “weather watch”).

We get outside and Steve decides we are going to go over to the ocean .. it will be warmer over there. He says he’s not sure how to get there .. but we’re gonna head north and take a left somewhere. Sounds good to me.

Now this area is farmland and such .. really “ripe” smelling … especially as we ride past this one “compost” farm. Whoa … this place must be making a fortune if the amount of smell is an indication of their products.

We go up and take a left We go about a mile or two to find a dead end. Uturn number 1.

We get back to the original intersection and Steve wants to take another turn. Craig is saying “Ennie Meanin Minny Mo … hmmnn”.

As Steve starts to pull out, Craig points out the “Not a through street” sign. Saved from t he second occurrence.

Anyways we seem to find a road that gets us across the valley to another set of hills .. they seem to know where they are going.

I have no idea where I’m at … but starting to enjoy it … either it’s warming up .. or I’m just numb.

We’re going along and Steve turns onto Rt 58. Steve and Craig are out in front a little bit … and as Mike and I turn the corner we look up to see what appears to be the blacktop turning into dirt.

Mike stops …. “Good, I say to myself” … see .. the bike was halfway clean.

Mike says “This can’t be the right road …. Gotta be up a little bit” … so we sit there waiting for the (next) Uturn.

And we wait.

Well … since we don’t see them, we look at each other .. shrug and head out. As it turned out, the road swept down and to the right .. and it was an optical illusion the way the road looked like it turned into dirt.

Now mind you … this is from the viewpoint of someone who can’t read street signs and such because of his vision … which is another reason I carry the GPS.

Anyways .. we catch up to them .. chuckle about it a little and the take off.

It was right after this stop that the day “exploded” into one of the most fun stretches of road I have experienced in a long time.

We are going up the foothills … long sweeping turns for the most part … a 45 – 55 mile ascent. The scenery was absolutely beautiful … passing through some farms … seeing a bunch of cattle. One of which was on the outside of the fench .. but fortunately off the road.

Smile ear to ear .. really enjoying this.

We stop part way up and take a little break. Everyone is enjoying it. It was just about there was the first time we saw another motorcycle during the ride so far .. which is pretty uncommon for Southern California.

After we did our part of fertilizing the surrounding trees and such .. we jump back on the bikes.

We continue some more turns and such .. then we start to come down the other side of these hills … probably only 1000 or 2000 feet high.

Coming down the other side you could see we were going to be shooting across the next valley floor along what appeared to be very straight roads .. probably for 30 miles or so.

What you couldn’t see until you got down on the road was that the road was a “roller coaster” type of road … very sharp and distinct “ups and downs” … very sharp.

AND NOT A CAR IN SIGHT ANYWHERE.

All of a sudden we pick up the pace … I see Steve and Craig taking off .. a bit of a gap between us and them. So we are picking up speed.

Before I know it, we are going over those “crests” and I feel my stomach “lifting” up .. that kind of feeling you get in the elevators.

My smile is getting bigger ….

We’re at the point that now our butts seem to want to come off the seat as we are going over the tops. I look down to see that we’re doing 95 at this point. I look up .. Steve and Craig are still spreading out. Later talking to Steve, he said he was about 108.

A couple of seconds later a pickup truck from one of the farms pass us .. going in the other direction.

That’s when I said to myself .. “Self .. if there is a pickup truck coming out off one of these farm access points …. Well ….”

I decided to slow down …. You know … when all of a sudden you remember your 54 .. not 24.

We get back into a group again, and are riding thru some absolutely fantastic roads. I am just enjoying the shit out of this.

As we are riding along, I’m thinking to myself about almost not going … boy .. what a mistake that would have been.

We turn onto this little “Los Posa” road or something …. Just a great mild twisty type road … really enjoying this. Then we see where the road turns from pavement to dirt.

Considering this area had some rain recently .. (could tell cause everything was so green) .. Steve opts to turn around take an alternate route. We didn’t count this as a u-turn.

Yeah .. not much … a U is a U.

As he pulls up to me to explain, my smile just got bigger .. I wouldn’t mind seeing that stretch again. He couldn’t see the smile … we are all still bundled up .. covers and such over our faces.

Although I don’t think anyone was thinking about the weather at this point … it was just too spectacular out to let a little frostbite bother you.

We proceed on … heading into a little town called Santa Margarita (or something like that). We stopped at “Jo’s (something or other)”.

Tiny little place. We had a nice chat with the waitress and ordered three French dips and a burger. Couple of minutes later she comes back to say they only had two French rolls.

Told you it was a tiny place.

I speak up and say “Give me a cheese burger .. the big one .. with fries”.

I didn’t realize I was going to get half a cow. This thing was a monster. And it was delicious.

We finish up eating.. talk for a while … settle up our bill .. and head out again.

We go up the road … sorta the way we came in … then we pass a road that Steve is pointing to as we pass it. I was able to make out enough of the sign that I figured out he was pointing to the road we would have done had it not been covered in dirt.

We ride for a bit … again .. some really nice easy going roads … slight curves .. some twisties … just fun.

We stop at some intersection … talking .. laughing.

Some girl stops and asks if we know where Crestin .. or something like that. Steve proceeds to tell the girl one of two ways there. This is where I found out that Steve knew where he was going.

Even though he didn’t have about 3 U’s under his belt by this time.

Turns out Steve had ridden this area 3 or 4 times before.

Was the first for me … but be sure not the last.

After the girl turns around and start along Steve’s suggestion, Craig said … “You should have said we’re looking for Vegas .. did she know how to get there?”.

That’s one of those “You had to be there to appreciate it “ kind of joke.

We start talking about what it would take to make a chapter ride out of this.. whether we could do it one day or make it an overnighter.

Keep in mind .. the more people .. the longer it take .. things like gas .. food .. speed limit .. etc .

We jump on the bikes …. Starting our final stretch until we hit the 101 and then slab it south … the 175 miles or so will be the down the coast.

Right before getting on the 101, we stop for gas .. figuring it will be the last one until we get home. It’s probably getting to be about 3 or 4 at this point.

We jump on the freeway and get going. Unfortunately, we were inland a little bit (10 miles or so) during the sunset part of the day, so we missed the ocean view of the sunset (dang).

But what I do remember about that part of the day was how for the better part of the day we were under a solid cloud cover … one that looked like little cotton fluffs .. bundled real close together … sort of like a quilt padding.

There were times where it would be such a crystal clear blue sky … just seemed to radiate all around you.

It was cold in the morning … and, let’s say … real brisk the rest of the day.

Then as the sun was setting and it was getting dark, I just started thinking about all the twists and turns … all the fun of the day.

Then all of a sudden I realize that it’s real dark real quick. Shit .. still got my sunglasses on. Not a good thing.

It was just about this time that Steve pulls over in a gas station at Buellton .. up by Solvang.

Damn .. took of the sunglasses and seems like we have another hour or so of light. Not really .. but it was sure easier seeing out of the clear lenses.

Steve was putting on more clothes …. I was debating it .. my legs were a little cool and I knew it was going to get a lot colder as it got darker.

Hell with it … I reach in and pull out the legs part of my raingear. Best move I made … from that point on I was toasty comfy … no drafts .. really nice. Didn’t need the top part .. just needed a little more over my legs. Turned out great.

We agreed on the final way home and then took off again. Mostly a 70 – 75 mph ride down the coast. Not too much traffic .. what was there was going at a good clip.

Other than stopping one more time for gas … Craig went on reserve … it was a pretty much straight shot home.

But during the last 100 or so miles, I had no concerns … just had to follow these guys … pay attention a little to lane changes … but other than that … just day dreaming my way home.

Thinking back of what a great day it was.

Didn’t have any of my maps … didn’t have any pics …

But what great memories …. Little snippets of conversations we had while stopped … recalling some of the roads and turns … just playing the whole day back .. laughling to myself … just a great time.

And to think I almost missed this .. what a shame it would have been.