Feather River Ride, Day One

Finally, a get-a-way. Every October, Marie and I, go with a bunch of friends on a trip up the Feather River Canyon. At the end of the first day we stay in Chester. In days past we stayed at a little bed and breakfast in Crescent Mills, but unfortunately that place has closed.






Feather River Canyon is like riding in some one's model railroad. The highway and railroad cross each other and the river on bridges and through tunnels. There are dams for power and the water supply. It just looks like something that someone would have on their basement model train layout.
Marie rode her Sportster this year and I rode my Electra Glide, everyone else was two up. Scott rode his Evo with Rebecca. He put on his old seat and I helped him install a detachable backrest as a favor to Rebecca. Gary and Sherri rode their Electra Glide Ultra and David and Lynn rode their Yamaha.
Riding in the Sierra is beautiful but colder in October. The leaves have changed to golden and at times they fall around you as you ride. The daytime temperatures were around 60 degrees but at night and in the morning it's around freezing. Makes the ride to breakfast, brisk, very brisk.

We stay in Chester at a motel and restaurant called The Timber House. The restaurant is built out of huge logs cut end on. They have done a great job of modernizing the decor and the food is very good. The steaks are cooked just right and taste like a good steak should.

Good friends, good ride, good food, what's better than that?

Pier 23

Marie is getting more confident. She decided to ride into San Francisco on her sportster. Here are a few photos taken in front Pier 23, a little place where we like to have lunch while looking out at the bay and they have a great bar.

I have always parked on the sidewalk right in front of the place, the sidewalk is about 20 yards wide there. But, as you can see from the photo we parked across the street, feeding the parking meter. Seems SFPD has been issuing citations for parking on the sidewalk. So Pier 23 put up signs saying no motorcycle parking. I happen to know that parking on the sidewalk is a $100 fine, but that's another story.

Two Bikes-Ten Bucks

Riding over the Golden Gate Bridge is quite an experience, an expensive experience. Toll is 6 bucks if you don't have one of these little electronic cards called a FastTrack and 5 bucks if you do.

Back when the bridge was built, the State promised that when the bridge was paid for the tolls would vanish. That's probably where we got the saying, "if you believe that, I've got a bridge to sell you."

A little checking shows that about 125,000 cars travel over the bridge each day. At six bucks a vehicle that's $750,000.oo a day. I know, orange primer is expensive, about $32 per gallon for rust proof orange primer. But 750k would buy about 23,000 gallons per day. That's 8 1/2 million gallons of paint a year or $270,000,000.oo.
I Would Buy It.

Bye Bye Beemer

I have no idea why he would do such a thing, but Greg decided to sell his BMW 1200RS. See, I get emotionally attached to motorcycles, even motorcycles that aren't mine. This bike was sleek and fast with lots of cool features like anti-lock brakes. I hated to see it go.

The guy who bought the bike seemed like a really nice guy. Of course he wanted to ride the bike before buying so Greg suggested a ride to Ernie's Tin Bar. Which I consider a brilliant sales ploy. So after a couple of beers, the big Beemer was history.

Looking for Order in the Universe

Entropy says, "sorry," but things in the universe tend to go from order to disorder. I've heard it said that Nature abhors a vacuum, well; Nature abhors a lot of things. What Nature really abhors a shinny new motorcycle.

Ever see a motorcycle that has been left to rot away and think about when it was new? The owner brought it home, and showed it to all the neighbors. He was proud of it, he washed and waxed it, he polished the chrome and rode it up and down the street. Now it's beside the barn, or under a tree, the paint gone and the aluminum slowly turning to dust. Was it the owners fault, did he loose interest, did he develop a substance abuse problem? None of the above.

No matter how hard one tries, a person cannot overcome the way things are. And the way things are, is that things tend to go from order to disorder. So just sitting in the garage your motorcycle is falling apart. Molecules of water are infiltrating the well-ordered matrix of chromium molecules that are plating various parts and the result makes nature truly happy, rust, oxidation and perfect disorder.
There's no use crying about it

Reno Overnighter

Marie and I have been wanting to get out of town for quite a while,
so we loaded up the bike and headed to Reno. Reno is only a little over 220 miles away, so it's just one tank of gas.

We hit Hwy 80, not one of my favorite roads, in Valejo then on to Sacramento. Hwy 80 over the Sierras is beautiful, but challenging riding.

We made reservations at the Silver Legacy Hotel. What a bargain, $59 bucks for a nice room and some coupons for meals and drinks that saved quite a bit of cash. We played a few machines, wined and dined and generally relaxed.

The next day after a good breakfast we went to Boomtown to check out the new Cabella's store. We topped off the tank and headed back over the mountains.












We'll be doing this trip again

Everything was Going Great.............. Until the Fire

I took the first photo from our room just after we checked in. Within minutes there was smoke, lots of smoke. I said, "time to go."
We put on our shoes, grabbed our bags and headed out.

In the hallway there was a strong smell of burning plastic. I've seen a lot of disaster movies so I was starting to get worried. We started for the stairs but we were on the 29th floor, brother, that's a lot of stairs. We used the elevator and took our chances.

Once in the lobby, we found out that the fire was at the building across the street. We watched the action from the parking structure. I was relieved that we had escaped and that no one else was hurt. I felt good that I had done the right thing.

The Right thing is; when the bad stuff happens get outta Dodge.

New Moon Ride

What a great idea, I wish I had thought of it, get together and ride every new moon. That's once a month on the full moon. I really don't need much of an excuse to go for a ride but it is always nice to get together with friends and ride together.
Marie rode with me on this one and it was a fast ride from Novato to Lake Berryessa. We stopped at Lake Berryessa for a break. I asked if anyone minded if I put their picture on my blog, everyone said, "no problem," as they turned away from the camera. We stopped in Calisotga at Busters for barbecue and got home just after the full moon came up over the Sonoma mountains. Great ride, I'm riding next new moon, for sure.

Identies protected by Shoei Arai and Bell

Marie's New Motorcycle

She did it! She bought a brand new XL1200L Sportster. She added a stage one kit, heated grips, a taillight/stoplight kit and a windshield. The Sportster Low has chrome cases and a black engine, it shines like a little gem.

At first she thought she would get an 883 but everyone she talked to said she would soon outgrow it. She rode the 1200 at the dealer a few times and decided that the 1200 was for her.
I am really proud of her, she took a rider training class, got her license, rode the borrowed Honda Rebel while she shopped for her own bike. She rode a lot of different models and then she bought the bike she wanted.

Sunday Drivers

I met with my Sunday Ride friends at Sam's in San Rafael for breakfast. After breakfast we took Lucas Valley Rd. to Pt Reyes Station and then out Sir Francis Drake Blvd to the Pt. Reyes Light House. This is earthquake country, the San Andreas Fault cuts off the Pt. Reyes Peninsula from the rest of North America. The Pt. Reyes Peninsula land mass is moving on its own tectonic plate, steadily north and west, so we figured we better ride out there before it got too far away.

Within sight of the light house parking lot, a small sand dune had blown across the road. My friend Lance was first in line and rode across. The sand has good cushioning properties and that's a good thing because when the rear tire of Lance's bike tried to catch up with the front tire, Lance landed softly in the sand. I would have photos but my first impulse was to run up and help Lance get his bike up. I do have a photo of the sand dune, but no one would lay down in the sand to pose for me.
The weather was very good, which is unusual. Usually there is fog and cold. The photo shows what locals call the Fog Line. On the east side of the fog line it is warm and nice, on the west cold and wet. The land and the ocean play tug o' war for property rights.

My friends all live in Marin County so they took Sir Francis Drake Blvd., while I took the Petaluma/Pt. Reyes Rd. home to sunny Sonoma.

Right on the San Andreas Fault, the road was a little rough.

A Little Ride to San Jose Redux

As I said in my last post, Marie wanted a warm weather jacket, so we headed to the Road Rider Store in San Jose. We followed almost the same route that I followed the previous week, with a few exceptions.

She bought a Firstgear Mesh Jacket for warm weather. I am happy she got it because it has CE rated elbow and shoulder protection. She wore it home and she felt cool when the temperature was in the 90's.

We cut over to Skyline Blvd from Hwy 280 and had a bite to eat and a cold drink at Alice's Restaurant. Skyline is a winding road that follows the crest of the hills along the ocean. It is really hot one the east side and quite cold on the west. The road is very popular with motorcyclists, hot roders and sports car enthusiasts. Alice's is a good place cool down, take a break, have something to eat, watch people and look at cool motorcycles.

We stopped to put on warmer clothes where Skyline meets Hwy 92, then headed west on 92 to Half Moon Bay. From Half Moon Bay we went north on Hwy 1 to Devil's Slide. I said that I would get some photos of the tunnel being dug at Devil's Slide and I'm coming through on that promise.








I'm not really too sure why they think that building a tunnel in the Devil's Slide area is such a good idea. The land is very unstable in this area. In the last photo the building (or building wreckage) can be seen from the south end of the tunnel.

Tunnel builders must be optimmists.

Attack of the Baby Moons

It all started about three years ago. I began to notice baby moon hubcaps in the center divider of Highway 101 in Marin County. At first it was just a few, then more. On one hill near San Rafael, I saw at least ten. Then I began to see baby moon hubcaps everywhere. They began to multiply and spread to other highways.

At first I didn't think too much about it because cars loose hubcaps all the time, but then I realized that, now, very few cars have baby moon hubcaps. What are the chances of seeing ten baby moon hubcaps along the highway in less than five miles. The odds must be... astronomical.

I knew that my friend Greg rides on Highway 101 frequently so I asked him if he had seen an abnormal number of baby moons along the road. He looked at me with a strange disconnected blank look and said, "what's a baby moon.?" That's when I knew, he was different, he was not of my age, possibly not even human....

I've seen what's happening. They're here you've got to listen...

Warning, Llama Alert

This is a motorcycle blog yet I feel obligated to warn of a new invasive species that has begun populating the California countryside. This foreign invader is displacing cows, sheep and horses on American soil. As I ride the back roads of our country, I see this foreign invader in increasing numbers. The animal is known as a Llama.

The Llama looks at first as though it might be a benign creature, maybe even another form of farm animal. Even though they may seem peaceful enough, these animals have a very dark side. If you approach one of these deceptively placid looking animals, you risk a face load of llama spit. Yes, these animals will spit right in your face.

Name one American farm animal that would do that. Would a cow or chicken or any other domestic animal spit? I should say not.

That's as close as I dare go.

She's Smiling

In California there are two kinds of people "C" and "C,M" people. "C" people drive cars and "M" ride motorcycles. The "C" is the California Drivers License code that designates the driver as an operator of a motor vehicle not a motorcycle. To be able to drive a motorcycle in California you need an "M."

Marie is now a motorcyclist in California. Yep, she got her "M." She signed up for a beginner motorcycle instruction course, studied for the motorcycle test and the rest is history. She did it all on her own without any encouragement from me.

I borrowed a Honda Rebel which is a 250 cc motorcycle and Marie has been riding around the neighborhood. We have been to the Harley Dealer and she likes the new Nightster. But she also thinks scooters are cute. I'm hoping she settles on the Sportster. I suppose it won't be too long before I come home and she'll be off riding my bike and smiling her face off.
The photos are of our ride on Sonoma mountain.