Week 29
This is VicToRia's twenty-ninth week home, and this week I did some more riding.
This is VicToRia's twenty-ninth week home, and this week I did some more riding.
I went to San Fernando Valley Bike Nite for the first time this week. I was invited to attend by some of the gang from the SoCal Sportbikes forum. This gathering was pretty action packed. Plenty of bikes to see, including the local CHP on Motorcycles. It was fun, despite the police presence because I got to meet many of the forum members for the first time face-to-face. So I'd just wanted to say thanks to GSXR-Freak, SmallMonkey, AdennA, babygirl2002, slater, 1-of-A-kind, pg_rider, m3pedro, Smoker & Minacious for making me feel like one of the family.
I got another call from my neighbor, Gary. Nick gave him a call again and wanted to go for a ride on the weekend. Gary asked if I was up for another ride . . how could I refuse. So we meet up with Nick at the Cactus Patch at 10:00 am for a ride into San Marcos.
Part of the ride out to San Marcos was very familiar to me, it was Hwy 150. Once I realized that we were going to go all the way down Hwy 150, I decided to let loose and have some fun. I carved my way up ahead of Gary and Nick. Once I got pretty far down the road I decided I better start getting some pictures of this great road on an absolutely beautiful day (84° F). I happened to also get a picture of Gary and Nick when they caught up to me, as they came around the corner.
Our next stop was at a restaurant in Carpenteria, called Cabo's Cantina, for some lunch. While we were there I noticed a Buell Firebolt rolling up. I decided to take a closer look at this bike and get some pictures since I had never seen one in person. The rider was a cool guy named Jerry Farmer. He's an actor and was in the motorcycle movie Torque. He told me that he's planning to open up a shop that specializes in turning sportbikes into StreetFighters. His web-site isn't quite up yet but I look forward to checking it out once it is.
We left Cabo's Cantina with full stomachs and big grins. The weather was warming up and I was looking forward to seeing our next destination, the Cold Spring Tavern. Unforetunately, we hit a great deal of traffic as we tried to make our way through Santa Barbara without using the freeway. I don't think I've EVER had to use my clutch so much in one ride. It really sucked. We finally made our way to Hwy 154 which would lead us to our next destination.
On our way there our leader, Nick, forgot which turn off we were supposed to make. So we ended up getting a little lost. I've never had to use my Super Hawk as a dirt bike before, but I guess there's a first time for everything. We finally realized we weren't in the right place and turned around, but I had to stop and get a picture of the great view from what I will forever affectionately call, the Top of the World. I finally got Gary and Nick to agree to be in a picture while we were here laughing about our off road excursion. Of course, Nick had to give me the standard Biker salute.
We finally made our way back to Hwy 154 and found our turn off, Paradise Rd. This led us under the San Marcos Bridge and to the Cold Spring Tavern. This place was cool, literally and figuratively. It was down in the canyon so it hadn't really gotten any sun for at least a few hours before we arrived. The place certainly reminds you of an old fashioned Tavern. They even had some live Country music playing as we rode up. We couldn't stay for very long because our excursion on the Top of the World delayed us too much and Nick had to be home. So we had a drink and geared up. I rode over to get a quick picture of the San Marcos Bridge before we left (yes, that's my bike in the bottom left hand corner).
Since we were in a hurry to get home, we took the freeways all the way home. By the time our day was done we had clocked over 170 miles on the odometer.