Archive for the ‘2016-06-10 Shake-n-Break-in Ride’ Category
Dead Battery, Hot Chocolate, Bruised Ribs, etc Part 2
June 23rd, 2016 | 
Author: Day 2 started from Cressey with a very shrt ride to the Foster Farms Kitchen, just outside one of there processing plants. Great little breakfast spot where all the locals go to fill up on a hardy breakfast before a days work on the farm.
Our only goal is to avoid the major cities to get to Big Ben’s place in Hopland and to ride a bit of CA49, the 49ner highway, and to check out Courtland, CA on the way.
Highway 49 is know as the Gold Country Highways and passes through many of the historic gold rush towns. It meanders in the foothills of the Seirra mountains among the oak trees. From there we headed to Courtland for a quick stop before heading towards Lake Barryessa, where we found a cool little single lane asphalt road on Google maps that looked interesting. After our short coffee stop to try and figure out how to get our GPS to get us back to our route we had planned, we got back on the road. This road snugged along the edge of the lake, eventually becoming a single lane asphalt road with nobody on it for 20-30 miles. It eventually lead us to Nappa County and to a town called Lower Lake. From there, we road an awesome ride west on Highway 175, one of the best rides I have had in a while, coming into the town of Hopland.
This was Dean’s first time visiting the Ben’s place, which is always a treat. I always feel like I’m at Tom Sawyer’s Island at Disneyland. After a tour of the garden, we walked into town to the Pizza/Brewery place where Ben had built a lot of the furniture. Great place where Ben seems to be the Mayor as everyone in the joint knows him….
After dinner it was off to the Reggae festival that was just by his house to wrap up the evening just before hitting the sack at the Hopland Hide-a-way.
to be continued…..
2016_06_11_Day2
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Dead Battery, Hot Chocolate, Bruised Ribs, Electronic Issues, Coffee stops, “Turn that blinker off!”, Japanese American History and lots of fun….. Part 1
Each motorcycle ride has it’s issues, drama, and events that always leads to a smile and some great memories – this one was no different.
It has been a long while since I rode one-on-one with Dean. I think the last time was our Four Corners Ride in August of 1997. That ride was to go to the 4 corner most cities in the lower 48 states in 21 days. This ride was to “shake” out Dean’s new bike and break it in – and for me to check out the area of the Lost Coast in northern CA for future trips and to visit Big Ben.
This ride started Friday morning meeting Dean at 6:00 a.m. at the Chevron gas station off the toll road. Of course when I pulled in Dean was already there, but he already announce that his SENA (helmet to helmet communication device) battery was not holding a charge. He also announced that he did not finish his wiring harness to his tank bag for accessories, so he couldn’t power the device anyway. This was highly unusual for Dean as he is usually has all bases covered. Must be because he is retired now?
No problem, we switch units because I could power from my bag – so off we went… kind of.
Dean only had 35 miles on his bike, so he needed to do his break in riding, which means not a constant speed. I kept a steady 65 mph on the freeway way he would drop back, then accelerate, drop back, accelerate, etc…. for the next 150 miles till we got to the first mountain roads. I’m sure he pissed off some people.
We then headed up 9 Mule Canyon Road, AKA Sherman’s Pass, to cross the Sierra mountains to get to the east side. This road offered plenty of bumps, twists, and turns – enough to break in Dean’s new bike. Once we crossed to the east side, we hopped on Route 99 up to Merced to have a buffet dinner, meet Dean’s cousin, and then a quick stop at a store for some “All Day IPA” before heading to Cressey and the Tanji ranch.
Day 1 pictures – (i) for description of picture, FS for Full Screen
2016_06_10_Day1
