2009 Aug 15 - The Little Dragon

2009 Aug 15 - The Little Dragon

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Ride Report and photos by Bill B., breakfast host and Ride Leader.

The morning began with the alarm going off at 6 AM after a fitful night of sleep. Excitement and anticipation kept me restless. I knew that Pdub and Jess were also getting up over in Sac town as they intended to leave at 7 AM to arrive in time for breakfast.

I failed to get pics of the early breakfast. Pdub and Jess showed up right on schedule just after I rolled up my garage door at 8:10. Sonja had let herself in at 8 AM and Stan showed up at 8:30 just as I was turning out eggs over easy. Each plate had a pancake, two sausage patties and two eggs and blueberries and peaches. Oh yes a sprig of mint from my garden. Everyone ate and got to know one another and by 9:15 we were suiting up and getting ready for a 9:30 departure.
Photo op after breakfast

The first leg would take us out of town through the dairylands and into gently rolling hills to La Grange. We travel about 40 miles in the first hour.

Then as we begin to slowly ascend into the foothills we wind our way to Hornitos where we stop, drink water, take pictures and talk with a local fellow who had once ridden Triumph Bonnie 650's back in the day.

Talking to the old timer {no, Pdub is not the old timer}


Click here for Some trivia about Hornitos, an old gold mining town.

Among the ruins in Hornitos are the walls of the Ghirardelli store, where Domingo Ghirardelli traded with the miners before moving to San Francisco in 1852 to found his chocolate company. {This corrects the dead link.}

Sonja on her Street Triple

Wonder who has a new bike

Pdub's and Jess' bikes

Stan's America

On to Bear Valley and Hwy 49 which is another 12 miles and then we pull off to a vista where we can see the Little Dragon laid out before us. More pics.....people are anxious to ride at this point as the helmets never come off. Off we go...........

Vista just a bit north of Bear Valley on Hwy 49



A view of the Little Dragon from the vista

We ride the 16 miles to Coulterville and break under the tree where it seems there are always bikes and riders.
Under the tree in Coulterville

Pics, talk and more water.......off we go for another 20 or so miles of a mix of twisties and open road around Lake Don Pedro and on to Jamestown. This is where we begin to encounter our first traffic. We fuel up and leave Jamestown towards Tuttletown and Lake New Melones via Rawhide Road. Another 20 miles or so stretch of twisties mixed with long straightaways.

Arrive in Angels Camp and head down Hwy 4 to Pool Station Road where again we leave traffic and travel a little known gem of a road making the 11 miles stretch between Angels Camp and San Andreas a much more interesting 25 miles of twisties.

We are nearing the end as we regain Hwy 49 and head to Moke Hill and on to Jackson where we arrive at 1:45. Again this stretch was well traveled but smooth with a mix of straights and twisties. My bike tracks our vitals as follows....152.8 miles from my house to Mel's Diner the former Mel and Faye's....3 hrs and 37 minutes of riding time....Total trip time was 4 hrs and 15 minutes.

The ride was scenic, challenging and fun.

The Ride Route:


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Then it was time for lunch.

From left to right: Stan, Pdub, Bill, Sonja and Jess

Pdub grubbin' out

Time to wave good bye

Today's Riders and Their Bikes:

Pdub .............. Wee-Strom
Jess ................ Sprint
Bill ................. Speed Triple
Sonja ............. Street Triple
Stan ............... America

It was a good day and everyone had a ball.

~End

2009 May 16 - Delta River Ride

2009 May 16 - Delta River Ride

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Today is Pdub's Ride. A fairly short Ride mostly Montezuma Hills Road back and forth with a couple of ferry rides thrown in.

We are meeting for breakfast at the River's Edge Café in Isleton for breakfast at 9:15 AM.
Phil T. is the first one there. I arrive around ten minutes after nine. Peter on his ST 1300 gets there shortly after. Pdub is late as usual, but today it is only by two minutes.

Pdub on the left Peter in the foreground and Phil on the right. Yvonne, Pdub's wife is hidden behind Peter

Pdub and Yvonne are riding my Triumph Legend, my BMW R850R and Phil's Nomad

Phil entering the restaurant

Lily and Clay the owners of the River's Edge

My French Toast with honey glazed bacon on the side

Peter has the scrambled eggs with feta cheese and Phil has his usual BLT

Stuffed bell peppers are a lunch special today

Just after we order Les rides up so we will have five (5) bikes on today's Ride. He has a cup of coffee and an oatmeal cookie. Les is an early breakfast eater.

We get on the road about 10:15. Pdub is a Harley rider at heart. He believes in more time at the breaks than on the road. :-)


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Hwy 160 passing the Del Rio Hotel in downtown Isleton

That's Pdub making a left turn to head to Jackson Slough Road

We skirt past the Brannan Island State Recreation Area and onto Hwy 160 south of the Rio Vista Bridge. When we turn to get on the bridge we find that the center section is raised and traffic is waiting for the bridge to return to normal.
Hmm the bridge is stopped

Riding through downtown Rio Vista

We make it to Montezuma Hills Road and will ride it toward Birds Landing.
Then we will turn around and ride it back to Rio Vista.

Montezuma Hills Road, the straight portion. Lots of windmills.

We have our ice cream break at Gemma T's {formerly Shelby's} Drive-In.
Peter's thermometer reads 113°, but it is probably only about 94° at 11:30 AM.

Getting out of the sun

Peter's bike


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Waiting for the first ferry which is a real boat



On the first ferry


One of the State Employees. These two ferries that we will ride today are part of the State Highway System.

We ride around the north end of Ryer Island and make it onto the cable ferry from Ryer Island to Grand Island.
Second ferry ride


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We stop at the Grand Island Mansion as Les and Peter have never been to it before.
Grand Island Mansion Web Site
Photo from a previous Ride

From the Grand Island Mansion Les and I head back to Thornton and the rest head back toward Sacramento.
Downtown Thornton

Les riding through Thornton

It is 98° in Stockton when I get home around 2:15 PM. The forecast for tomorrow is 104°.

~end
.

2009 April 18 - Sausage Feed

2009 April 18 - Sausage Feed in Stockton

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I have two house guests from Oregon for a VROC Ride tomorrow. So far we have 24 signed up for the Ride. We have one Canadian, two from Oregon, one from Reno and one from Oxnard along with the rest of us NorCal folks. We start from the Jelly Belly tomorrow and end at the Chocolate Cow in Sonoma with a lunch stop at Buster's in Calistoga.
My fellow VROCers from Oregon, Sherm and SAG enjoying the heat and sunshine

I had 4 cookers going out on the back patio. The sausages were chicken mango salsa, chicken artichoke, raw brats, a Swiss herb, Spicy Italian, Smoked Kielbasa, Smoked Polish and Morrocan Lamb.

All of the sausages came from Wolfsen's Meat & Sausage in Gustine, CA.
Wolfsen's web site

Also on the menu was mixed nuts, chips and clam dip, sauerkraut, potato salad, baked beans with diced Jalapenos, steamed short grain rice, River's Edge bread and Yvonne's corn bread.

Then for dessert were cookies from Kandi's Pies and Pastries: Kandi's web site and fresh picked strawberries from an Asian strawberry patch.

SAG lights up the fire

Me cooking some brats and Kielbasa

Yvonne cutting up the sausages - photo by Sherm

Getting the food - photo by Sherm

Food table after the first pass - photo by Sherm

Everyone eating - photo by Sherm

This is the sausage, bread, rice and potato salad table after everyone has finished eating the main course.
There were still a lot of uncut cooked sasages and a dozen sasages that were still uncooked.

Tom P, Les and Peggy S, and Todd

Daniel and Jennifer B, Pdub and Yvonne

Now William got lost. After wandering around in the Brookside neighborhood for quite awhile he managed to check his GPS and got to the Sausage Feed. Albeit late.
William B, Sonja K, and Eric B

Jess walking back in from outdoors

Tom is one of the few eaters in this crowd. We really did miss LAS and her ability to consume large quantities of food. :-)
Tom P is going for seconds

Next we adjourn to the front yard to go look at Bikes.
Tom P's FJR 1300 and Todd's tricked out Harley

William's Speed Triple and Sonja's Lowered Street Triple

Jess' Sprint ST and Jess

Dan A's Road King

Checking out the bikes

Checking out the bikes - photo by Sherm

Todd leaving for Fresno

Todd leaving for Fresno - 2

Sherm and SAG

Daniel, Pdub, Yvonne and Jennifer

Back inside for dessert of cookies and fresh strawberries

After dessert - photo by Sherm

SAG and Yvonne

Jennifer, Sonja and William

Dan A, Daniel, Jess and Pdub

We break up by two's and threes with most but not all taking some food or sausages with them.
We ate almost all of the clam dip, Yvonne's cornbread, and potato salad.

I think everyone was full as they headed off for home.

I think everyone had a good experience today, I had fun putting on the Sausage Feed.

~end