NCTRF_2009

2009 Aug 15 - The Little Dragon

2009-08-15T21:17:00.000-07:00

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:

View Larger Map

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

2009-05-16T18:59:00.000-07:00

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. :-)

View Larger Map

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

View Larger Map

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

View Larger Map

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

2009-04-18T16:01:00.000-07:00

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

2009 March 28 - Demo Days

2009-03-28T14:59:00.000-07:00

2009 March 28 - Demo Days - Cycle Specialties in Modesto

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Today is the Modesto Triumph/BMW dealership's Triumph Demo Day. Eric, Pdub, Daniel and Jess drive down at 7:30AM to be the first in line to sign up for their favorite bikes to ride.

All would take two test rides on two different bikes.

Since my 1997 BMW R850R is due for a major service, I phone Pdub to see if I can get a ride home after leaving my R850R at Cycle Specialties for them to service. It turns out that I can. So I get a later start and arrive just in time to have lunch, hot dogs, salad, chips, cookies and soft drinks. I leave home around 11:15 and get to the dealership near Noon. I am not taking any test rides.
Cycle Specialties Web Site

Triumph USA has a traveling van loaded with a bunch of demo bikes for people to take group test rides.
The Triumph van and test bikes lined up

Here is the 2009 Bonneville

Cycle Specialties has been a long time BMW motorcycle dealer. They added Piaggio and Vespa scooters a few years ago. They added Triumph in mid 2008 and have just started flooring a lot of Triumphs after moving to their new and much larger store location in November of 2008.
Jimmy the owner's son at the computer

Free food - you know that is where the Rats are.
Jess and Pdub chowing down

Bill, Karen and Ralph - fellow members of my Central California BMW Riders Club

Daniel, Pdub, Jess and Eric with the Triumph van in the background

Now between their first and second test rides the four drove a few blocks to the Ducati dealership to test ride Ducati's. There was that debacle that happened the day of the NCTRF trip to Modesto to view various motorcycles. The test rider after Pdub totaled a new Duke. Now the dealership is again offering test rides.

By the time that I get there Pdub and Jess have already had two Triumph test rides. Eric and Daniel are scheduled at 1:00 PM for their second Triumph test rides.
Eric and Daniel displaying their wrist bands which have the time and bike for test rides

John W, the owner of the dealership is cooking the hot dogs

As Eric and Daniel get ready for their second test ride Jess decides to have seconds or perhaps thirds on the hot dogs.

Pdub is skipping the buns now

Now Jess is skipping the buns

Here is Gale the sales manager sitting at his desk

While Eric and Daniel are on their second test ride. Pdub drives Jess and me to visit the local Kawasaki/Honda and the Suzuki dealerships.
Jess trying on a helmet at the Suzuki dealer

Eric and Daniel returning from their test ride quickly grab a drink or a dog

We are now ready to leave and because of my age I am allowed to ride "shot gun".
Five in a Honda Civic head back to Stockton and Elk Grove. It is just a 40 minute or so drive to my home. Then the rest can sit more comfortably on their ride home.

~end
.

2009 March 21 - Planning Meeting

2009-03-21T16:37:00.000-07:00

2009 March 21 - Planning Meeting

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We just set up two Rides today. April 18th is the Sausage Feed. First Ride will be led by Pdub. It will be a River Roads Ride starting in West Sacramento. The date is Saturday, May 16, 2009.

The second Ride will be lead by Phil and is the Downieville Ride. It will be on Saturday, June 20, 2009.

Later Rides will be decided at the Sausage Feed. But one will be in the Foothills to the south of Hwy 50 and include lunch at a Winery Deli near Mt Aukum. Another Foothill Ride will be to the north of Hwy 50.

The weather looked like rain sometime during the afternoon. So I chose to drive my little Corolla.Notice the cows grazing just before the houses start. This is north bound on I-5 at the south end of Elk Grove

The front of Bonn Lair.

Pdub heading into our Sitting Room.

A partial list of the brews available.

This is the view as you enter from the front door.

Dart room is in the back just before the rear exit.

This is the Sitting Room where we held our Meeting. Pdub was the first one there he also drove. I arrived just as two wild turkeys were walking down the middle of J Street right in front of the Bonn Lair. By the time I got the camera out the turkeys were too far away to see in the photo.

Pdub ordering lunch and drinks. It was a bit after one and I was hungry.

A live band plays at the Bonn Lair on Saturdays from 1 to 4 PM.

Jess and Eric arrive riding their Triumphs.

Les arrives riding an older Honda Shadow 750 from Stockton.

Tom arrives at his usual time. This time he has an excuse. He started out on his bike and went home to get his car.

Our two Triumphs from the NorCal Triumph Riders and Friends.

Pdub just finished eating his free breakfast at Ikea, so ordered mash and gravy. I on the other hand got the Shepard's Pie. It was very good but a bit light on the meat.

Eric and Jess each got a Scotch Egg. Both were disappointed that the sausage was very bland.
They also had the Banger sandwich smoothered in grilled onions and a burger. The best was the Banger sandwich.

What is left of the Banger sandwich.

Tom eating a piece of a Scotch Egg.

My smoking area in the back. It was covered which was good when the rain started.

Heading out after our meeting.

I picked up a rider in the bar, who today was riding a 250 Aprilia scooter. He is behind Tom.

The Triumphs are parked in front of the 24 hour Barber Shop/Massage Parlour.

Pdub is carrying the new mirrors for the Legend. I think Eric is checking to see if he has enough money for a Massage.

I say my good byes and head over to Café Rolle to pick up a sandwich for dinner. Today I picked up a duck paté sandwich.

One last Sacramento stop at the Japanese bakery to pick up dessert.

end