Dear Diary...........

[Gleno]

All of May until Memorial Weekend:

 

Too much work, not enough rest. Too much stress, not enough relaxation. Etc., etc..............

 

Memorial Weekend:

 

Sat. am; bike packed, checked & double checked. Let's moto. The usual lame slab blast across the I-15, but this day was a bit different because I had my sweet bride with me & I knew we were in for an awesome weekends ride. We met with Brian T. & Meghan in Mojave for breakfast. After a good meal & some brief, loose route planning, we were off. Up the 14 to hwy. 178, across Walker Pass & down into the Lake Isabella area. Turning North, we hit Kernville for a short water break & re-discuss the route since we'd discovered some great roads were now open that had been snow closed just a short week ago. Outside the store was a guy on a Yamahondasaki of some kind & his bud on an old Panhead. They got ready to go & dood with the Pan went to kickin' & continued kickin' for at least 10 minutes. Now Meghan, ever the comic, looks at this dood trying to kick his bike started, & acts like she's never seen this before & says "hey Glen, what's he doing?" Yes, it's a case of "ya had to be there", but I'm tellin' you, it was quite funny at the time. Off we go to find more spirited riding, and find it we did. Up the hill, into the body of the Sequoias, we encountered mass beauty & some of the sweetest twisty bits in the west. I played just a tad too much with the rear binder in the trail braking department & suffered a bit (ok, complete loss)of rear brake function. Not the thing to happen coming down that mountain. We slid into a little place called Camp Nelson & did the "ice cream on the front porch of the old timey country store" thing. Nice & relaxing to be sure. We looked the bike over & all seemed norm with the brakes. After a bit, my brakes had cooled & we went to rippin' down the rest of the hill. We weren't to far from Wurtys at this point, so we decided that since it was early, we'd take road J37 to the backside of Visalia. Major mistake. This road was an old farm/cow trail at best, with a yellow line down the middle. Never have I been on a skinnier, more potholed road. About 35 miles of just agony waiting for it too end. We found the end, gas, & Wurtys digits. He was napping, so we knew we had to roust his big ass. Well it's always great to visit casa de la Wurty, so we hung out for an hour or so & knew that after a long days ride, we better move on to our planned nitey nite spot, or fall down. Off to Coalinga we sped. We had no reservations, we just figured that Coalinga was NOONES holiday weekend spot, so there'd be rooms. WRONG!! They were havin' a damned horned toad festival there. WTF is this?? So we found a room at a Motel 6 (they'll leave the seat up for you) back by I-5. Great dinner & company & off to a decent nights sleep.

 

Sunday:

 

Oh yes, the day I've been looking forward to. Knowing that our destination was the coast just below San Fran & then trickle down it all day. Even better, Terri had never seen the Cali coast that far up. The wake up call barked at 6am & we were rollin'. Up the I-5 to the 152, & over to the coast. Now on the I-5 & then again on the 152, we passed this bus. On the back of the bus was (I swear to Gumby),a huge painted picture of Fernandos twin. Some Puerto Rican singer name Juancarlosrodriguezgoshdarnitt (or something). It was soooo frickin' funny that Meghan ran over & took a digi snap of it at a gas stop. To be posted soon. Off to the water we went. We hit Monterey-ish & headed south down Hwy.1. Yes, it was a tad busy for the weekend, but we had a phenom ride down that awesome, scenic coast. Big Sur is always a treat. You can tell you have a good life when your standing on the coast, next to your beautiful wife, your ultra smooth RT & someone else is buying the Krispy Kremes. Wow, what a country. After a KK & a Diet Coke to keep the heart racing, we head out. Now from time to time, (or more often), we had to pass some cars to avoid the congestion. Well it seems there was this little psycho wench in a Geo Metro, who wanted by everyone more than we did. This little lady, was off the hook, out of control at times. Brian & I discussed it over the FRS & decided it was best to stay behind her. She wrung out that little Geo like none other. It was quite amusing to watch her carve corners with that thing. We laughed & talked trash the whole time we followed her. We continued to motor down the coast & take in all that beauty, til we landed in Cayucas for lunch/dinner. Great little town just 4 miles north of Morro Bay that we hit on in Y2K. Re-found a little restaurant that makes killer seafood (duh) & is famous for HUGE desserts. Now here's the good part of hangin' with Brian & Meghan. We were feelin' a tad shagged after a fairly long saddle day (Terri felt poopy) & decided to switch up with the nitey nite plans. Brian & Meghan never flinch. They always say, "yea, whatever works". So instead of heading south to tear up Cal 58 after an already fulfilling day of twisties, we decide to hop over to Atascadero on the sweet 41 for a room for the night. GOOD CALL INDEED. We nailed this Best Western in town that still had rooms. Dinner already done, we wanted to relax. Relax we did. Off to this super hot Jacuzzi & brother Brian breaks out the ceegars. SHA-WING, says I. We smoke, laugh, laugh, & smoke. Wow, what a great couple to hang with. Off to a solid nights sleep. I won't tell about Brians other gurl friend he met that was workin' in the hotel.

 

Monday:

 

Yowza, it's perfect outside. The plan was (and stayed) to motor south on the 101 to Santa Magarita for breakfast at this usual, friendly, good food spot & on to shred Cal 58. OHMYGOLLY is that a sweet road. Why is this road always deserted we wonder?? Today, we saw about 6 bikes total & about the same amount of cars. This road has EVERY type of twistie there is. Short & tight 1st & 2nd gear stuff, to long & fast 80-100+mph stuff. Off camber, increasing, decreasing radius, you name it, it's there for 75 miles & yet, it's ALWAYS deserted. SUHWEEEET. Brian prolly said 5 times at least over the FRS that it was his favorite road. We had to part company at McKittrick, so they could head south down the 33 & we headed east on through Buttonwillow & to the I-5 south. My goal this weekend (and it worked) was to do as little slab work as possible. We only rode the 5 for a few miles & then hit the 223 through some gorgeous farmland & on into Arvin & the backside of the Tehachapis. Back onto the 58 we went & over those long, fast sweepers that are the Tehachapi grade. Love it. Back down into Mojave & then off to the races, headed east. A quick lunch stop in Barstow told us that nowhere on I-15 south wouldn't be crowded today. They were leaving Vegas in droves & I-15 south was literally like a parking lot from Vegas to Barstow (and farther I'm sure). I told Terri we were gonna practice the T Roe school of putting miles on. She of course didn't understand, so I splained that if you don't put the kickstand down, you put more miles on. Again, we were off to the races. Next stop, Boulder City. A mere 1273 miles for the weekend, and all of them great.

 

Some notes:

 

The V-1 has paid for itself over & over & over & over......

 

Bridgestone BT-54s are my tire choice now by far. I have 6k on this set & they look better than ANY Z2, Z4, D205s, that I have run before this looked at 3k miles. Really. AND, they stick like a mofracker!!

 

The 'Stitch is an awesome piece. Works so well at all times. Saw 104 dgrees in Baker today & as long as I was moving, it was fine with all the vents open.

 

Must stop forgetting my swimwear!! I prolly have 13 swimtrunks at home now.

 

Must get an MP3 player. Tired of changing CDs at gas stops.

 

Wurty still looks like hell, even without his glasses. He's just MORE crosseyed now. However, his honey is still just as snacky as ever.

 

Brian & Meghan are proof of the good things that come from this site. Just more good people that I love to spend time with. Will ride with them anywhere. Thanx guys, you're the best. Post pix please.

 

Watch out for the looney beyatch in a white Geo Metro with the arms flailing, the tires sqeeling, & the "don't be a hater" bumper sticker. 'Nuff said!!

 

Bike hit 24k miles this weekend. Came home with 24,653 on the clock. Time to get with Cary & buy some parts for the big one. Thing is tho', it just keeps getting better.

 

And finally, I've sure been wanting a KRS of late, but everytime I do oh, say, 1000ish miles in the sweet stuff, it reminds me that this bike does EVERYTHING well. Yea, I'd like that extra poop for passing & playing at times, but this bike hasn't been tagged the best all around street bike for no reason. It just suits me. My bride is ultra comfy, which leads to secure, so I guess I'm just gonna hang onto it.

 

Now I know I don't write like some others around here, but I just felt compelled to throw this junk to print while I was still reeling from the most wonderful ride I can remember taking. Just awesome.

 

 

 

[Brant Herbert]

Hey, you threw a party and didn't invite me (er, us) !? Sounds like a great weekend!! I'll be heading back to those parts again soon, I'm sure.

[Kathy R]

WOW ! I dove and tipped as I read that Gleno. Thanks for the "ride". After spending the weekend staining the deck, I really needed that ride

 

 

[EffBee]

In reply to:

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Now I know I don't write like some others around here, but I just felt compelled to throw this junk to print while I was still reeling from the most wonderful ride I can remember taking.

---

 

Bullshorts! The fact is you write the same way you talk, Glen. When I read your post, I could HEAR you telling the story. Same tone. Same tempo. Same Gleno. Sounds like a GREAT weekend. And you're right about Brian and Meghan. Ultra good people.

 

Now, about this guy who looks like my twin, plastered on the back of a bus. For you to notice that, you would have to be going not much faster than the bus. That doesn't sound like you. Then again, maybe that's why those BT-54's are lasting so long.

 

I know how badly you and Terri needed a weekend like this. Glad it was so perfect.