Of course the plan was spontaneous as I am never one that actually gets out of town in a timely fashion. I had the bike packed with a moderate amount of garbage and was ready to go by noon, not bad in my estimation, especially considering I wasn’t sure I was going anywhere until 10!

I had sent a message to Jamileh, asking if a houseguest was in order for a frivolous evening of birthday pranks. With an A-ok, my plan was to ride to Visalia via a route that Gary had conjured up, which involved some shlugging on 99 as I tried to make up the time lost in getting ready to go! He drew a route that began at Madera taking some fabulous Central California roads that made the shlug down 99 worth the pain. This afternoons roads included Millerton, Tollhouse, Burroughs’s Valley, Maxson, Trimmer Springs, Pine Flat and Elwood Roads. I ran out of time and ended up taking 180 to 63 into Visalia instead of the planned General’s Highway. I guess that will be another trip and one that I could possibly take with some of the 559 riders!

I met Jamileh and Bruce (TripleTee) at Border’s Books around 8ish and we had coffee before Mileh and I headed to her house for the evening. The first day of my newly dubbed, “Annual Birthday Ride” was a good day full of twists and goat and some really boring slab, but all added up to a totally great day of riding. I only stopped for a couple of pix and only this one was decent.

Burroughs’s Valley Road

Jamileh and I stayed up late gabbing and as a result we were a bit sluggish the next morning, but I was out on the road by 8:30 after deciding on a route over Yokohl Road connecting to Hwy 190, one of my very favorite twisty roads. The cemented grin on my face gives descriptive credence to the miles of twisties leading up to a beautiful pine forest, then down to the Kern River.

Yokohl Road

Some fine flowers on Yokohl Rd.

A fortuitous shot…

More wildflowers