After a crazy couple of weeks adjusting to the arrival of my son and grandson who will be staying with us indefinitely, I decided I needed to unwind via motorcycle and open roads. Well, it almost happened. 🙂 As it was, winter decided to actually pay CA a visit in the form of liquid falling from cloudy skies, but it wasn’t all bad!!
I left Sacto late, like not until 2 pm with Solvang in mind, but I understand that there is actually a speed limit in CA, so I jumped on I5, my least favorite road but the quickest way south and headed toward Solvang with Paso Robles as a mid way destination. Oh ya, it gets dark early now…lovely. In Coalinga, I tried to get a motel but everything was full with road crew employees and here I thought there was a recession going one. 😉 I rode in dusk traffic to the lovely town of Kettleman City and settled in for the night skipping dinner and partaking instead in microwave popcorn and a good single malt. Tomorrow, I’d find a more scenic route to get to Solvang, after all, i was close and was sure to find some fun road! I had called John, jdgretz and we planned on meeting around noon thirty in Solvang. I love it when a plan comes together!
The following morning was :cold, though not so bad in Kettleman City as it was as I headed coastal. I was glad to be sportin’ ‘lectrics. I took Hwy 41/46 out of Kettleman City, and headed for Creston and Rossi’s Driveway Hwy 229. Hwy 41 was a huge wonderful surprise, once it separated from the 41/46 configuration. It tight, twisty and crazy, everything one would want in a moto-road.
Hwy 41/46 check out those skies!! :drool
Hwy 41 heading through Shandon.
Great surface and grin meter!
There are no photos of Rossi’s Driveway 229 since I so enjoy riding it, I can’t be bothered taking photos, but Tim of Pashnit took this one, which about sums it up.
Sadly, this time, it wasn’t clean. There was gravel or dirt in nearly every right hander and some gravel everywhere. I was disappointed but it was fun nevertheless.
My good intentions of riding over Tepusquet Road were simply not to be realized. I figured that there would be gas at the intersection of Hwy 101 and Hwy 166. After doing a mid-highway u-turn, i got back on 101 seeking gas and by the time I found it, I was less interested in going back. I took the easiest route to my motel in Solvang arriving before John by about 5 minutes. Nice…
The Hamlet Inn was a great little place, reasonable and easy.
Love the Stork…but it’s symbolism eluded me…:whistle
Nice Euro style room
After John arrived we went to have marvelous sandwiches at a place he has visited before. After lunch we sauntered to the motorcycle museum, glad to be on foot and walking off lunch.
The next couple of hours were spent drooling. WOW…
John has several other shots in this pashnit forum thread, but I’ll put mine here.
Many of these machines, I had never seen. This one was the newest addition with one other being owned by who else, but Jay Leno.
This Thor was one of three bikes in the museum that don’t run. Three…:nod
This fairing cracked me up, but I loved it nonetheless.
This Harley made very little sense to me. It had a “supercharger” on the left outside of the bike which had to have added so much weight it was unbalanced. Along with that the belt drive was right where your feet met the pegs. I had to wonder how many were ejected off this bike before they decided it was “only for show”. 😀
I did like the paint…
The James
An award…how cool and Deco is that?? There was nothing to what it signified. Does anyone know? Of course I can’t even remember what it was on!
Loved the branding nearly as much as I loved the motorcycle.
Gorgeous design
Ohhhhh…sexy!
Ice racing anyone??
I believe i saw my first ice racing on “On Any Sunday”.
art of the motorcycle…
More art…
Always love the Vincent. I know I’ll have one, one day.
The colors of this Jawa were inspiring!
Love the exhaust!
Beautiful…
These levers make alot of sense to me, in that they are designed to hand shape. I wondered where they disappeared.
What a fun artsy machine! Looks like it’s from the Jetsons, especially the air intake area and engine. Sleek!!
Now this just looks fast…
A motorized bicycle style?
Harley with an awesome paint style.
1946 Indian from my favorite angle.
Fishtale exhaust
Cool detail…
The Maico engine…now this totally fascinated me. How exactly does it get gas.
Lawrence of Arabia’s bike…
After all that motorcycle porn, John and I felt the need for sugar and some fine baked items before seeing John off.
What an awesome day with great roads, cool motorcycles and after John left, a wine bar for me!! Ya…no more riding for this girl at least this day. I needed to do some official wine tasting!
My evening was spent at this amazing wine bar.
The owner’s car…NICE! :drool
Luckily, I didn’t have any riding to do and the only thing challenging was remembering where I was staying. I had two nights without an official meal and a very effective liquid diet. I decided to cross the road from the motel to a brewhouse and had a decent caesar salad. Ah…i was ready to call it a night after meeting nearly everyone at the brewhouse and making new friends. Tomorrow off to visit with Kris and Alan.
I began the day with coffee and rain…strong and wet. I geared up and headed to Santa Paula the quickest way possible, the 154 to 101. What a joke. The 101 was backed up for miles and try as I did to lane split, it kept getting more and more narrow and with my hard bags, i experienced pause, something not very safe when splitting. I got off the road and headed to 192. I called Kris and we found a way to route me up to 192. The rest of the ride was a pleasure.
And how could it be a complete ride without the self-served self-portrait. 😀
I was planning on going on to the Palm Desert, but with the rain, it seems like a good time to visit good friends!
Good friends, good wine, good laughs and lots and lots of moto stories and video footage later, we retired. The following day Kris and Alan had some obligations, so I was on my own. I decided to tour Santa Paula on foot, get some photographs and enjoy the misty morn.
Graffiti, i always seem to find it interesting.
Loved the mirror finish on this office building. It made for a great backdrop.
Beautiful church.
I believe we had breakfast here on the 2010 Girly Ride.
I see Susy/Susie is till trying to decide upon a spelling for her business.
I love all the murals around town.
This looks like a good place to try on my next visit.
The flowers all were glowing in the mist.
Amazing…
And this “passion flower” looked nearly artificial.
Still looking like fall in Santa Paula.
I lucked out as a train pulled into the old train depot.
A statue to agriculture and the worker outside the depot.
I spent the rest of the afternoon watching films from Kris and Alan’s library. It was totally restful and peaceful and I gathered my stuff to leave the following morning, that is after Alan saw to my front tire being changed. No one felt that the tire had enough left to see me safely home. I was glad their neighbor Michael, had a “barely” used track tire around that fit smartly. I was off by noon and on to Bako via the scenic Hwy 33.
It was a glorious morning and the perfect day for a ride. Hwy 33 was excellent, pretty clean, no traffic and chilly. I was glad to have my gerbing.
Look at that amazing sky!!
Definitely looking darker as I headed toward Bakersfield.
By the time I arrived in Taft the sky opened up. I called my riding buddy Mark and he and his wife Judy opened up their home to me. I hadn’t see them in nearly three years, so it was long overdue. This is what pashnit is know for, good friends and rides! Over the years I have made many wonderful pals on pashnit.
We had a great dinner, good evening visiting and the following day, I was on my way home, but not before meeting these guys on the highway!
These are two of the Vetter Fuel Challenge riders. Note the crazy fairlngs over Ninja 250s.
The men themselves.
And me…just to prove i was really there!
The green bike actually got 136 miles per gallon on his and the aluminum one 110. Amazing!!!
I made it home in time to spend a fine evening with Gary and my son Dan and grandson Hayden. It was a fine breather for me and a fine homecoming.