Friday–Monday, 21–24 Apr 2006
Jerry Grainger
As usual, on Thursday night it gets late and hectic, and I’m really pooped, dithering around, grabbing gear from everywhere, which is still scattered all over the house at midnight. A “brief” nap and suddenly it’s 5:20 am, and I need to pull it all together, finish packing and make it to a 7:30 Rotary meeting. Dithered my way right out of a proper farewell from Wendy. Departing that meeting early, I’m on the road by 8:15, stopping for an hour at Harris Ranch (188 miles) for food, fuel, etc. Next stop is Ridgecrest (another 208 miles), where I caught up with a group including Rob Hyman, Jerry Grey, Jill and Tom, Dick Zunkel and others, who were just finishing a late lunch.
It’s nice to have a long-legged steed in the Honda ST 1100, especially when you want to make time, which I did on #5 and #178. Would’ve arrived at Stovepipe Wells by 5 pm but for a ridiculous loss of nearly an hour spent on the phone with Cingular Wireless over a sudden, serious cell phone problem, whereby callers hear that my number is disconnected, even though I can make calls out! I also met up with George and Sachi Shoblo (from the Norton Club), who asked for directions from Ridgecrest and headed on. I then encountered Ted Newby and his son-in-law Steve, who almost headed up to Wildrose on his Harley, which I don’t think he would’ve liked. Arrived and checked in at Stovepipe (97 miles, for a total of 493) at the same time as the Shoblos, Fred and Irma and others. Ten and 1/2 hours on the road, including a Rotary meeting. (Dude, it’s not a race!) (Are you sure?)
Ahh, finally relaxation time, scoring the furthest room out on Roadrunner, next to Tom Martin and Carl Tyler. Many folks at Stovepipe this trip, and indeed, many people on the ride, maybe two dozen altogether, with perhaps half of them at SP Wells. Most folks are retired for the evening, or ready to, by 10:00 pm.
Hiked Mosaic Canyon on Saturday morning with Lorraine and Dan Bockmier,
later realizing it may’ve been a little ambitious, particularly since we
wound up late for lunch at Furnace Creek. Sorry about that, Lorraine.
Showed some newcomers the Borax Museum, which has a large, indoor and
outdoor collection of mechanical implements of all kinds, dating back to
the 19th Century. It’s fun to realize that you’ve compiled quite a bit
of Death Valley knowledge and lore over the course of a few years, which
you can then share with those who haven’t come this way before.
Back at the ranch, it was time for a dip and some ping-pong, which was fun, followed by beverages and snacks outside the rooms, where it seems like everyone was showing off their new transistor radios. Oops, I mean mp3 players. Rob Hyman moved in with me from Beatty. Later, we did a group hike out to the airport, where the big dipper and Milky Way were prominently featured, along with the fairly rare appearance of a couple of aircraft. More fun and camaraderie. Most folks seem to’ve filled up and skipped having dinner at the restaurant.
As reported by Marco, it rained on Sunday morning, so most folks had breakfast before departing at 10:30, although intrepid Marc made it to Panamint, as planned, to hold up certain SMBC traditions (such as riding alone). While most folks took a scenic and fun ride along highway #58, I opted to relax and read till past noon, and took the more prosaic highway #46, catching up by dinner time in Paso Robles (313 miles). The Best Western is now up to $95, which suggests to me that some alternatives might be in order. A pretty quiet evening ensued, with a somewhat characteristic lack of definite departure planning for the am.
Rob and I both slept poorly, but I was zonked out when I heard the door shut at 7:30 am, as Rob departed, and shortly thereafter I realized that many others had also hit the road before 8am. Paul Anderson and I took off together at 8:25, with a leisurely ride and photos along #46 and then Santa Rosa Creek Road to Cambria. All of the locals agree that the place to direct motorcyclists is to the Redwood Cafe, where a good crowd of us enjoyed some sunshine with breakfast.
Six bikes departed Cambria up highway one together, and we had a fun
photo session at a lovely vista point near Big Sur, before proceeding to
Nepenthe.. It turns out that this was their 57th anniversary, and I was
the 57th customer that day. They told me that a gift package was mine,
and I said it wasn’t, until this was explained. How corny! What fun!
Enjoyed more picture taking while I opened this big box full of swag
(good word, Dan), including mugs, glasses, hat and t-shirt. Quite a
good laugh.
Indeed, this was an excellent weekend for laughs and good companionship throughout. I enjoyed all of your company, thank you, and I hope you did mine, as well. I actually used my new digital camera, and hope to figure out how to get pictures off of it some time soon, which I will then share with you, but there is still quite a bit of more interesting reading I want to finish before knuckling down to the manual.
(1,044 miles round trip, not including riding in D.V.)
Jerry Grainger 4/26/06