Sweetheart Ride-n-Dine Report

It was clear here in Antioch this morning when we departed for Walnut Creek. Then as we rode up the hill out of Bay Point we hit the fog. The visibility wasn't that bad and by the time we got to the bottom of the hill we were out of it and it looked to be a beautiful day. As we stood in the parking lot at McGuire's we watched bike after bike roll in with the final count at 33.

We staged in the usual spot under the BART tracks in two groups and then we were on our way. We jumped on 680 heading south and made our way to the Sycamore Valley exit. Then we rode down San Ramon Valley Blvd, past the old San Ramon shop , and turned onto Deerwood Rd and then onto Deerwood Dr. It was here that group one pulled over to investigate a problem one of the bikes had when departing Walnut Creek and group two took the lead. From there the two groups took different routes. Group two turned south on Bollinger Canyon Rd while group one rode north on Bollinger Canyon Rd up and into Las Trampas Regional Park. I was with group two and from here we turned west onto Crow Canyon Rd and we could feel the temperature drop about 10 degrees as we rode in and out of the shadows. We turned east onto Norris Canyon Rd following the twisties through back toward San Ramon. There was a spot along Norris Canyon where there had been a mud slide closing the westbound lane and they had the stop sign traffic control system in place to get past the one lane section. After that it was a short ride back into San Ramon where we turned right onto Bollinger Canyon Rd., crossing over 680, and turning north on Dougherty. From there it was a right turn onto Crow Canyon Rd, which turns into Blackhawk Rd, and skirting the east side of Danville. Through this section of town the signal lights were really quick and caused our group to get broken up. Our tried & true 'bread crumb system' worked like a charm and those of us that were separated at the lights eventually got back together with the main group. We made a right turn onto Green Valley Rd and then onto Stone Valley Rd as we made our way back to 680. Once back on 680 we rode north through Walnut Creek and into Concord taking the Willow Pass Rd exit. We turned left onto Willow Pass Rd, which turned into Taylor, and turned right onto Pleasant Hill Rd. which took us into the south side of Martinez and to the home of Steve & Vicki Guderian. There was no parking directly in front of their house so we parked around the corner and walked over.



The Guderian's hosted the brunch stop and it was great. We had coffee, eggs & sausage, eggs and ham, eggs and bacon, eggs and veggies, fruit, bagels, and muffins. We ate and chatted until it was time to go. We thanked the Guderians for their hospitality and headed north for still more food. The Guderians joined us for this part of the ride so our bike count was now up to 37.

We departed Martinez as one big group and followed Hwy 4 to 680 and turned north. The traffic was moderate at the approach to the toll plaza which caused some problems for our big group but we managed to stay together till we got to the toll booth, where we sat for a long time. I think the batteries died in the toll collector's calculator and he had to take his shoes off to compute the correct toll. But we did finally proceed and once through the toll plaza we continued north on 680, again with numerous cages amongst us but they continued on when we exited at Lake Herman Rd leaving us all together. We followed Lake Herman Rd over to Columbus Pkwy, onto Hwy 37 and then north on Hwy 29. Hwy 29 had the usual heavy weekend traffic and quick lights causing our big group to get broken up several times on our way to Al and Liz Donaldson's in American Canyon. But yet again our bread crumb system got us all there. And there was not doubt that we had found the right place. Check out the flag hanging over the garage door!





The temperature had risen quite a bit during our journey and after parking our bikes we began removing jackets, sweatshirts and chaps to make ourselves comfortable. Then it was into the house in search of food. This was our lunch stop and we were treated to some great BBQ, beans, rolls and drinks. We chatted and ate till we could eat no more. Then it was time to head for home and people began to trickle out. We thanked the Donaldson's for their hospitality and headed home via Hwy 29 to 12 to 680 and then Hwy 4 to Antioch.

This was a fantastic day for a ride, filled with good weather, good food and good people.