Wow, what a fantastic day for riding. The weather was the best yet this year with temps over 90 degrees and sunshine all day long.
We started out this morning with 40 bikes in the parking lot at Devil Mountain, with everyone wearing light jackets or sweatshirts. We jumped onto Hwy 4, took the bypass to Balfour Rd, and then back onto Hwy 4 all the way across the delta into Stockton. We stopped for a break at the Chevron station there on Charter way. The temperature was already climbing and we were peeling off some layers to get comfortable.
After our short break we continued down Charter way to Wilson, then onto Hwy 4 again heading east. We merged onto Hwy 99 heading north and took the next exit, which put us on Hwy 26 eastbound to Valley Springs. We had a bit of confusion here, and instead of taking Paloma over to Pardee Dam Rd we found ourselves on Hwy 12. Not to worry though. We made a course correction onto eastbound 26 a few miles down the road. Our ride through the valley presented us with the bright colors of spring. The hillsides were still green from the rain earlier in the season, but you could see the brown spots beginning to grow in numerous locations. There were also some nice green trees speckling the hillsides. We managed to find Paloma Rd and turned there, but as we got a few miles down the road we discovered that this course was just taking us back into Valley Springs, so we made another course correction. We went back to Hwy 26 and then joined Hwy 49 coming into Jackson from the southeast. We made a right onto Hwy 88 and took that up to Pine Grove where we turned onto Pine Grove Volcano Rd. Well, almost. In the words of our immortal leader "was I supposed to turn there? Damn!". So we made another course correction and completed the last leg of our journey to the 'hill'.
We arrived at Daffodil Hill and eased into the dirt parking lot. It was hot and there wasn't enough shade to go around so some of us wound up parking in the sun, but we did all get parking spots. We walked across the road to view the daffodils and also found some bees. Bummer! And guess what, I DIDN'T get stung. Is that a miracle or what? I'm sure they'll get me later though as there is lots of time remaining in our riding season. We walked the paths through the field and took lots of pictures of the daffodils. On the way back to the bikes I heard that this was the last day for viewing. We made it just in time.
At this point we were all getting pretty hungry so the topic turned to food. There was some food available at Daffodil Hill, but this didn't appeal to us. We opted instead to ride back into Jackson to find nourishment and started down the hill. A few of us were going to try a place called Teresa's while others talked about some buffets they had seen along the road coming in. We made a quick stop at Volcano for some pictures and got separated from the others then made our way to Teresa's only to find that it was open for dinner only, and that didn't happen till 2:00 PM. Since it was only 12:25 we opted not to wait and headed down the street to Mel & Faye's only to find the rest of the group already there. We didn't get to sit with the rest of the group, but we did have air conditioning :?)
After lunch we all headed for home in different groups. Our route took us down 88 to Collier/Peltier Rd and into Flag City where we made a short stop at BK for sodas. Then we rode Hwy 12 to 160 and home.
It was warm, the company was fantastic, and the ride took us on yet another precious outing with friends. See you all next weekend ...
