Saturday, November 22, 2008

November GAR Report - Farmington



The weather today was surprisingly mild for November with temperatures in the low to mid 60s and nothing but sunshine for our ride to Farmington.

We started gathering at the Devil Mountain shop at around 9:00 and were treated to coffee and breakfast goodies thanks to the crew at Devil Mtn. After our pre-ride brief we had 19 bikes lined up at the back driveway ready to ride. We got on Hwy 4 at Railroad and made our way east to the Hwy 4 bypass. The Hwy 4 bypass is now complete and we followed that onto Vasco Rd, down to Camino Diablo where we made a let turn towards Byron. We rode over to the Byron Hwy and turned south staying on Byron Hwy for about 9 miles before turning onto Bethany Rd. We zig-zagged our way over to Howard Rd which we followed all the way into French Camp for our scheduled stop at the 76 station.



After a short break we headed down French Camp Rd, turned left onto Jack Tone Rd, followed by a right turn onto Farmington Rd (Hwy 4) and over to Lagorio's Grill & Bar in Farmington.



We parked the bikes and headed for the grill in search of nourishment. The food here is good and not too expensive, but don't order the oysters! They're billed as "Eat at your own risk". Really ... on the back of their menu is a disclaimer to this effect and that if you choose to have the oysters you do so at your own risk. That being said, the rest of their food is good.

After eating we made our way back to the bikes and headed for home. We followed Hwy 4 back across the delta and home. Another great day spent riding, eating, and chatting with friends. I think I'll do it again tomorrow. Hope to see YOU there.

One last note. We would like to extend our thoughts and prayers to Larry Manzano's family. He will be missed.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Scharffen Berger Chocolate Factory Ride Report

Well, we did it again. We found some of the nicest people to go riding with. And on such a nice day too!

We started out at McGuire's, where we counted 33 bikes in the parking lot. It turned out that some of those bikes were not there for our ride, so we actually wound up with around 28 bikes. After our pre-ride briefing we staged in two groups on Pine St and then made our way through town, heading over to Civic, up to Oak Park, then zig zagged our way through Pleasant Hill emerging on Reliez Valley Rd. We followed Reliez, which turned into Alhambra Valley Rd, cut over to San Pablo Dam Rd at Castro Ranch Rd, and followed San Pablo down to Hwy 24. We jumped on 24 heading west and took the Fish Ranch Rd exit heading north. Then onto Grizzly Peak Blvd, Shasta Rd, Wildcat Canyon Rd, Central Park Dr and Euclid Ave down to Cedar St in Berkley. Somewhere around Shasta Rd we made an impromptu stop, but not till we'd taken a tour through a parking lot where we amazed a couple of unsuspecting tourists and their young child as we all turned around and headed back out. We eventually found an appropriate place to pull over for a couple of minutes to kill some time. Turns out we were making good time and would arrive in Berkley too early for the tour. After folks used the facilities, and we'd killed enough time, we continued on our way, descending the hill into Berkley and onto Cedar. We turned onto 6th and followed that for about a mile before turning onto Heinz Ave and into the parking lot at the chocolate factory.

Several of the riders stayed for the tour, some opted to eat at the cafe there, while others opted to find nourishment elsewhere.

It was a beautiful day with clear skies, temperatures in the mid seventies, and some fantastic people. The scenery looking out over the San Francisco Bay as we rode along the ridge line was spectacular. It was so clear that we could see a blimp over the Golden Gate Bridge. Another great day spent with friends. I hope to do it again real soon.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Schultz Museum Ride Report





Well, if you listened to the weather man and stayed home today you missed out on a great ride. There were 5 bikes that showed up to brave the storm, rain gear ready, and we didn't even get wet! The closest we came was a few sprinkles as we rode through the Sonoma area.

We departed McGuire's and headed north on 680, over the Benicia bridge, across 780 and onto I-80. We took the Hwy 37 exit off of 80 and then turned north onto Hwy 29 through Vallejo and American Canyon {Hi Al!} From there we turned west onto Hwy 12 then onto Napa Rd to cut the corner over to Broadway and up into Sonoma. So far the roads were relatively dry with a few areas of wet pavement and small puddles. Just enough to get the bike dirty so your friends would know that you went riding. We tuned left on Napa followed by a right onto the Sonoma Hwy up into Santa Rosa. When we got to Santa Rosa we turned off of the Sonoma Hwy onto Calistoga Rd followed by a left onto Montecito and a right onto Fountain Grove, which we followed all the way to Hwy 101. From there it was a short ride down 101 south to the Steele Ln exit and over to the museum. The traffic was light and the weather good for the entire trip with temps in the low to mid 60s under partly sunny skies.



It was warm enough in Santa Rosa that we peeled off some layers before heading inside the museum. We took our time going through the museum, reading the numerous comic strips on display and taking in some of the various displays. One of the items on display was a German WWII helmet the Schultz had brought back from the European Campaign. Yet another reminder of what others have done so that we all may enjoy our freedom.

Now it was time to eat. We made our way over to the cafe and ordered. The cafe was your typical arcade type cafe with hot dogs, nachos, fries, etc. on the menu. After what seemed like hours, we got our food. It was OK, but nothing worth going out of your way for.

After we ate we walked through the gift shop and checked out the wall, which was a huge mural with all the peanuts characters, and collected our free gift. Yes, we got a free gift, a small pin with a peanuts character on it. It turned out to be very appropriate too as it has Snoopy riding on a bike (ok, it's a bicycle, but we can pretend it's a motorcycle). We call them our ride pins ;?)

Then it was time to head for home. We rode down 101 to the Lakeville Hwy, to 37, 780, 680 and home. The weather was still cooperating for our ride home. The temps were in the upper 60s with partly cloudy skies.

A beautiful day for a ride, and another great day spent with friends.