What a great day for a ride. The temp was in the high 40s to low 50s under mostly overcast skies, though we did see some sunshine and even some fog along our route.
We had 30 bikes show up for this first ever New Year Kick Off ride. We split up into two smaller groups to make it easier to navigate through town and then we headed south on 680. The traffic was relatively light on 680 and we pretty much had our choice of lanes as we headed for Danville and the Sycamore Valley Rd exit. We turned east on Sycamore Valley and followed that to Highland Rd where we turned east. We turned onto Collier Canyon Rd and followed that south for a couple of miles before turning left onto Carneal Rd and then right again onto Manning Rd as we maneuvered our way along the base of the hills. Somewhere along here we found some sunlight, but it didn't last long. We zig-zaged a couple of more times before we emerged on Vasco Rd in Livermore. We turned north on Vasco Rd and headed up and over the hill past the windmills. It wasn't long before we found ourselves enveloped in fog, but the visibility wasn't too bad. We rode through the fog for a few miles and then descended the hill and broke out on the Byron side to see overcast skies again. The overcast stayed with us for the remainder of our ride and it was accompanied by a drop in temperature to around 40 degrees. We turned left onto Camino Diablo Rd, north onto Deer Valley Rd and then onto Lone Tree Way and into the parking lot at Sylvia's Country Kitchen.
As we pulled into the parking lot we noted that the parking lot was nearly full and the place was packed. We scattered to find parking and then made our way inside. We had called ahead but they still weren't ready for us. They did have a large party finishing up so we would have to wait for a few minutes. Nearly half the group decided not to wait and took off to find nourishment elsewhere. A few of the riders decided to eat at the counter and a couple of minutes later the remainder of the group was seated. We ate, we chatted, and then it was time to head for home.
This was another great day spent riding, eating, and chatting with friends. And on a first time event to boot. How could we possibly go wrong ...
