13 August 2011 - Mother Lode Ride

13 August 2011 - Mother Lode Ride
Northern California

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Stan leads a Mother Lode Ride. But more importantly his wife JoAnn prepares a great pre-ride brunch. Lots of good stuff.
A 1985 Moto Guzzi California

Lots of bikes today

Some brunch items that managed to get left over

Pdub is trying to get the left overs to take home :-)


Stan getting ready to Ride

But we still are waiting for Tom


Last one up though is me. photo by JoAnn


Ready. photo by JoAnn


Stan added this photo of the rattle snake that he killed last week in his patio

We ride around Hogan Reservoir then over toward San Andreas to Copperopolis.
Our first rest stop after riding Pool Station Road is in the new section of Copperopolis at the Shell Station

From Copperopolis we ride Obyrne's Ferry Road to Hwy 108 to Columbia where we pick up Jess and Eric.
Eric, Jess at the left

Taking a break

A minor problem a broken clutch cable on the Goose


Jess' tricked out Bonneville

Leaving Columbia headed to lunch in Murphys

Heading out

Leaving town

The Tuolumne River


Pdub hot dogging

Downtown Murphys is crowded with tourists but somehow our arrival is timed as two cars leave us with space to park right in front of Firewood where we will be having lunch.


Entrance to Firewood

The menu

You order and pay first at the counter


Wood fired brick oven for the pizzas

A lot of riders skip lunch

We are at a table in the loft


The mushroom, bacon, Swiss cheeseburger


Shrimp pizza

Pepperoni and sausage pizza


Oops. Pdub says it's hot


Me sitting in the sun

Jack and Ron hook up for the Ride in Murphys

I am really tired so I head back to Stockton. There is still half of the Ride to go.

Here is what happened after I left folks. Written by Stan our intrepid Ride Leader:

Don,

You missed some of the additional excitement.

We stopped for gas in San Andreas and Jesse departed, Mark and Diana decided to head for Lake Comanche to do some boating, and I'm not sure who all was with us and left from there.

With members joining and leaving by the time we got to Mokelumne Hill it was down to Paul, Tom, Al, Joel and myself.

Paul decided to head for home, so 4 of us turned onto Hwy 26.

About 12 miles into that part of the ride Joel developed a flat tire. By now it was around 3:30, so I headed for home to get my truck and trailer and Al headed for Jackson to see if he could find an inner tube and Tom stayed with Joel to keep him company. Al was unsuccessful, so we loaded the bike up and headed for my place. Al and Joel spent the night at my place and since no place that we knew of that sold motorcycle tubes was open today Joel left his Kawi in my garage and headed home on my Valkyrie. He'll be back with a tube next weekend.

JoAnn took a couple of pictures at our place and I added the picture of the rattlesnake that I told you we killed on the patio last Wednesday, just to let you know what you missed.

Overall it seemed like a fun ride, even with the mechanical problems. With members joining and leaving, some having lunch, while others opted to wander around or check out the hotel bar, I was never sure just how many we had with us, so hopefully no one is still wandering around in the foothills wondering where we went.

Stan

Hmm. It was a good Ride but it is a good thing I left the Ride when I did or else I might still be riding in the foothills. :-)

Again, thank JoAnn for a great breakfast. This club really eats good. :-)


~end
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16 July 2011 - Dinucci's

16 July 2011 - Dinucci's
Valley Ford, CA

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Today we are meeting at the Jelly Belly Factory for a Ride out to Valley Ford and Dinucci's for lunch. Then over to Bodega Bay an a ride up the coast to the Russian River. From there we head back home over Hwy 116 to Hwy 12.
KC surprises us by showing up for the Ride. He had just suffered a heart attack only 10 days ago.

Stan, Dave {a new member}, Jazzhound from VROC and Frank a guest.

At 1009 one minute before KSU there were just 8 bikes ready to leave. Five more bikes arrived in that last minute. Which made for a very ugly start to the Ride. Please be at the start well before KSU.

We get to the gas stop and break at Petaluma. We had guests that were not aware of this only gas stop. That messed up the timing something awful.
Cranky joins up at Petaluma as well as three others including WWW or dub 3


We actually split into two groups thinking that the restaurant may not be able to handle the 17 of us on the Ride.
Here at Dinucci's is KC's group who took off first from Petaluma

Then as I approach Dinucci's with the second group I notice that the parking lot has nothing but our bikes in it so I pull off into the parking lot. Sonoma Joe goes in to check and see if the place can handle the 17 of us.

Here's Nite Lite one of my trusted sweep riders who happens to live in Petaluma


A couple of Contra Costa riders and we also had a third, a long time member from Pittsburg going back to 2003 who made his first Ride with us, but headed back home after reaching the restaurant.

Bigg Twin on the right


Some photos from lunch.




And the Menu

The food was good. A lot of Fish and Chips, Ground Sirloin and Oysters. Cranky had the Soup and Salad, KC had the Raviolis and I had the Eggplant Parmigiana.
Fish and Chips

A bunch of Ground Sirloin

After lunch I changed the Ride deciding to skip Coleman Valley Road and heading along Hwy 1 to Bodega Bay and then riding the River Road Hwy 116 all the way back to Santa Rosa.


A few of the Riders left after Lunch but there were still 14 bikes that made it to the western out skirts of Santa Rosa. At that time just five of us continued down Hwy 12 through the Valley of the Moon and back home.

It was getting warm after the low 60 temps of the early part of the Ride so at Oakmont just east of Santa Rosa we stopped to shed some clothes.
I think that Jess is smiling because of where one rider is relieving himself.


~end
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