It made a great ending to a really great ride, and now that I see what they have (even though I might not UNDERSTAND what the hell it's for!) I can get it locally here and support a great motorcycle business. It's going to be really tough to get EVERYTHING onto this blog, but I'm going to try my darndest. 
Dan was kinda bummed because his Yamaha wouldn't start, so it was great that Jerry and Patty could make it to be Ride Captains. It was a great ride, even though I was really nervous because Glen or Gary had to watch my riding skills, so I was in Group 1 with Terry and Glen & Don were right behind me. 
I was stiff and as I said nervous (maybe because Glen said he was going to 'sledgehammer critique me'!), but after breakfast I figured 'what the hell' and just rode my usual way. It worked, I guess. Glen said afterward at No Pork that I did fine, that I did well in the curves, and I told him that Bub and I LIKE curves & turns, lots of 'em. It's like a bit of a game with myself-can I safely and totally in control take the curve without braking? Yes, and it's called downshifting, plus gauging the turn, looking where I want to go, and trying to do 'late apex' turns. Sometimes it was hard because the freakin' curve didn't STOP CURVING when you think it would, so you ended up closer to the center line than you wanted and have to correct out, then in again. Oh, well.Took a ton of pictures, a few videos, you'll get the idea.
Below, Pete's getting his bike ready. He said it's weird being in the first group, first to get to the restaurant, first to get gas, first to stop anywhere...Saturday morning was beautiful, didn't even really need the jacket WITH the turtleneck, either one or the other would've been good, but you never know and Dan warned us that there would be temp changes. (there were, just not too wild) Met up at Starbucks, had an instructional demo regarding left rear fills, right rear fills, left front fills, right front fills. (I have some video, so maybe I'll put that into a separate blog) Below is a really neat Raider (at least I THINK it's a
Raider, looks a bit like the type I rode at STARBQ last March when I got the ride of my life), very futuristic, check out the rear sissy bar. Had a phat tire on it too, really bitchn'. Not sure whose it was, thinking it mighta been Ed's. (I just had a thought, I'd better take my laptop along to STARBQ in Vegas next March, so I can upload the daily pics and put them on the blog. I'm gonna need a TON of memory for that sucker. Maybe break it up into each day. See, I'm always thinking ahead, planning ahead, we've gotten our reservations already and I'm planning the route. We're going up on Thursday late morning just to get the lay of the land and go up before all the vacationers and stuff go up, so if anyone wants to 'tool' on up with us, you're more than welcome to bee-bop with us, yours truly will be leading as usual...oopsie, must check, is that by ANY CHANCE EASTER WEEK????? Nope, Easter is April 12th. Whew!) 
We had 20 bikes and about 25 people total going, a very nice manageable number. Left around 9 ish, took the 57 north to the 10 east, got to the Farmhouse around 10:15 or so, that place for breakfast is AMAZING. Their gravy is awesome (yeah, I know, I gotta go to EmmaJeans and
compare; sure, sometime I'll go, when I get some time, say, oh, 2011) and the portions are huge.
Unfortunately I lost a lot of what appetite I originally had by taking a pic of Dave and Ed, see above right. 
Barry had a ham steak that filled up a whole plate. Good wholesome food and great service. To the right is "The Breakfast 230 Club"; above left, Rick and Tom gave it a pointed finger / show the menu rating. To the right are two new riders that went with the group-Alura and Martin Mayhead. Great place. Prices not bad either-my chicken fried steak and eggs with gravy was 10.99 and Barry's hamsteak and eggs was 11.99. Coffee was 1.99. And they had the GOOD creamers, you know the International Coffee ones that are hazelnut and french vanilla flavored. 
Below left, the perfect pair-Don and The Flag. 
Below right, table two, your breakfast is ready! When we left the Farmhouse it was getting warmer so I took off my turtle neck but left my jacket on. WRONG. When we went thru Palm Springs or wherever we went thru, it was hot. Not THAT hot, like not in the 90's, but in the 80's.Continued on the I-10 east, then south to the "Palms To Pines" route 74, passing what seemed to be 5 MILLION GOLF COURSES, then through to the scenic point partway to the Idlyllwild area which I BELIEVE was Pinyon Pines. Not sure, must check.
There were these folks visiting from the Phillipines. They wanted pictures of Don Thomas posing
with one or two of them (see the left, Don is SUCH a poser), and pics of me. Well, you know me...the first thing I did was put my vest on one of the ladies that wanted a pic with me, then they all wanted to get in on it! 
The next thing was I put them on my bike with the vest on. I think we made their day, really and truly. (see close left) I did take off my leather jacket and that was a good thing, because when we did come down out of the mountains from Idlyllwild onto Cajalco Road it got hotter. Below 
is Stan the Man, yours truly (the only picture of me on this blog, thank goodness) and Ken Indorf at the vista point. Also to the right is a beautiful line of 
GROUP ONE bikes...nice park job except for yours truly parking off to the side away from the group, which still worked out ok because of the photo ops with the visitors from another country. I only wished I had charged $5 each! (Just kidding, I did this 'photos on the motorcycle' stuff last weekend for Goodwill, remember?)One of the funniest things I thought of was when we left the scenic area, we got behind a SmartCar. Well, actually, RICK got behind the SmartCar. Now he knows how it feels to be BEHIND one of those roller skates! Beep, beep! I swear, I bet my 650 could eat one of those things, or at least use it as a hood ornament.
The curves going to and from Idlyllwild were nice. Got a little cold up there, wasn't too bad. The scenery was beautiful in spots, with the trees changing into all sorts of colors and leaves dancing across the road when our bikes went by, very peaceful. I love the pine smell.
That's one of the nice things about cruisers...we just CRUISE, don't go all out b**ls to the wall nutso, just kick back and ENJOY. Enjoy the nature, enjoy our fellow riders with us, enjoy ourselves merged with our bikes. Ok, enough metalphysical stuff.Glen was helping a lady put air in her tires when we got gas in Hemet-his better side
is in the righthand photo. On the left, ok he did good. He made nice.He was also the one 'watching' me, watching and assessing my riding skills (along with Don Thomas). Talk about freakin' nervous-I felt like I couldn't even come to a bloomin' stop nicely, much less ride. After breakfast, though, I thought to myself, "Screw it, I'll just ride the way I always ride and if it's not up to snuff, then I can try to get better."
After coming
out of the mountains we were on Cajalco Road where Rick got his very first road pylon! He shoots, he SCORES! Stuff like THAT I wish I had a handlebar mounted camera so I can catch all the wonderfullness of riding with this group!The ride was called at No Pork and Terry handed us each a "No Pork" pin for our vests. Yeah, BABY, another pin for the flak jacket I call a club vest! That thing is starting to get UBER heavy. I wonder how Bob Barbano does it, with all HIS pins? Maybe has two vests? One with all the metal and one for riding? I just thought of something-some of these members who've been around for years had BETTER watch their jackets-the jackets might get ripped of for the metal!
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To the above right at No Pork, Glen's Harley had a TON of admiring people around it. Including himself. The BBQ was really great and 20 percent off of everything. I'm going to order Barry a new front tire (Bridgestone, of course) and it's great that they have those pin backs. 
Below, Mark Murray hogging the mic AS USUAL. (like he really needs it) Barry won a 2X size Yamaha (I think it was Yamaha, might've been No Pork) T-shirt that we're going to give to some worthy soul. (I just gotta figure out how to put some 'abuse' into that shirt-perhaps itching powder or sulphur smell)
Check out Dave's shoes above by the 'Flamer''s bike-are those motorcycle boots or spats, dude??
I have a wish list, a totally unrealistic wish list, but if we ever win the lottery, I'm going for it: a camera 'holder' for my handlebars that has a longish 'handle' to click the pic; a cupholder like the one to the right; a helmetcam; bluetooth earpieces for an mp3 for music; etc, etc, etc. I'd love to take pics of everybody taking the curves so beautifully, and usually the scenery is gorgeous as well. I don't have the luxury of having anyone riding behind me who can do that, maybe I'll have to ride behind on a bike to take pics....NAW, we know THAT ain't happenin'.
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