Bub's ready to go! AND on his bike the RIGHT way!
More of the friendly folk from 345. Gregg below.
I emailed Gregg from our Chapter 230 OC (above, left) to see if he wanted to go and he did meet us at the 76 station in Norco. Man, that club has a ton of riders! But all extremely friendly and great to be with!
Yes, it looks like I'm going to ride my bike the wrong way-hadn't had my morning pick-me-up of Emergen-C or Zenergy, so I'm really lucky I even made it to the staging area in one piece!Bub and I wore our jackets and leathers but took 'em off and stored 'em. I LOVE that tank bag! That thing expands for my jacket, my purse, and little gifties I happen to buy, my makeup bag...although I was eyeing one of those leather 'tool bags' that go onto the handlebars on the inside of the windshield, and thought that one of those would be PERFECT for makeup. I know, it's a chick thing, but if I can modify or alter traditional bike gear to be more suited for me and what I need, I will! & below, ok, ok, I'll get on it the right way-PURISTS.
After a quick meeting and safety briefing we broke up into 4 groups (with 55 riders and about, what, 45 bikes or so) and took off about 8:55 AM. The route was the 15 to the 91/215 to the 10 then off at University Ave. to Hwy 38 and up the back way. We were going to come back down the same way, thank God. More to come on THAT.It took about, oh, 2 hours from the 76 station to the parking area due to hwy 38's semi-twistyness and some town speed limits that were REALLY slow. I noticed a few riders' rear ends and legs coming out of the saddle. (wait a sec, that REALLY didn't come out right. Ok, some people were stretching their legs and standing up in the saddle. Does that sound better, vs it sounding like body parts were being strewn all over the place?!)
BTW, Chrome Stop on Big Bear Blvd is STILL THERE! Pop in and say hi! The proprietor used to be a regional salesperson for Kuryakin.
We parking in the public parking area with PLENTY of room for all bikes and meandered over to the Teddy Bear Restaurant. Mark was letting us in to the restaurant about 8-10 at a time, everyone in line, staggered formation, 2 seconds behind....oopsie, still thinking about riding...all very queued up properly and politely. Right. This IS Chapter 345 Riverside I'm talking about, YES???!!
Below is Bub and I, & Gregg at the table at the restaurant.
I had gone online and checked out the restaurant (you know me!) to see what their specialities were, found out they give you a mess o'food and the chicken pot pie was well thought of. WELL THOUGHT OF??!! That sucker was HUGE! And I swear they put in a whole chicken breast into that. Much as I hate to leave food, I couldn't eat anymore and left half of the pastry. Bub had the biggest ham steak he's ever seen. Above are our other 3 tablemates Dan, Thom and Diane from 345. Thom and Diane shared a HUGE club sandwich.
Got done with food about noon-ish and got to shop and do stuff until 'kickstands' up at 2 PM.
I swear, for such a touristy-type area, they did NOT have any Big Bear pins or patches! What kind of a place is this that doesn't have PINS??? Sheesh!!
NOW, for the ride back:
Hadn't seen hair nor hide of any rain or anything yet, so thought to myself, damn, I brought the jacket and leathers for nothing. Luckily we took the same route back. Hwy 38 is very nice, very pretty, very EASY curvess, which came in handy since MOST of the curves were WET.
Halfway down the mountain, it started raining, and THEN HAILING. Big chunks (by big I mean about pea-sized) that STUNG coldly when they hit my shirt, even though it was long-sleeved. I was 30 SECONDS AWAY from 'tapping out' and putting on my jacket, and I felt badly for Barry because he was wearing his 1/2 'brain bucket' helmet so the hail was not only hitting his face but hitting his forehead and the water was running down into his eyes, even though he was wearing those special glasses/goggles I got for him that go over his regular glasses. Remember that, folks. If the forecast calls for rain, you just MIGHT be better off wearing a full facer. The hail/rain was so heavy that the water from my jeans went into my boots, our jeans and shirts were practically soaked, BUT by the time we came down into Mentone and then to the freeway, the weather had changed from bordering on cold to hotter'n hell-it was like somebody turned on an oven. Whoa. I thought the weather change from the 230 ride the previous weekend was bad? This was unbelieveable! The shirts were DRY when we hit the freeway, and the jeans were dry about 20 minutes in to the freeway. My boots still stayed kinda wet, though.
All in all, except for the brief stint of hail, a very pleasant and (thankfully) un-drama-ish ride.
I believe their next ride will be to San Diego.
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