California road trip report

[Dietrich]

Last weekend Pennyrobber and I went over to the LA area to meet up with some other riders and do some southern California riding.

We had a great trip! It always amazes me how much ground you can cover with minimal plastic shielding and just two big pistons motoring you along at 90 MPH.

We left Phoenix around 1:00pm on Friday, made it to a friend's place in Pasadena by about 7:00pm. Had a great dinner thanks to our host, and got back on the bikes for a quick tour of a couple downtown LA dive bars.

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Next morning met up with some local riders including C Fresh who we used to ride with in Phoenix, but now lives in Hollywood. Had breakfast at an obvious biker staple, the Cactus Patch. Saturday was a cruise of backroad highways, and although maybe not according to plan, ended us up at one of the highlights of the trip for me, the town of Solvang, home of a really cool little motorcycle museum:


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The way home gained elevation on a road with endless fast sweepers, that then turned into a slightly foggy, cold DARK cloud. We pushed on, getting darker and colder, where we finally stopped to re-group, thaw out our fingers, gas up have some hot chocolat, etc. Then bombed back down I-5 to get everybody home.


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We had planned on heading back to Phoenix Sunday morning, but decided to get one more taste of Southern California before we left- a ride up Angeles Crest highway. Awesome, twisty, scenic road! Good food at Newcombs Ranch. The climb put us into some snow and ice, but a fine road.


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That only left one last leg of the trip, I-10 back to Phoenix. Unfortunately, I think my Ton-Up t-shirt jinxed me as we got pulled over about 100 miles to Blythe. The "priveledge tax" we got wasn't too painful.


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After that it was 90 MPH in the dark with strong crosswinds for a couple hundred miles all the way home. Sometimes you gotta pay to play.


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Until next time...

[Monster Dave]

Awesome Dietrich! Looks like your trip was a blast! Glad that you had a safe trip. [thumbsup]

[MonsterDuc]

whoa, I can't believe that museum had a Britten V1000!

It looks like you had a great ride. [thumbsup]

[AZ_FNDuc]

Nice pics guys!

[Red Baron]

All that and no stop at the Rockstore?

ACH is one sweet road.