Corners!

Well, my buddy Susanna was finally able to mark off an item on her task list.  She got her R1.... congrats, Susanna!  She picked it up on Friday so we made impromptu plans to meet up at Ortega (again) on Saturday so she could break it in. 

I happened to mention this to Kitty from SoCalRiders and at 1am the day of the ride she says she might be able to make the ride with us (depending on mechanical difficulties).   So I dutifully get up at early on a Saturday (despite margaritas on Friday) and get ready to ride.   I got a bit of a late start on the road but made up for it in on the ridiculously fast highways that are abundant in California.  As I get to my turnoff  I accidentally turn the wrong way and I see another motorcycle at the gas station.  A silver falco... with a girl... with blonde hair... this is too much of a coincidence AND I realize I'm going the wrong direction so I turn around to see if it's Kitty.  It IS!   So we introduce ourselves and then discuss the little leak she has on her beautiful bike; decide it's ok to ride and off we go.

Up to the top of Ortega with Kitty in the lead.  What a FUN road this is... Kitty is fast and knows the roads well so I was quite pleased to have a person who knows all the good roads to show me around.  I kept catching myself grinning in my helmet as the day shapes up - looking forward to the ride ahead.

When we get to Ortega Lookout, we rest and wait for Susanna.  Everyone seems to know Kitty and soon her friend Michelle stops by.  Michelle is on a sweet Gixxer and we mutually admire the other's bike.     Another female rider stops over and introduces herself (Nancy).  We all chat for a bit while we anxiously await the arrival of Susanna and her new baby.

Susanna arrives but you wouldn't know it except by the pink of her leathers.  The R1 is fab and silver but very very very quiet (you gotta get a pipe, girl!).   I make introductions and we pull out maps to figure out where to go.  I had heard about Palomar and Telegraph... and since I had passed the exit for Palomar on the way to Ortega I knew it was close.  Kitty said she'd play tour guide so off we went (with a quick detour for some grub)!

Susanna was hungry and we were told of a taco stand right before you get to Palomar so we stopped there to chow down on some mexican food.  MM mm.   Nice spot AND as I was taking pictures of Kitty and Susanna - a nice Harley guy offered to take one of the three of us -- you don't find that every day, huh?  (Harleys here even wave to you when passing - unlike in NY where you get the one finger salute)

After fish tacos, we went up Palomar Mountain.  And what a road!  We went up the "tight side" and down the "fast side"... the tight side is all these little turns that zig zag all over the place.  I LOVE this road.  But I've heard lots of things about people who pass on the double yellow or go into the oncoming lane so I thought it was best to go a bit slower than I wanted -- JUST IN CASE.

Despite the beautiful sunny day there were surprisingly few bikes on Palomar.  From what I'd heard Palomar was crawling with motorcycles but we saw less than 30.  Lucky us - we had it all to ourselves with nary a squid in sight.

At the top of Palomar was snow!  Who would have thought that there would be snow in Southern California!   So, of course, we had to take pictures with snow in the background to send back to everyone out East.  Especially since the last time we went riding we took pictures at the beach!   It's good stuff out here I tell ya!

Someone had given me a link to a map of good roads in Southern California. Which I was constantly pulling out to learn where I was and where I wanted to be.  After some consultation we chose our route.

We went down the mountain and decided to take Highland Valley which was probably my favorite road of the entire day.  Very little of the limited sight distance stuff that we were dealing with during most of the day.  So I felt a little better about pushing it... but you know what the say - never get too comfy!  And, sure enough, I was going into a tight tight turn and really needed to go over that double yellow when what comes over the crest of the hill?  A bread truck!  Ack!  Of course I wasn't going so fast I couldn't stop.  So I just hit the brakes and stayed in my lane.  This is why I always make sure I'm not going so fast I can't stop in an unexpected situations. 

At the end of Highland, Susanna parted ways with us and Kitty took me on some "back roads" to get back to Hwy 5 - she mentioned something about an Elfin Forrest but I didn't see any elves or small houses -- so who knows.  After that we ended up on more "back roads" which were actually in La Costa home of that nice La Costa golf course. 

All in all it was an awesome day -- 9 hours on my trusty steed... I don't know how many miles we did but I filled up 5 times - so you do the math.  Oh, yeah, we went on some other awesome road - Grand Mesa or Mesa Grande or something with Mesa (all the roads sound alike to me).  I'll post maps if I find them.

It was a damn good day.   Can't wait to do it again!  :-)

Ride Hard & Take chances every chance you get...

Dianna

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