Monday, May 25, 2009

A reunion for people who have never met each other

One of the regular features on the BikeJournal.com is a thing called the reunion. Basically, it gives the folks who post on the forum there a chance to get together and meet each other.
This year, it was hosted by my friend Bernie Barge. We had it as part of the Great Western Bike Rally in Paso Robles, Ca
I drove up to "paso" on Friday. The event is held at the mid state Fair grounds. I dod nit bother to check and see where we were supposed to set up camp, and I did not find any obvious sings of Bike journal, so i went ahead and set camp and took a walk around the fair grounds:


I eventually found everybody and we had supper:

The next morning, the local lions club was having a pancake breakfast. one of the more colorful "characters" on bikeJournal is Pansy Palmetto. she decided to have breakfast in her PJs:

We all met at 9 for tour of Paso Robles and country hosted by Bernie.Pansy decide to do the ride a Tutu:

One of the problems was that most of us were not famalar with the Area, so we sepnt a lot of time waiting around:


At one of the Stops, a Ferrari pulled up and came to a stop. And then another Ferrari, and another. We think it was a car club on a run

Here's Bernie (aka Homey)(in Red, white and blue) and Mike(ZenLC) and Tiffany:

and Steve may:

and Pansy in Full tutu:

The group getting ready to leave:

and we finally made it back into town:

We had very late lunch at a Pizza joint, followed by some more socializing. We were goig to have a barbque at Bernie's "ranchette" at 5, it was was 3:30 and I had not had a shower for the day. I was going to ,until I saw the line. Everyone said I smelled fine, but behind my back?
I had agreed to carpool Nancy and Randy (Pansy and Mr. Pansy) to the ranch. I had to stop for gas, and we ran into another car club, this one for antique Cadillacs (sorry, my Camera malfunctioned)
Bernie place is bit like a Jeff Foxworthy joke. It's 20 miles out of towm, and you get there going down a dirt road. We arrived , and he was busy fixing Lamb. why Lamb? His family raises lambs:

Bernie, Tiffany, Mike, and Michelle (Bernie's sister):

The view from the front porch:

After supper, but before sunset, we walked up to the top of the ridge:


we had cake before heading home (and I had moved my tent to the correct place

I was going to a century Sunday morning, but I had the flu earlier that week ,and was still doing some coughing. Several folks had decided to drive over to Cambria an ride up the coast to ragged point and back. This is real treat as this is where the Hearst Castle is. Even Better than that is that William Randolph Hearst built up a 250,000 acre ranch, which is still owned by the Hearst Company. This means a 20 mile ride along the coast, with almost no development until you get to Ragged Point.
we did stop for coffee before hand

This is Brian (BDSDVM) and Jamie (BiffDaddy) from Arizona. it was about 40 degrees:

Ragged Point is a 4 star resort that sits on top of a cliff. The coast highway does a have a nice steep climb up, which had me worried, as I had never done anything that steep on my recumbent. I had some of what is called "recumbutt" (sore muscles you know where), and pulled over in a abandoned motel (apparently , Willie wasn't able to get his hands on everything) and waited it out. I made it up to the inn, but Robert Baldino ("Roborider") beat me there. we sat around and had some more coffee , and waited for everyone else to show up:

Thom, Nancy, Steve, Jamie, Robert, Brian, Randy, Veronica and myself:
The fog still hadn't bruned off, but we had a nice wind to out backs on the return trip. I took a photo of some off shore rocks:

The Piedras Blancas light house:

and the Elephant seal area:

Coming back into the town of San Simeon. I ran across Bernie and his group. He wanted me to go into Cambria and reserve a table for 10 at Barbecue plcae. I found the place, and found out that the did not take reservation, or plastic money, which was a problem, as I had only brought along $10, and between the coffee and a set of Earring I bought at Ragged Point, I had spent it. Thankfully, there was a Quickie mart with an ATM next door
I had a Tri tip sandwich and about a week's worth of fries Bernie had recommended I try the fries.

Several groups split up after lunch. I was feeling good enough to ride back to Paso, But I still had my car at the beach. My initial plan was to ride dwon to Cayucos and back. The sun had came out, but so had the wind, so that the 30 mile trip would take me about 3-4 hours.
We had all kidded Bernie about of his routes, since it had several section of 20 % grade. Most of the riders played it safe and went back on highway 46 (only 6%), but Bernie convinced me to ride with group until it go to steep for me to ride. It was worth it for the views:



While I didn't make it as far as Bernie thought I should have , I enjoyed it. I took a Photo of Downtown Cambira on the way back:

and finally made the Coast:

I then drove back up Santa Rosa creek road. I would say not being able to see the road out of the car qualifies as steep! I did run into Bernie, Glenn (GW_12)< Michelle, and Brian one one of the steeper sections and home:

at 4:30 Pm, I finally made to the showers. The rally folks had promised a catered Barbecue dinner. It turns there I idea of Catering was thet provided the wood , and you cooked you own meat! we went for Pizza again.
Some folks were going to ride today, but I decided to get an early start to see tif could avoid any traffic Jams. Made it home about noon.

No comments: