July 06
Welcome back!
Haven't made notes in awhile, let's see if I can catch up. Spring has given way to summer, the mild temperatures being beat out by blazing sun. One thing I do love about summer here are the thunderstorms-had another last night and it was spectacular. Learned a hard lesson from a friend-unplug your computer when there is a thunderstorm! He'd only had it a month and it got fried.

I've been riding as much as possible, even to work and back in the rain. After it cost $50 to fill up my truck I decided a little moisture wouldn't keep me off two wheels.

Best ride so far: Friends were going to S. Dakota for a couple of weeks via Canada so I rode with them north thru Idaho to the border. Beautiful day, beautiful ride. They strictly adhere to the speed limit so for me it was a mellow, kicked back cruise. We took some of the smaller highways through Idaho and saw some tiny little towns I'd only barely heard of. Did pass thru Bonner's Ferry and Sandpoint which are a little "Californified" for me. When we reached the U.S./Canada border, we paused, wished each other safe trips and parted ways. With a devilish grin I stomped on the gasand headed south. Spent most of the next hour or so in the tripledigit MPH carving corners and dancing on my toes. Did have a bit of a scare once: I was hurriedly passing a group of cars because another group of cars were approaching in the other lane. I hastily dipped around them (105-115 mph I think?) but as the oncoming traffic went by, my radar detector exploded with a K-band alarm! My heart sank as I waved to the rear view mirror and flashed my brake lights. Yes, I did slow down, even pulled into a driveway a mile or two down but he (or she) never turned around. Guess I got a free pass on that one. A fellow biker perhaps? One can only speculate, either way I felt lucky. I kept the speed down to less than double the speed limit the rest of the way home.

Best ride coming up: Going back to Cali! Mid-August will see me spending a weekend in Manzanita, OR (on the coast) then south via hwy 1/101 into N. Cal where I plan to cut over on hwy 299 (great twisties!) which is south of the Redwood Nat'l Forest to hwy 395. I've heard 395 is a great road and I look forward to the mountains and scenery of the Sierra Nevadas. From there I'll head down to L.A. and San Diego. What I'm not really looking for, and hope I dont' see much of, is the scorching heat of the desert in August. I'm hoping the higher elevations of the mountains will provide some relief from that.