Half & Half - Thank You

The Group - 1 and All
Photo courtesy of a stranger intent
upon making us laugh.
Kneeling from left: Vicki and Bev
Standing from left: Kevin, Jerry, Steve
Mary, Bill, Jane, Andy, and Tim

I don’t mind riding solo. In fact, there are times when I prefer it for the sense of solitude and personal adventure. But riding with friends is great fun and I don’t think I could get too much of it for myself. I guess the bottom line is that I like to ride. With a group of friends there is a sense of purpose for the day, interesting destinations, thoughtful planning by the ride leader, new friends, rekindled friendships, and a mindset of the group to have a good ride for all. The cohesion of riders with differing skill sets and preferences into a finely tuned formation is a thrill. Almost always, the folks I ride with are consummate practitioners of the art of the group ride and yesterday’s Cambria bunch excelled.

My ride day was Half & Half. The cream of my day was joining up with a bunch of Southern California Victory riders on their outbound ride to Cambria for the weekend. I mixed that in with a solo homebound ride from Buellton where my friends headed north and I south. It was the best of both with the minor exception of drudge riding in heavy traffic through Santa Barbara’s afternoon commute then along the eastbound Hwy 118.

Our first meet point was at Kanan Road in Agora near the old central office from my early AT&T days, an hour’s warmup ride for me from home. Ride leader Tim  on his Enterprise Vision with his wife Bev on her Victory Vegas arrived just ahead of me and we fueled up and caught up as we awaited the others. We were soon joined by Andy and Jane, our two-up couple, on their red Vision. Steve pulled in right behind them on his Vision. Vicki rolled in on her Honda F6B just at KSU time. It was a gathering of riders from all over with warm greetings and a shared anticipation of the ride ahead. The casual formation of our order belied the vigilance each of us rides with, a must ingredient for a well-ridden event.

We snuck up on Fillmore by cutting through canyons and using back roads, twisting and turning, bobbing and weaving to meet up with Bill on his Harley Screaming Eagle Road King and Mary on her silver Can-Am Spider. Our group was complete, or so we thought. Kevin joined us after lunch riding his Vision bringing the total number of Visions to four. This is the first Victory group ride that I can remember while being the only Cross Country rider.

Video, pulling out of Fillmore meet spot:  

Fillmore Orange Orchards and Hills

Out of the curve and
into the hills

I had the pleasure to follow Andy and Jane throughout our ride out of Fillmore, up the mountain to Ojai and back down to skirt around Santa Barbara on backroads until we hit State Highway 154 to ride by Lake Cachuma through the Santa Ynez Mountains and to drop down on Stagecoach Road for lunch at Cold Spring Tavern. Two-up riding such as Andy and Jane were doing requires a breadth of styles, particularly on a route picked by our intrepid leader. Our couple demonstrated them all with grace and agility. They waltzed through the sweeping canyon turns and then picked up a hot rumba when we got into tight twisties. I loved following their line, it was impeccable and never varied from a line I would have picked for myself. All this time I had Mary riding her Spider on my six and I could only observe her in my mirrors. It’s not the best way to see someone’s style but I had enough to get a sense of her intensity through the canyons. She too held a great line; this on the three-wheeled Spider while staying in on the bars and riding ahead of the curve. Her joy of riding was evident in her posture and was contagious. These people make me smile.

Cold Spring Tavern was set up as a stagecoach stop in 1865 as a relay station for changing horses and allowing travelers food and rest and while we didn’t change horses we got our food and rest. The place has the old style charm and provided us with the opportunity to talk over the road behind and the adventure laying ahead of us. I learned a lesson there. I need to insert myself into the middle of the table rather than take a seat at either end if I want to have material for posts from/for the whole group. Live and learn.

Video leaving Cold Spring Tavern: 

Kevin joined us as we exited the tavern right after lunch; he had gotten there just after we’d squeezed into our table for nine back in the corner. He was a pleasant addition to the group and I look forward to really riding with him some day. Getting out of the gravel parking area was a pain but we all got out and on to the road down to Buellton for a fuel stop and goodbyes for me. The prevailing thought was that I’d miss the rain while the others would get a little wet. The guy at the gas station that made this same observation to me was proved wrong and five minutes into my run south I pulled over at the Gaviota rest stop and put on my rain gear.

My ride home can best be summed up with my Facebook post, a formula:

Formula: Rain suit + cessation of precipitation that caused donning of said rain suit + Santa Barbara stop and go traffic + rise in temperature to mid-seventies = inadvertent continuation of unintended weight loss program.

Show above formula as (*) and secondary formula is thus: (*) + reaching Summerland + returning to acceptable freeway speeds = swamp cooler chill and aaaaah nice.

Video - Rainy Highway 101 Ride:

All in all I have to say that Half & Half is better than staying at home but not as nice as the cream of the whole ride.

Keep the iron side up, ride with people you love, love the people you ride with, even when you ride alone – life’s too short to do it any other way. Peace

jerry
Ride date: 4/22/2016