Well, we saw it all today. It started off with temps near 80 degrees and nary a cloud in the sky in Antioch as we headed to Walnut Creek for the ride. As we rode through the Bay Point area the wind became fierce, making me work to keep my Sportster in the lane as it was blown around in the wind. Normally the leaves on the trees along the road in this area are rustling in the wind, but today they were bowed over straining to remain rooted in the strong wind. As we neared Concord we went under the cloud cover and the temperature dropped significantly as we approached McGuire's. So much so that everyone was breaking out the jackets after parking at the dealership. But our members were undaunted by the weather, and there were 29 bikes ready to ride to Alice's.
We departed the dealership and made our way to I-680. As we rode south on 680 we had a couple of bikes pull off the road. As is our practice, the sweeps pulled off with them to see what the problem was and lend assistance. The rest of the group slowed down to give them a chance to catch up, but still no sign of them. We took the Pleasanton/Sunol Blvd. exit and found a place to pull the group over and wait to see what the problem was. Eventually the sweeps rode up and said we were good to go, so we continued on. I never did hear why the two bikes pulled off. We continued down Sunol Blvd. to Niles Canyon Rd and into Niles. From there is was a right turn onto Niles Blvd and then a left onto Decoto Rd. This turned into Hwy 84, which we followed all the way across the Dumbarton Bridge and over to 101 north. It was a short stint on 101 to the next exit, Woodside Rd, and into Redwood City. We stayed on Woodside Rd through Woodside and up La Honda Rd to Alice's at the junction of Skyline Rd and La Honda. As we approached Alice's the cloud cover had lowered, not to the point of becoming fog yet, but so dense that it was almost drizzling. But we made it! We managed to find parking, which is usually a challenge at Alice's, and got ready to find the food. Some of the group chose to continue on to Pescadero for lunch, but most stayed at Alice's. I spotted some folks from another group that I ride with occasionally and went over to say hello. Some of the others looked over Denny's shoulder as he tried to figure out why some of his electrical components quit working on the ride over. Luckily this turned out to be just a blown fuse. Then it happened. Some of the motorcycles startled a horse (Yes, a horse) that was tied up at the restaurant. Or so we thought. And it apparently wasn't tied up that well because when it got startled it pulled free and went running and jumping over the brick wall and down the road into oncoming traffic. The owner was unaware that her horse had headed down Skyline Blvd. Maybe the horse heard about the nice ride along Skyline ;?) Then one of the ladies from the other group took chase. ...After realizing there was no way she was going to catch the horse on foot, she ran over to her bike, and with her helmet on her arm, gave chase. She did catch the horse and did calm it down until the owner got there. The horse didn't get hurt and no cars were damaged in the making of this adventure, thanks to the quick actions of this lady. We found out later that the horse and owner were attacked by hornets, which is what spooked the horse in the first place. SEE, IT'S NOT JUST ME!
Anyway, with the excitement over we made our way inside to find tables and eat mass quantities. For those that have never been to Alice's, it's a small place with minimal staffing, and it's always busy. Even so, it doesn't seem to matter much as they have the food service business down to a science. They manage to seat and serve a large number of people very efficiently. It's impressive to see them in action. After eating we were ready to head for home. For the return route we opted to ride down Skyline Blvd. to Hwy 92 and home. As we left the parking lot we started getting droplets of moisture on our glasses. Some of this moisture was from the thick low hanging clouds (still not fog) and some was for the accumulated moisture of the trees above us dropping to the ground, much like rain. We slowed the group down a bit to safely negotiate the turns on the wet road. This got worse as we rode along Skyline Blvd. Worse to the point where it actually did drizzle on us and we were in and out of the fog (yes, now it's fog) as well. Too bad to, because there are some very scenic areas on this section of road along the ridge line where you can look to the west and see the ocean, and then look to the east and see the bay. Bummer that it wasn't visible today. We eventually reached Hwy 92 and turned east, following that all the way across the bay via the San Mateo bridge. When we reached Hayward it was like the group got shot out of a shotgun. We scattered everywhere! I think everyone opted to ride through town rather that negotiate the 880 to 580 interchange, but as we progressed through town several bikes peeled off at various intersections. Our, now small, group went up Foothill Blvd to A st to ... oops, missed the turn onto Grove st. Around the block we went and once back on Grove we made our way to 580 and then onto 680. Right after merging onto 680 and getting up to speed we had a major traffic slowdown in front of us. This turned out to be because someone lost the cushions from their sofa on the freeway. We negotiated our way through the strewn cushions and were back on our way, homeward bound.
As I said earlier, we saw it all today. And since Mike says that I always say "it was a great event", I have to say it. This was a great ride with great people. Sorry if you missed it. Maybe we can do it again soon... DS
