We stayed at the Relax Inn this year – suitable accommodations for the trip, though I believe John will be looking for something a bit more upscale for next year. For whatever the Inn may have lacked, it made up for with location – easy walking distance to restaurants, the town center, entertainment, etc. It was cool to see the courtyard style parking area filled with bikes as well. Arriving Friday night, John made arrangements for a group dinner (good eating at Cool Hand Luke’s), then most of us turned in for the night, looking forward to the next day’s ride.

I can’t say enough about the roads and the ride the Saturday except that we could have gone longer if it weren’t for wanting to get back for the sidecar show in the park, lunch, and other distractions. John did a great job laying out a fun, challenging route with a wide variety of tight twisties, long sweepers, periodic straight stretches (what’s the top speed of this bike again?) to get us between fun sections, then more twisties, etc. Despite overlapping with a bicycle race that shared a few roads with us, John managed to find roads that were clean, great fun, and lightly traveled. Great job!

John also managed to arrange for lunch for most of us by allowing us to place orders ahead of time for box lunches from the Red Scooter Deli in Paso. This worked out perfectly as we finished our ride in the early afternoon, simply swung by Red Scooter to get our food, then walked through the park to view the sidecar show. There was talk of an afternoon ride, but with food in their bellies most everyone decided to relax and enjoy the area.

Dinner was buffet-style at the Dragon Palace King. They had a nice back room where we managed to squeeze everyone in, stuff ourselves stupid, enjoy dessert (huge chocolate covered strawberries, thanks to the Button’s and the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory), and have a mini-raffle (we really need to get more prizes next time!).

Everyone left at seemingly random times the next morning. Kellie and I had a nice ride home, taking 46 west to the coast and following 1 for a while before hopping back on 101 to get to 154. We stopped at the Cold Springs Tavern (on Stagecoach Road) and were surprised how many people were there -- especially in cars! After a quick stop in Santa Barbara for lunch, we took 150 up through Ojai and back down to Santa Paula before heading home along the 126. 150 was in the worst condition we've seen in years. Fresh tar snakes were all over the road heading up and around Casitas Lake (it looked like they were practicing or something cause the snakes were extra abundant, gooey, and wide), then there was construction in multiple places heading down from Ojai to Santa Paula. Hopefully they get all that settled soon...

Anyway, thanks again to all those who turned out (we had 25 or so), and hopefully we'll see you again soon.

Brian & Kellie

Many pictures can be viewed at: http://picasaweb.google.com/calif.msta/200904PasoRobles