Okay, this one will be quick! Chris England (DL650), Gary Ward (FJR1300) and Lon & Pam Larsen (ST1300) joined me (on my ST1300) to do something a little different this ride.  We all met up at Starbucks in Woodland Hills, then headed down Topanga Canyon to Mulholland Drive/Highway.  Other than a brief, obligatory stop at the Rock Store, we simply took Mulholland Highway all the way to it's terminus at Pacific Coast Highway, then headed up PCH toward Ventura, taking the 101 all the way to Carpinteria.  Traffic was light and the roads were mostly clean, so despite the chill in the air the ride was great.

In Carpinteria we stopped for lunch at "The Spot" -- a typical beach community burger place within sight of the ocean.  We must have timed things perfectly, getting there right at noon, as 20+ people stepped into line behind us as we were placing our orders.  Glad we didn't fart around in the parking lot an extra 60 seconds or we would have been waiting a long time for food.  The burgers didn't disappoint, and the weather was improving, so we looked forward to the next leg of the ride.

Leaving Carpinteria we headed up Casitas Pass Road past Lake Casitas towards Ojai.  The tar snakes hadn't fully warmed up yet so traction wasn't a problem like the last time I rode up that way.  We skirted Ojai (no need to deal with the traffic) and headed straight for Highway 150 toward Lockwood Valley Road.  A couple miles up the road we caught up to a couple fire engines rolling along at "Code 2" (emergency lights but no sirens).  In California It's illegal to pass an emergency vehicle with it's emergency lights on so even though they were only doing 30 mph in a 50 zone we were forced to ride along quietly behind them.  At least we were getting decent gas mileage.  After several miles behind the fire engines the weather improved greatly and it got warm enough that we pulled over to strip off some gear and let the emergency vehicles get further ahead of us.  We then had clear road for several miles until we came to the accident scene the fire department was responding to -- and the traffic jam created by the road closure.  Luckily, minutes after arriving at the tail of the waiting traffic jam we were allowed to pass through and be on our way.  Sort of.  It took several miles for us to shake the slow cars and a tractor trailer and get back out on open road again.

Turning on Lockwood Valley Road we pretty much had the road to ourselves all the way to Frazier Park.  The weather was warm and the roads generally clean, so the final leg of our planned route went without a hitch.  We stopped briefly in Gorman for refreshments then all went our separate ways to get home.

Thanks to everyone who came out for the ride, I look forward to the next one...