Being in Frisco for the weekend, with my bike along for an impending track day, I simply had to go play in the canyons, as I usually don’t make the time for that. And usually prefer sleeping in. So this time my brother Gary and I got to fire up the beasts and head up to Alice’s for a delicious brunch. But first, a pit stop for air, as I’d been running on 22/25psi for quite some time, too lazy to bother getting air. I’d been using the lack of air as an opportunity to develop a greater appreciation for how perfect my bike is. I used to have a bike that turned as heavily/poorly all the time. But of course one doesn’t go play in the canyons with anything that might diminish the joy of the experience.

I was freezing by the time we got to Alice’s, as it was ~54 on 33 under all those damn trees. OK, the trees are gorgeous and I love trees, I really wish there were more of them in the world, just not hoovering over the road I want to ride in the winter. Alice’s serves a side of minced raw garlic, (upon request, as their t-shirts say “Have anything you want at Alice’s”) which was super delicious on everything, the omelette, the hash browns, all of it. I put my nylon shopping bag that I always keep in my “trunk” under my jacket to stop the wind coming through the perf. Much better! Then we head out down 84, which was amazing. Every single car we approached, even the ones with SF city parking stickers who are notorious road hogs, pulled over shortly after we approached! It was incredible. We went left somewhere, the road to Huddart Park, and wound up in Pesdacero. We stopped and did a little shopping with all the other tourists. Bought a nice laboradorite rock from the old guy with big rocks, who was really cool.

Here’s Gary, making sure none of the guys come up and talk to me….

We continued north on Stage road, which was really fun. One of those “I can pretend this is a one-way/ racetrack until I come to a blind turn.” roads that I love so well. I had let Gary lead until Pescadero as he’s gotten much faster (unless I got much slower) and wasn’t the least bit painful to ride behind. But I led from Stage Rd and it was so much fun to pretend I was in the IOM TT or one of those Irish road races. Coming back up 84 was fun too, until we came upon a group of ‘tards (OK, one of them was on an RR, but that doesn’t say much) following dutifully behind some loser in an Avalanche. through some awesome curves, I might add. After a day of having cagers respectfully pull over to let us pass, this was too much. I didn’t want to be that asshole that picks her way through a group of riders in traffic, but I sure as hell didn’t want these losers messing up my ride. Making it worse, the last one of the group of 3 was fat. I have been known to do some pretty drastic things to get past the fat guy I was racing against. On a 2-stroke 250, less weight = more power. My big goal one season was to get past the fat guy, just as I’m sure many of my slower competitors made it their goal to get past the chick.

Finally enough space opened up ahead of the truck that I totally knew I could make it before anyone could come through the next blind curve. I was right. I felt kinda bad for Gary, as he had to stay with them until we met up at 33, but he said he sure appreciated the show. Yet another example of why liter bikes rule. If I’d been on my 450cc ‘tard, (which is for sale, BTW) I would have had to shift gears like 3 times to get enough speed to make that pass. Might have had the torque, but not the power. Power is nice. We headed back to San Mateo, and I stopped by to visit the critters. Nicholas is speaking English now, which is so exciting. He’s had this language of his own he’d been using with us, and it was kinda hard to understand him. Claire was happy to see me in my pink racing suit, and I let her play with it by kicking and hitting the padded bits. Stephen was building a new Star Wars Lego spaceship. It was nice to check in with them, even though we didn’t get much time to play on this visit. Last time I took them ice skating and to Wendy’s, so I don’t feel too bad.

Tomorrow it’s off to Buttonwillow for some more fun…

Oh, and I’m now a member of Motorcycle Bloggers International! Go here and vote on various things, it’s a fun poll, with links to some other awesome blogs about riding…. http://www.mbiweb.org/2007/vote.html