Weekend riding with Colleen

So, as I mentioned, Colleen was down last weekend, and we had an absolute BALL. She already did a great ride report over at her blog — and since her riding was way more interesting, you should go read it.

For our part, Peter and I rode north to Eureka with Dan and Colleen on Sunday, then back on Monday. So here’s my little bit about that.

Sunday morning dawned a little too early (at least for Peter), but as always, breakfast at Bobbi’s Diner near our house helped. Colleen and Dan, who’d spent the previous night at our house, even got to meet Randy The Biker. If Bobbi’s were a sitcom — and it could be — Randy would be the goofy character who drops in from time to time, always with a huge laugh track and applause sign when he walks in the door. Everyone knows Randy and he talks to everyone. His vehicles are custom-painted (well-done, too) with skulls and flames, and his wife and son have neon orange hair. Randy himself is graying, with a do-rag and leather vest, of course.

We took Hwy 101 straight up to Eureka, which was its usual uninspiring self south of Santa Rosa.

Colleen’s KLR:

Yep, that’s Barbie. I still don’t understand how her shoes stayed on.

We had lunch at Ardella’s in Willits, where Colleen and Dan had already met Lori:

Naturally, I made us stop at Confusion Hill up in the Tacky Touristy Tree Shit section of Hwy 101. I have great concern that Confusion Hill will close after CalTrans finishes the bypass around that section, so we have to get all of our confusion in now, while we still can.

Gorgeous bikes, huh??

After 319 miles on the road, we pulled into the Sport-Touring.net B&B&B&B. We were minus one “B”, sadly, as Becky was sick with the flu and hid in their bedroom all night. 🙁 Poor Becky!!

Dan, Colleen, Peter, Gil, and I passed the evening away with homemade jambalaya, good beer, good conversation, and excellent ice cream. Definitely worth every single mile of 101.

After a good night’s sleep, it was time for Colleen to head north and Dan, Peter, and I to return south.

Our only diversion from Hwy 101 was a quick jaunt on Avenue of the Giants….quicker than we’d intended, too, due to a road closure!

We zipped back down Hwy 101 to Leggett, home of the world famous Chandelier Tree. Since Dan had never stopped there, we introduced him to this particular Northern California rite of passage. The entry road seemed better this time, by the way…I think the trick is having a dual sport. 😉

And that was pretty much that. We zipped down Hwy 101 the rest of the way, stopping in Santa Rosa for coffee and a break from the ubiquitous bumper-to-bumper traffic. The bridge traffic was good, though, and we were home in time for Peter to go to his 7pm hockey game.

All in all, a good weekend. 🙂