Alice’s!

Andrew and his son Frank came by this morning and put the new brake pads on the Ninja.  He also flushed out the brake fluid and put my new stainless steel front brake line on.  Thanks, Andrew!

I wanted to do a ride afterwards but wasn’t sure where to go.  I rode to the Depot Cafe in San Carlos to have brunch with our friend John, who’s staying with us for the week. John has had some injury/pain issues of his own over the years (far worse than mine) and gave me some encouragement. His suggestion was to ride up 92 to Skyline and just turn around whenever I felt like I’d gone enough.

So, I did just that…and wound up at Alice’s!

The last time I was at Alice’s on a motorcycle was…crap, I don’t have any idea.  At least two years ago.  TWO YEARS.  That’s criminal.  I didn’t eat there today (as I’d just had brunch) but I took pictures and looked at other bikes in the parking lot and just felt really happy that I’d ridden to Alice’s.

There was some snow along Skyline, by the way, but not enough to warrant pulling over and photographing. I was personally hoping for enough to make a little snowman but, alas, it had mostly melted.  Ah well!

From Alice’s, I hopped on Hwy 84 and headed back down to Woodside.  I took a small detour to the Chevron station (49.5 miles per gallon, woohoo!  $3.80/gallon gas is making me wish I could commute on the Ninja every day…) and then took a jaunt up Mountain Home Road and back.

Mountain Home is mostly equestrian ranches scattered between mansions and property owned by such Silicon Valley elite as Steve Jobs and Larry Ellison.   I was about 10 days too late to see the Jackling House, but it was still a gorgeous day to wind amongst the vineyards and horse farms and see what $20 million will get you these days.

My back was starting to get sore — muscle soreness only, thankfully — so I didn’t stop to photograph any mansions. Maybe next ride!  I headed back towards Cañada Road and the 7 more miles to home.  Trip total was exactly 40 miles, with no back pain besides muscle soreness to speak of (yet).  Fingers crossed!