In an effort to keep myself motivated about riding and writing even when I have no new rides to write about, I’m going to be taking some trips in the Way Back Machine to talk about rides of years past.
Last night was our monthly Sport-Touring.net dinner. Â The restaurant was near my house, so I dragged my sickly coughing butt out (you’re welcome, fellow diners) and indulged in some hot and sour soup and good motorcycle chitchat.
At the dinner, I sat next to Ed (goldylocks303 on STN). Â It occurred to me after dinner that of all the people I’ve met on STN and still ride/socialize with, I’ve known Ed the longest. Â And thus we take the Way Back Machine waaaayyyyy back to June 27, 2002……
I’d just had my one and only (knock on wood) accident on the SV650S when dingleberry rear-ended me at a stop sign on my way home from work. Â I was totally fine but the bike was still missing the foot of the brake pedal, so I did the ride to San Simeon with a bolt JB-Welded in to the brake pedal arm. Â Worked fine.
I rode alone down to San Simeon, a tiny little oceanside community roughly halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Â I took Highway 1 all the way down, natch, because that’s what you do.
I stopped at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park for a photo at McWay Falls:
A ride down Highway 1 without a photo of the Big Creek Bridge is no ride at all.  I think I’ve photographed this bridge about 20 different times.  I don’t think this was the first time, but it was definitely one of my earlier pics.
I arrived at the San Simeon Lodge and met my first STNers. Â Little did I know that I would still be hanging out with some of them a decade later! Maybe I would have been nicer or taken more photos. 😉
From L-R, that’s Ken (still ksann on STN), Steven (no longer on STN), Carl (no longer on STN), Ed (still goldylocks303), Jordan (still Rogue), Dave (still Shizoku), Ted and Terry (no longer on STN).
Ha ha, look at Ed’s long hair!
On Day 2, I rode with Ted and Terry to Hearst Castle.
We puttered around a bit afterwards.
Then wound up back at the Lodge for dinner, drinks, and the high quality entertainment at the bar that I’ve come to expect over the years. Â It’s the kind of tiny, dark, local bar that plays live music covering Springsteen and has Firestone Pale Ale on tap — in other words, my kind of place.
On Day 3, we met a friendly policeman in the Lodge’s parking lot. Â He was a motorcyclist as well and let us take some good-natured photos.
The SVS rolled over 10,000 miles on my ride home from San Simeon. Â I’d had it for about 16 months at that point (and had some pretty bad wrist tendonitis for part of that time which kept me from riding as much as I wanted to). Â Not bad!
So, that was my first overnight Sport-Touring.net trip, almost a decade ago. Â Dang.
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