Sunol Water Temple

In an attempt not to go completely mad, I’ve arranged to have a few hours on Tuesdays to myself to do with what I want.  Last week I was super exciting and went to the post office! And the grocery store!  And used BOTH MY ARMS in both places!

Anyway, yesterday I had no errands to run (this is a lie; I just didn’t feel like doing them) so I went for a short ride.  🙂  As usual, my direction of travel was dictated by the weather; west and north were cold/rainy and so I pointed east.

I hadn’t been to the Sunol Railroad Cafe in years; it changed ownership about 2 years ago and the new owner, Mark, is really nice.  Most of the people who came and went while I was there were locals that he knew by name and greeted enthusiastically.  One patron, Tom, was a fellow motorcyclist and we chatted for a few minutes about my Ninjette and his Harley.  His eyes lit up when he talked about riding; it was clear that it gave him a great amount of joy.  I absolutely adore bumping into people like that.

I had a great BLT and fruit cup with coffee; highly recommended.  I usually had breakfast at the old Sunol Railroad Cafe so I can’t directly compare my meals, but this was a darn good sandwich and I’ll definitely be back.

After lunch, I headed to the Sunol water temple.  I’d last been there in October 2007; five years is pretty embarrassing but it’s only open from 9am-2pm on weekdays, making it a difficult destination for working stiffs.

The Pulgas water temple is, of course, closer to our house but I prefer the Sunol one…if for no other reason than that I can park my bike right up against it for photos.  😉  Truly most of my enjoyment of things is centered around whether I can photograph them with my motorcycle.

Midget Stig was naturally also present at the water temple.

This is also a good opportunity to show off my latest indulgent purchase, fresh off the mail truck from the UK.  Is this not a perfect riding T-shirt to complement the Revolution suit?  I thought so.  Hat tip to you, BBC.

After hanging out at the water temple for a little while, I headed south on Calaveras.  I totally forgot to bring the lanyard that I use to wear my camera around my neck, so no on-board riding photos for you this time.  Sorry!

At the southern end of Calaveras, I took Felton to Sierra and down into San Jose.  The views were spectacular (I chanced the low traffic to stop in the road for a photo).

This shot of San Jose was taken while pulled over somewhere safe:

See? An actual shoulder.

Sadly, I had done the dumb thing that I do a lot where I plan the first part of a ride and then wind up, say, in San Jose at 2pm with no real way to get home other than the freeway.  I could have puttered around the south bay, but then I’d be stuck in rush hour traffic heading back up the peninsula.  So, the freeway it was this time and I bopped on home.

Still, not bad stats!  It felt good to do a longish ride again.  I was surprised that the motorcycle ride seems to hurt my back more than hockey games do, but ibuprofen is my friend as always.