» July 2, 2011 weekend Ride Report

This is just for those who couldn't make the ride yesterday. A totally non-STAR related ride. As most of you know, Debra and I tend to get the bikes out pretty much every weekend that we can and go for short scoots through the back country of San Diego and surrounding areas. This time we made it a little more "public" by posting a notice to Face Book. Several friends commented back wanting ride along with us so we asked for suggestions as to a destination. Our friends Dain and Diana Wadley suggested heading up to Idyllwild and on to Oak Glen so we all agreed that would be a lot of fun and the ride was set.

We all met up at the Chevron station in Ramona. Debra and I were quite surprised by the turn out for this "event".  We had 10 friends show up on 8 bikes all together. Of course Debra and I along with my brother Todd. Guy Anastasia and his brother in law Gale (sp?), Dain and Diana Wadley, Daryl and Chris Elmer and Robert Phillips. Pretty good turnout for just a "let's go have some fun" ride.

We decided that since it was going to be so HOT that day to make plenty of hydration stops along the way. We headed out of Ramona on Highway 78 towards Santa Isabel. Headed north on Highway 79 to our first stop in Warner Springs. After downing some drinks and chatting again we headed on up to the Indio Turn-Out (Highway 371) to our next panned stop at the Dairy Queen in Anza. Unfortunately there was some kind of event going on in town and the entire road was closed off so we ended up on a detour around the west side of town and ending up back on the 371 way north of the Dairy Queen. We stopped at the last gas station on the north side of town where we had a few more drinks, restroom breaks and more chatting.

Once everyone was re-hydrated, we all got back on the bikes and continued north to pick up the 74 towards Idyllwild. Our first fuel stop was at the Shell station on the south side of town where once again everyone hydrated up, topped off the tanks and took another chat break. Daryl and Chris decided to break off from the group at this point and head on back home as he was having some problems with his neck and back. We were sad to them go but trust that they made the trip home safely and without any problems.

Back on the road heading north out of Idyllwild we took a nice slow pace back down to the floor of the desert and into Banning. Talk about HOT! By the time we got into Banning everyone was pretty much nicely toasted so we stopped at the IHOP to cool down and have some lunch. We spent about two hours sitting there laughing and chatting and having a good time all around. At this point pretty much the entire group decided to forgo the ride on up to Oak Glen with the exception being Dain and Diana. Dain really had his heart set on seeing the place since it had been at least 20 years since the last time he had been there. We hope that they succeeded and had a good ride out there. The rest of us decided to just pick up the Interstate 10 over to the Interstate 60, on down to the 215 and ultimately the 15 and to our respective homes.

Debra, Todd and I made it home by 5:00 PM and had covered 250 miles of some beautiful riding. It had been a long time since Todd had done anything like that so I suspect he's going to be a little sore today.

But overall it was a wonderful day! It was really great to see everyone that made the ride.