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[ST] Trip report, kind of...



This being a no-kids Christmas, Tenacious G and I needed to figure out
somewhere to go. A road trip to San Francisco via Big Sur sounded about
right...

The trip can be broken out into a few categories:

REALLY GOOD THINGS

- -Traveling with Grace, who is the bomb pillion and has other assets as
well...

- -Penske shock on Vixen...setting preload is a hassle, and I'd make sure to
fill the gas tank before you take it off like I did...<not>...but
wowie...we were _hauling_, two up, with luggage, and perfectly balanced and
controlled the whole way.

- -Blue Flame pipe and new tune. Midrange _galore_, plus top end. A bit soft
at or below 2K, but worth it.

- -Food. Pretty much everywhere we went. In roughly chronological order:
Lunch at the Mexican diner in cambria (try the pork tamales); dinner at
River Lodge in Big Sur; breakfast at the River Lodge; dinner at our friend
Mary & Quinns (pork roast from the Union Square cookbook); dinner at House
of Nanking on Kearney St. (fried cod in bean sauce, onion cakes); Breakfast
at Cafe de La Presse, in the Hotel Triton; dinner at LuLu in SF (salmon,
roast duck, fritto misto, portobello mushrooms and polenta, chocolate cake
and profiteroles); Blas' version of Starbucks cocoa (six pumps, no
vanilla...don't ask me, ask him); appetizers and drinks in the bar in Paso
Robles; donuts and fritters on the closing-forever morning of The Donut
Shop in downtown San Luis Obispo, with the owner calling the customers by
name and lots of tearful hugs.

- -Wine. Bonny Doon Big House Red, god only knows what at Mary & Quinn's
(he's a wine lunatic); some Sardinian wine at LuLu; pastis and punta y mes
in Paso Robles.
- -Company. Blas and Eric who rode up in the rain, even though they talked me
into riding back in the rain. They are so cute together; Paula should
worry. Mary & Quinn & their kids.

- -Community Spirit. When Grace had The Incident (no big deal, more below),
the parking guys who ran through the rain for half a block because they had
heard her scream. Wonder if it would have happened pre 9/11...

- -Smells. We got so many cool ones on this trip...the damp forest as we
hiked in Big Sur is probably the fave...

- -The View. As we rode over the hills into San Luis Obispo Monday morning,
we rode out of the mist and had a view of a green valley with blue sky,
clouds, and trails of mist down below. Too pretty to stop and take a
picture; I was too busy enjoying it. That view alone paid for the trip.



GOOD THINGS

- -Riding up Highway One, with all the new pavement.

- -Drivers on Highway One, who almost all used turnouts and cooperated in
setting up safe passes.

- -Vixen, who continues to run without missing a beat...23,000 miles and
counting.

- -Electric vests.

- -Fog City and Zooke.

- -Doc Wong. We hung out with Doc Wong for a few hours. My back and shoulder
have been giving me mild fits for a while now, and my overfed tummy doesn't
like the NSAID's that seem to keep them happy, and when I talk to my doc
about riding bothering them, he suggests that not riding could be the
answer.

So I thought I'd check out the motorcycling chiropractor since we were in
town, and he was amazingly useful (once my insurance card passed
scrutiny...<g>). Went over my shoulder, did a bunch of diagnostic US
imaging, and suggested new exercises, a bunch of nutritional supplements
that at least seem plausible, and is going to hook me up with a
practitioner here in LA to follow up. Lots of motorcycle talk ensued, and
Grace was hanging around with her tongue out, doing her best "We're not
worthy!!"

He was scarily nice (yes, I saw the Scientology pamphlets in the waiting
room), and had some logical theories about what I could do. We'll keep
folks posted.


BAD THINGS

- -The Incident. As we entered SF in the dark Friday night, a huge series of
potholes on the King St. exit, unmarked, and filled with water, and BANG
we've blown the tire on the rentacar. I manage to drive around the block
and park next to some construction site, where I discover that we've bent
the steel rim so badly I can't get the hubcap off to get at the lug nuts.
I'm grumping about this rather heavily, kneeling in the rain with a
flashlight in my mouth, when Grace lets loose with a loud scream followed
by a thump.

I look up, and ... can't see her. Dash around the car, and see her
half-fallen through a hole in the metal plate we're parked on, dangling. I
grab her belt to keep her from falling and start to check her out as the
parking guys from the restaurant _half_a_block_away_ (she screamed loudly)
come jogging up and help me pull her out. She's all muddy on one leg, but
fine (some bruises showed up later), and I got her to sit down while I
broke the hubcap off and changed the tire. Avis was cool about giving us a
new car, and their center was just around the block from the hotel.

- -Riding in the rain without good gloves, boots, or heated grips. Plastic
bags and duct tape can do only so much.

- -Making Grace drive all the way home in the rentacar. It made me feel a lot
better (and the bike was easier to handle without luggae or passenger), but
deprived her of part of the fun of cold water running down your legs.

- -Oceans 11. We saw in Paso Robles, and I thought it sucked. Blas disagreed,
but he was wrong. Grace disagreed, but she'd say that about a movie with
George Clooney and Brad Pitt if it was a remake of Plan 9 From Outer Space.
And geeze, they don't even take their clothes off...




MarcD


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