Weekend ride report: Friday

As with any good ride, Peter and I started out at Bobbi’s Diner in Cupertino for breakfast. Before we’d even gotten our helmets off, we were approached by Randy, a Harley rider who was heading down to San Diego to meet his son’s ship. His wife was also there in a beautifully detailed car (if you look closely, you can see the sparkled flames). Randy is the biker-looking dude behind the car:

Our first stop after breakfast was the Sunol Water Temple. I’ve wanted to visit it for a while but it’s only open from 9am – 2pm, Monday through Friday. One of the advantages to taking a Friday off!

The temple was designed in 1910 by local architect Willis Polk. Severely damaged by the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989, it seemed destined for demolition, especially after San Francisco closed the temple to the public out of safety concerns. Fortunately a community effort was formed to restore the temple, and it reopened in 2000.

The temple is inscribed with: “”I will make the wilderness a pool of water and the dry lands springs of water [from Isaiah 41:18b]. The streams whereof shall make glad the city [from Psalms 46:4]. S.V.W.C. MCMX [Spring Valley Water Company 1910]”

We headed north on Palomares, one of my favorite East Bay roads. Peter had never been on it before and I was really glad to hear that he liked it. It’s generally low-trafficked and goes through some beautiful rural creekside scenery just a couple of miles from the major interstates.

Clamper crossing!

We wound our way north through the East Bay hills. After gassing up in Lafayette, we were momentarily distressed that Peter’s bike didn’t want to start. The gas station mechanics were very friendly and hooked the Superhawk up onto their portable charger/jumper. The attendant and Peter also noticed that his battery terminals were slightly loose, so we tightened those connections down and hoped that would take care of the problem. Thanks to Nicholas at the 76 station in Lafayette!

Once over the Benicia Bridge, we continued north to Lake Berryessa. One of the largest freshwater bodies of water in California, Lake Berryessa was constructed in 1957 by the Bureau of Reclamation thanks to the Monticello Dam. I still haven’t seen the spillway (glory hole) at Monticello Dam — hopefully on our next trip to Lake Berryessa!

Peter finds some fall colors:

We took a short break at one of the many campgrounds along Lake Berryessa and Peter took a much-needed nap. 😉

Unfortunately, Peter took the nap with the ignition still on and the bike wouldn’t start up again. Since we were starting to get the inkling that this was going to be a recurring gremlin, Peter switched the wiring on his battery tender pigtail so that it could directly plug into mine. I admired a nearby manzanita tree while we waited for the Beemer to charge the Superhawk.

The charging problems took a bit of time out of our day, so by the time we got to the next side road that we wanted to take, it was getting a little late in the day…oh, and the road was dirt.

We decided to press on to I-5 for the final 100 miles of the day, which kind of sucked since, y’know, I-5, but at least we got to our hotel just in time to see a nice sunset over Mt Shasta.

We had a decent enough dinner at El Mariachi restaurant right next to the hotel and then had a fascinating and romantic stroll across the strip mall parking lot to Rite Aid.

Day stats:
291 miles
Max speed: 85.4 mph
Moving average: 50.8 mph

(map coming after work)