Time for the Fourth Annual Sport-Touring.net B4TheSnowFlies ride! We're getting better at planning this weekend; last year it snowed on us, but this year the snow line was still up at 7000' while we were riding. Maybe next year we'll actually acheive the "B4" part of the weekend moniker.

Peter and I were in desperate need of vacation, so we took off a day early and rode down to Paso Robles for a Halloween night of hot tubs and relaxation.

The ride down to Hwy 25 was pretty uneventful. Skies were gray but the roads were dry.

The Central Valley is an interesting place to be on the weekend before a presidential election. We saw this lone barn supporting Obama; I hope he's not egged and TP'ed too terribly often.

The cloudy skies made for some interesting scenery. I still prefer the bright blue sunshine but, for photographs, this'll do, too.

Just to prove we were riding motorcycles:

The weather continued to look sketchy and both of us were having a tough time relaxing this early in the trip. At a rest stop, we decided to head to Hwy 101 instead of continuing on back roads to Paso Robles.

Bitterwater Road, which connects Hwy 25 with Hwy 101 in King City, is a fun little back road that I almost never take.

We stopped for a quick lunch in King City, when I remembered that the Paso Robles Inn has spa service! I called the Inn, who confirmed that we could get an in-room "massage for two" later that evening. Success!

We were so excited about the massages that we forgot to gas up in King City. This wasn't a problem for my Beemer, but Peter's DRZ sputtered to a stop at the side of Hwy 101 about 3 miles out of San Miguel (there's literally no gas for a long section of 101, so it's not like we could have gotten gas after he flipped to reserve).

Fortunately, tipping the bike onto its side and righting it again sloshed enough gas over to the side of the tank with the feed that Peter was able to limp into San Miguel...making this the third California city that Peter has now coasted into on fumes. Oops.

We arrived in Paso Robles with enough time to soak in the room's private sulphur spring-fed hot tub before our massages (rough life, huh?).

After the in-room massages (which, by the way, were awesome -- highly recommended!), we headed to the Inn's Cattlemen's Lounge for drinks and dinner. The Lounge has the same menu as the downstairs restaurant but is less formal and has an outside deck to sit on.

Peter meets a Halloween friend outside the Lounge:

Enjoying a "Twisted Cosmopolitan" and a Firestone Pale Ale (on tap!):

After a wonderful dinner and a great view from the deck of passing trick-or-treaters, we wandered into town to see what Halloween goodies we could find.

The Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory didn't let us down and we left with a scoop of ice cream, some mint bark, and a dark chocolate pecan bar.

We showed some Halloween spirit at some cutouts that were left in the town square, then wandered back to bed.

Stats for the day:

CLICK HERE to go on to Day 2!