{CLICK ON THE PHOTOS TO VIEW FULL SIZE}
Ride from Galt to Ione to Valley Springs to Knight's Ferry to Farmington and ending at Beto's Drive Inn at Linden.
What a beautiful day for a Ride. Temps in the middle 70's. Barely a breeze. Just a few high clouds and lots of sunshine.
Four riders meet up at the Alhambra and N Starbucks. All riding Triumphs. Very unusual for our Northern California Triumph Riders and Friends (NCTRF) group.
Pdub and a new rider to our group Gary F. at Starbucks
I left Stockton around 9:30 heading north up I-5. Stop at the Chevron in Flag City for gas. Continue up I-5 to Peltier Road over to Hwy 99. Head north to Twin Cities Road and "It's a Grind" coffee house. Phil T. rides up on his Nomad a few minutes later. Then the four Triumphs pull in a little before 10:20.
A cigarette break and stops at the restroom and off we go heading toward Ione on Hwy 104. Damn. Stuck behind a truck and a pick up all the way to the Mule Deer Prison in Ione.
We see Preston {The Castle} as we enter Ione. Preston looks like what a reform school should look like, very foreboding. We negotiate downtown Ione and I almost missed the turn to Buena Vista. The roads have been pretty straight until now but as we leave Buena Vista the road starts to have a few turns in it. Next we head to the Vista Point above Pardee Dam for our first break and to check out the water levels.
We head on over to Valley Springs for lunch. Phil and I stop at the Burger King. The other four venture into Campbell's Country Kitchen.
After lunch and a gas stop we head off toward the Calaveras County Dump. Well at least to the road to the Dump. Through Jenny Lind on toward Milton we ride. Nice curves and good pavement after all the big garbage trucks need to get to the Dump.
The pavement gets a bit more choppy as we cross into Stanislaus County. And the road just south of Hwy 4 becomes really rough. But we continue on to Sonora Road. The Winter has not been good to Sonora Road. I had to set a slower pace because we were constantly looking out for the pot holes.
We then take our next break at the Corps of Engineers Park over looking the Stanislaus River at Knight's Ferry.
Pdub, Don I, Phil T, Andy N, Andy B, Gary F
Orange Blossom Road to Rodden Road around Oakdale. These are nice twisty roads. I point out the castle like house on the hill that is Castle Oaks Ranch.
After getting around Oakdale on the back roads we now are in the Valley and straight and flat farm roads. Through Valley Home we go and over to Farmington. At Farmington we head north and work our way to Linden and Beto's Mexican Drive Inn. Just before Linden there was one corner where I did not see the gravel on the road. A little bit of wobble as I went in as if it were a dry clear road. Anyway at Betos we eat, drink and have our meeting.
I tell everyone it is a breeze getting back to Hwy 99 from Linden. "Just head that-a-way." But I continue to lead and that turns out to be a good thing. CalTrans has closed the on ramps to Hwy 99 from Hwy 26 (the road we are on). So there is a Detour. But I lead to Hwy 88 and that entrance to Hwy 99 and wave good bye.
A nice day. A nice Ride. Got a touch of sunburn, even.
The Riders and their Rides:
Pdub...................................Bonne America
Andy N...............................Speedmaster
Andy B................................Speedmaster
Gary F.................................Sprint ST
Phil T...................................Nomad
Don I....................................F650
---
Don Inamasu
NorCalRat
.
