Saturday, March 17, 2007

17 March 2007 - Esparto to Marysville

{Click on the photos to view the full size images}

St Patrick's Day. Pdub leads the Ride today starting from the Chevron in West Sacramento. The primary meeting place is at Esparto High School as the Ride heads north on Hwy 16 to Hwy 20 to Marysville and the Silver Dollar Saloon, once a brothel now a steak house.

We actually had four (4) Triumphs for today's Ride, two Sprints, a Bonne America and a Bonne.



Tom N. fills up his Bonneville.



Cindy and Yvonne are all smiles. Riding is better than doing the laundry today. {Actually, I think that Gary G and Pdub are responsible for doing the laundry.}
Gary F. and I talk Pdub into skipping I-505 on the way to Esparto and using County Road 89 instead. But in our groups own inimitable way. Pdub and 10 bikes miss the turn onto County Road 89. Tom P. who is in an unusual position at the rear of the pack and I, riding sweep, turn onto County Road 89 and the burg of Madison where we turn on to Hwy 16 and a short distance to the Esparto High School parking lot. Pdub and the rest show up about 10 minutes later after figuring out that they must have missed the turn. In all fairness to Pdub, some vehicle had knocked out the street sign so County Road 89 was not marked at the intersection with County Road 27. And I had told him that 27 "T"ed into 89, which it does not.


Notice in the next picture that we have two Triumph Sprint ST's on today's Ride.


John A. and Phil join up with the group at Esparto. They both decided to sleep in and meet us at the primary meeting spot.

Ron, John, Gary S, and Jesse at Esparto
The ride starts out fairly uneventful except for the bike that did not show up with enough gasoline. We all need to have enough gas. So anyway we had a quick stop at the Cache Creek Casino gas station.

Hwy 16 through the Capay Valley is a meandering two lane road that goes through a few small towns where we are forced to go slow. But just north of Rumsey we get to the Cache Creek Canyons and a wonderful twisty, turning, climbing and descending road. The best part of the Ride and really the only reason for this detour to Marysville.

By the time I figured out that I forgot to turn on my camera, the group got a bit in front of me. And that is the end of the pack. Pdub and others were way out in front by now.


We regroup at the intersection of Hwy 20 and I remember to turn on the camera.

Pdub, our fearless leader and Yvonne his passenger.


Tom N., Phil T, and Gary G. at the Hwy 20 intersection.We head on toward Williams and our comfort stop. Now in the early days of this group. We would have comfort stopped at the trees where we had stopped. But we are now a more "refined" group. :-)

Here is a shot of the road along Hwy 20. I managed to get alongside of people in a Passing Zone, but my aim got a bunch of good shots of the sky and the road, so nothing printable.
The traffic along Hwy 20 as we reach Yuba City is urban. Strip Malls, signal lights every other block. What happened to the country road through Yuba City - Marysville that was Hwy 20.

We make it to the Silver Dollar without incident. The parking lot across the street is now private. Marysville is losing its rural charm. Even Mama's Place the brothel I remember from the 1950's has been torn down.

Nita and Gary F. at the Silver Dollar.


Josie and Tom P.

Jack, Gary G., Cindy, Ron and Tom N. laughing about Gary's order.

Dan A. decided not to stick out his tongue this year.
Tom N, Phil, Ron, Yvonne, Cindy, Gary G, Pdub, Tom P, Josie, Jack, John


The crew in front of the Silver Dollar after our lunch and meeting.
The next Ride is a "free-for-all" to get to Don's home in Stockton at 12:30 PM on Saturday, April 14, 2007. This will be the Second Annual Sausage Feed. Not on a bun this year. Sausages, potato salad, maybe beans, maybe red cabbage or sauerkraut and Genova Bakery French Bread.

Today's Riders and their bikes: {starting with the Triumphs}
Paul W "Pdub" ..................Bonne America
..Yvonne
Tom N ..............................Bonne
Gary F ..............................Sprint ST
..Nita
Jesse H .............................Sprint ST
Phil T ...............................Kawasaki Nomad
John A ..............................Goldwing
Dan A ...............................BMW R1200R
Gary G .............................Kawasaki Vulcan 1500
..Cindy
Ron H ...............................FJR
Jack F ...............................Suzuki Boulevard
John H .............................Stratoliner
Gary S ..............................FZ1
Tom P ..............................FJR
..Josie
Don I ................................BMW F650

fin