There have been a number of Meet & Greets at the FatCats in Avila Beach over this last year. And each time I saw one, I wanted to go, but they just never really worked with my schedule. This one started as a TriTip BBQ at a Santa Maria park, but turned into a FatCats/101/46/1/101/Jacko’s BBQ ride!

The other thing that made this ride possible for me was the fact that my brother was coming down for it. So we set up to rendezvous Friday night at the Motel 6, where we had stayed with the SabMag group back in 2004. For a Motel 6, it’s not a bad place and besides, it was a heck of a lot cheaper then what the other motels were in the area.

I took off from work around 2:30pm with the temperature in the mid 90’s. I decide to go up the 215 to the 138 and then swing up over to Wrightwood on Pine Canyon road since 138 was closed for repairs. The Pine Canyon was a pretty decent road for being a “locals” only type road. Once in Wrightwood, I had to find my way around since I didn’t have a good area map with me. But I did and as I was going up the Big Pines Hwy, I was looking for the turn to Jackson Lake (where we had driven many a times when we used to live in Palmdale back in the early 90’s) As I was just about to ask directions, I saw my turn and off I went. As I came upon the lake, I stopped and took a couple of pictures.

I continued on Big Pines Hwy and had intended to go as far as I could until I got to Palmdale, but at one point a sign said that N4 went to the right and I thought that was my turn. It turned out to be a wrong turn and dumped me out on Hwy138 just east of Pearblossom. It wasn’t a disaster, but I would have preferred to stay on the road I was on, but I just followed 138 into Palmdale. While traveling through Palmdale, I had hoped to stop by and see Larry Lilly, the owner of Palmdale Honda. Seems like I missed him by an hour or so, and since I needed to get going, I jumped back on the bike and took off again. I continued west on Palmdale Blvd to the west side where the road turns into Elizabeth Lake road. I followed it through Leona Valley, Elizabeth Lake, Lake Hughes, Three Points and then went back out to 138 again.

As I approached the I5, I thought about going up and over Gorman Post road, but as I approached the turn, I had a fire truck with lights and all turn up that way. So I decided to just hit I5 to Frazier Park and take a gas/food break. At least the temperatures had been pretty good, even though I had hit temps up to 102 a couple of times, but most had been between 85 and 95, do-able without the vest on.

Once in Frazier Park, I stopped, gassed up and had a snack. I had only gone about 100 miles or so, but I figured it would be good to have a full tank before hitting the mountains, because you just never know when you might get up to a point and then find out you have to turn around and head all the way back down.

I was at Frazier Park for about 30 minutes and then jumped on the bike and headed up Frazier Mountain Park road. I followed it until it turned into Cuddy Valley Road and then it turned into Mil Potrero road and then into Cerro Noroeste Road that ran into route 166 This was about 35 miles of great road! After getting through Pine Mountain Club, I only saw one car for the first 2/3 of the road and then about 4 or 5 cars/ trucks the rest of the way.  And this road was one wroth traveling, let me tell you! I even took my camera out and started taking pictures of it. At one point I saw what I thought was the east end of a west bound opossum. It turned out to be a east end of a west bound badger! And hearing that badgers really don’t care for people, I had to settle for the one shot I got of it.

This road eventually ran into hwy 166 and I turned west towards Santa Maria. Hwy 166 was some of the better roads I had been on all day and the traffic wasn’t bad on it either. There were a couple of clusters of cars, but once I found a broken line, I was soon around them. As I got into the little town of Cuyama, I could see the smoke from a fire that was burning a number of miles to the south west of where I was at. I traveled on hwy 166 for about 100 miles before coming to Hwy 101. Going south on 101 put me about 2 miles from Dave’s and my motel room!  As I pulled into the motel parking lot and looking for Dave’s bike, I caught his topcase out of the corner of my eye, so I decided to go around the direction I thought I saw a topcase. Sure enough, there was Dave’s bike. Come to find out, he was there about 45 minutes before me.

 After settling in the room Dave and I took off for Burger King for some dinner.  We hit the sack at round 9:30 to 10. Slept like a baby, woke up about every two hours. ;-)  We got dressed and were soon on our way to FatCats in Avila Beach.   At first, I wasn’t sure where it was, so we rode through the town of Avila Beach and then I told Dave it must be farther down the road that we were on first and turned around on because I was afraid we gone too far. 

We soon found it and at that time (8:40am) only JT was there with his Goldwing trike. Now I have always told my wife when I’m too old to ride on two wheels, I’m going to get me one of those Goldwing trikes. And now after seeing JT’s, that’s what I’ll do!   Dave and I ordered breakfast and sat and talked to JT for a good 40 minutes before anyone else showed up. Then a number of other folks showed up.

After telling tall tales about farkels and such, Bob, Shelly and JT all took off and then Greg arrived with a new rear tire and was just itching to scrub it in. So we now had eight bikes with everyone wanting to do something, so we started talking about heading up 101 and either taking 41 or 46 across to Hwy 1 and back down. So that’s what we did. We went up the 101 to 46 and started down to Hwy 1 when Greg decided to take a little road called Santa Rosa Creek road. And what a road it was. I was sure glad that I had a Shoei Multitec flip faced helmet, because these are the kind of roads that I get sick on.

While we were going through one blind corner, a car came down the opposite direction and I guess he was watching the bikes he just passed, because he came right down the middle of the road where I was and missed me by a few inches! A little un-nerving to say the least!   This road dumped out at the little town of Cambria, and at first it seemed like our leadership fell apart, but soon they all had it figured out again (got to get that radio problem of mine solved) and we were soon going through town down to Hwy 1.  I thought maybe we would stop for a short break, but they kept going, since (I found out later) Ray and Hope were waiting for us at Jacko’s BBQ in Nipomo.

We were strung out on the way back with Byron riding clean up. He just took his time and managed to be there when we pulled off the freeway at Nipomo. We had a great lunch and then parted ways. I decided to go down through Santa Barbara and Ventura on 154 & 101. I stopped in Ventura to gas up and for a quick bite and then took 126 to I5. I then hit the 210 until the 57 and 71 to 91 and 15.  I made one more stop south of Corona and then got home around 10:30pm.

It was a great ride and of course seeing Dave was great. And I was able to meet a bunch of folks that I had only seen on the forum before. The total trip was about 685 miles and I have now worn down my rear tire to the point I have to replace it. I’m not even comfortable riding around on the bike until I do replace it. So I’ve got Byron coming down on Saturday with Dana bringing a new set of skins and we will have a TireSTOC!

Pictures of Meet&Greet: Pictures