Howard's Cafe RTE, NorCal Tag run, & 1st Tip Over Crash 02/12/11

It was a beautiful day for a ride and lunch. RudeSTer and I met PestoMike in San Carlos and the three of us headed up to Howard's Cafe in Occidental for the RTE.

It was a small turnout but the food and company were excellent - squirrelHunter (Mike) came all the way from Folsom:

Rudester (showing off his giant bowl of Mocha, you guessed it - he had two!) and PestoMike:

Dmcleane (Dave) from Muir Beach... He's holding RudeSTer and my ride plan for the day... We had planned on going up to Redding to visit his cousin and stay the night...

My breakfast... Smoked Salmon Omelette Florentine... Heaven on a plate:

STeeds in the parking lot:

After lunch RudeSTer and I made our way to the NorCal tag in Comptche:

Then we started to make our way to Ukiah... We were going to set the new tag there and then jump on Hwy 20 to I5 and zoom up to Redding... Unfortunately, we lost a lot of time visiting at the RTE and riding around on the little country roads getting to Comptche...

Then we lost a few more minutes when I had my first mishap on Gigolo on Orr's Spring Road. I came into the second sharp turn of a double switchback and realized I was still in 2nd gear when I should have been in 1st, and I was in the steepest part of the turn. The engine was really lugging and about to stall... I tried to save it by putting it into 1st gear quickly but it stopped in neutral!!! YIKES! Lickety split I had it in 1st gear for real but when I released the clutch and hit the throttle it stalled anyway. 

I remember yelling "Oh Shit!" as we tipped over and I was thrown off...

I was trying to pick up poor Gigolo when RudeSTer came back for me. He had to take pictures first of course. The pictures really do not show the true steepness of the hill...

Fortunately, the only damage was to my pride... We finally made it to Ukiah and I set the new NorCal tag:

Then we stopped to use the wifi and upload pictures of the drop and the tag. It was getting so late that our arrival time in Redding would have been almost 9pm and we decided to just come home.

Trip total: ~393 miles