666STOC, Kingman, AZ, October 8-10, 2010

Early Friday morning Oct 8th, my friend Rudy & I hit the road for Kingman, AZ, to attend our first 666STOC - Rudy on his BMW Rockster and me on my trusty STeed Gigolo. Our goal was to reach Kingman before sunset so we could get our tents set up before dark.


We arrived at George's abode with the sun still up to find a bunch of STeeds already present:

After greetings we got to setting up our tents in George's spacious back yard. We both started at the same time but I have a special Catoma tent that has integrated tent poles for ease of use:

A bit later on we all headed down to the local rib place "Rednecks" for a fantastic meal (the baby back ribs rock):

Saturday morning George & his beautiful wife Deba cooked us up a great breakfast with eggs, bacon, and biscuits complete with OJ and lots of hot coffee.

After breakfast we split into several groups with different destinations in mind to ride to to. Neither Rudy or I had been to Hoover Dam or the Grand Canyon before so we made plans to go see Hoover Dam since it was the closest choice. Scott and Jenn from Sierra Vista, AZ decided to join us on our short ride.

We had dam dogs and dam burgers for lunch and then headed back towards Kingman. It was going to be an early day...


Then we saw the sign for Grand Canyon West, where they have the skywalk. It was going really well until the road turned to dirt. 13 miles of dirt, washboard, gravel, sand, and even a nice curvy hill - all of which was far out of my comfort zone. Rudy had his helmet cam going and although most of the footage became corrupted he was able to put together a short movie that shows some of the fun.

We finally made it back to George's place around 8:30pm... The last ones in for the night. The next morning we loaded up and headed back towards home, stopping to take this picture on the way out of town:

Trip total: 1405 miles

September Tagging

September 19, 2010 I captured the NorCal tag at Drum Power House:

Then I set the tag out in the boonies at an old Wells Fargo building in French Corral:

Trip total: 426 miles


Then, on September 22, 2010 I captured the CenCal tag at Moss Beach Distillery:

Legend has it that the Blue Lady haunts the place. And the clam chowder is to die for... It's a little pricey but there is an ocean view at every table. It's a great place for a special occasion. 


I set the new tag in Corralitos:

The market in Corralitos makes and smokes their own sausages. YUM. It's another great destination where you can pick goodies to go.


Trip total: 169 miles

August tagging

August was a busy tagging month for me. I was lucky enough to be able to get out and go on three successfull tag runs: two in the central CA (CenCal) and one in the northern CA (NorCal) regions defined by STO.

For the first tag run, on Aug 8, I ventured into NorCal territory and captured the tag in Smartsville:

And I moved the new NorCal tag to the Skunk Train depot in Willits:

Trip total: 505 miles

I made the second tag run, on Aug 15, into CenCal territory to capture the tag in Parkfied:

And I moved it to West Pinnacles:

Trip total: 382 miles

The third tag run, on Aug 30, was close to home in CenCal territory. I captured the tag in Tilden Park up in Berkeley:

I put the new tag in Woodside:

Trip total: 116 miles

First tag run on Gigolo - 06/08/10

I left the house at 7:30am, stopped at the bank to get some cash, gassed up, and went to have coffee with some friends. Had a little show and tell as well as some slobbering over the new ST... Finally got on the road at around 9:15am. I made it to the Cen Cal tag in Angels camp at 11:15am or so:

I decided to follow Hwy 49 south and keep on the lookout for somewhere interesting to stop for lunch. On my way through Sonora I noticed this train and I thought it might be good for the next tag... Ultimately I decided not to use it because it I wanted to move the tag farther away... But I like the picture so here it is:

Finally at around 1:00pm, I stopped at the Happy Burger diner in Mariposa and wolfed down a guacamole burger with bacon, green chilis, and cheese. YUM. Is amazing how good food is when you are really hungry.

After lunch I headed back towards home, eventually choosing Casa De Fruta as the next tag location.

I pulled into my driveway at 6:25pm, tired and happy.

Trip total: 405 miles

Whoa Nellie Deli RTE - 08/21/10 - Lee Vining

A few of us decided to ride up on Friday and camp in Mammoth Lakes. I met Jay in Yosemite and we rode over Tioga Pass. We stopped at Olmstead Point for a break where I took this picture:

Jay and I got to the campsite in Mammoth Lakes just as the sun was going down and hustled to put up our tents. Mike, Vince, and Dave were already there waiting on us. Jeff rolled in later on in the evening. We decided to ride in to town for dinner, ending up at a little pizza place. We had a nice dinner before returning to camp and hitting the sack.

Saturday morning we went out to breakfast, after which we went on a nice long ride, even crossing into Nevada for a little while, ending up at the RTE. 

Along the way we met up with Greg.

We stopped for a break and to sight see a bit. 

There was a pretty good turn out for the RTE at the Whoa Nellie Deli... A popular and quirky deli with awesome food located inside a gas station. I didn't do a headcount of our group but I'm guessing we had at least 30 people.

Sunday morning after breaking camp and having a nice breakfast, Jay took me on a little tour of the Mammoth Lakes area before we headed back towards home.

Gigolo at Horseshoe Lake:

 Twin Lakes:

 Minarets Vista by the Devil's Postpile gate:

I'm really hoping that we can do this one again next summer.

Harbor Cafe RTE - 06/26/10 - Santa Cruz

The Harbor Cafe is really popular place, with limited parking just for fun. We ended up having to wait about 30 minutes or so for a table for our group. The service was a bit slow, but the food was very good. 

Waiting was hard...

Flip and Jeff trying to be patient:
 

 Trying to figure out what to order:

 Vince is ready for food NOW:

Leann and Vince:

After lunch Jeff decides to park his behind on Gigolo... 

A few of the bikes:

TentSTOC III, Big Basin SP, June 17-19, 2010

TentSTOC III was my first STOC event and I was lucky enough to be of the dis-organizers. Along with planning activities, we took a couple of trips over to Big Basin to talk to the rangers about the group sites and parking concerns, and we took care of reserving the group site.

A shot of Gigolo all loaded up and ready to go:

STOC banner hung up and ready for attendees to sign:

A few of the bikes. At one point on Saturday there were about 22 bikes or so. 

Dan with his "Porsche" ST1100 & Fred with "Veronica" his ST1300:

Jerry and his STeed:

Uncle Larry arrives on his VFR:

Mac arriving on Friday morning:

Dinner time on Friday. Mike, Dave, and John enjoy the tri-tip brought by Dan:

Stoner, Bru & Capone, and Dan relaxing around the campfire:

Mike relaxing around the fire. He was travelling with all the good stuff and cooked up a most excellent breakfast for the group on Saturday morning:

Dave, Greg, and Jay by the campfire:

Rick checking out Dan's ST:

Dave from Muir Beach giving me a wave:

Bob & Bonnie getting ready to go for a ride:

Our little mascot Capone:

A few of us went on a ~200 mile tour of the area Saturday, which included a stop in Corralitos, lunch in San Juan Bautista, and a little ride up Hwy 1 from Pacifica to Monterey. We took this picture for Mellow: